Project-to-project references

Pega Robotic Automation relies upon the Microsoft Visual Studio platform. Therefore, some functions of Visual Studio are available to developers. One of these functions is the project-to-project reference.

When building a solution or project, Pega Robot Studio™ creates assembly files. When you have a project that produces an assembly, use project-to-project reference. The advantage of a project-to-project reference is that it creates a dependency between the projects in the build system. Pega Robot Studio builds the dependent project if it has changed since the last time Pega Robot Studio built the referencing project.

When working in an environment where many Pega Robot Studio developers are creating projects that reference the same application, you should create and maintain a single project dedicated to the interrogation of the application and the automation of basic application functionality.

For example, this application project includes:

• The full interrogation of the application.
• The modification of match rules as required.
• Automations to login and navigate the application to the initial application window used by the intended end users.

Other Pega Robot Studio developers within your organization may use this application project as a base for developing specific business automations or event data collection or both for other solutions.

The benefits of this approach include:

• Maintenance: If the primary application changes, new interrogated targets are added or match rules modified, Pega Robot Studio updates the changes made to the primary application project to all other referenced application projects.
• Reusability: A single developer can interrogate the main application and develop the login/navigation logic. Other Pega Robot Studio developers can then focus on building projects that perform specific business automations and event data collections.

In the Solution Explorer, use the startup project as the main or controller project. Pega Robot Studio denotes the startup project by changing the font to Bold.

Interaction Framework can work with or without creating a project-to-project reference; however, typically a multi-project solution is deployed to the user as one package containing all projects. Therefore, using the project reference with Interaction Framework ensures that the framework works as one unit for the solution and not by project.