UiPath Workflow Analyzer & Activity Creator: Step-by-step Tutorial

Source

UiPath YouTube Channel 📅 Published: May 19, 2020
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Description

This webinar presents a step-by-step tutorial on:

• Building custom Workflow Analyzer rules in UiPath Studio.
• Creating custom activities using the UiPath Activity Creator extension in Visual Studio.

Led by UiPath product experts, it covers core architecture, rule deployment, analyzer extensibility, and activity packaging.

Speakers

• Bogdan Tomoru – Senior Lead Developer, UiPath Studio (Workflow Analyzer architecture)
• Mădălin Mihuț – Product Lead, UiPath (Introduction, moderation)
• Dean Gregorek – Engineering Lead, UiPath (Activity Creator demo)

Topics Covered

• Architecture of Workflow Analyzer
• Custom rule implementation in C#
• Rule deployment methods
• Performance & scope model (Activity, Workflow, Project)
• Activity Creator walkthrough (Visual Studio 2019+)
• Packaging and publishing custom activities
• Community and documentation links

Tags

#UiPath #WorkflowAnalyzer #ActivityCreator #RPA #Automation #CustomActivities #DevOps #StaticCodeAnalysis

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Architecture of the Workflow Analyzer – Key Facts

Static Code Analysis Framework

• Workflow Analyzer in UiPath Studio is built as a static code analysis engine, similar to traditional programming environments.
• It runs on workflows to detect violations of best practices, conventions, or performance issues.

Rule-Based System

• It uses rules, each with a unique ID, which define what to check (e.g., display name duplication, unused dependencies).

• Rules can generate suggestions, warnings, or errors.

• Rules are grouped by scope

  • Activity-level
  • Workflow-level
  • Project-level

Execution Entry Points

• Analyzer is triggered via:

  • “Analyze File” for current file.
  • “Analyze Project” for entire project.

Extensibility – Custom Rules

• Developers can define custom rules via:

  • A Visual Studio class library.
  • Target framework: .NET Framework 4.6.1 or higher.

• Implements the interface: IRegisterAnalyzerConfiguration.

Deployment Methods

• Local deployment Place the rule’s DLL in the rules folder under the UiPath Studio install directory.
• Future support (planned) Via NuGet packages for global or per-project deployment.

Analyzer Engine Versioning

• Rules check analyzer engine version (v4 at time of talk) before execution using HasFeature method for compatibility.

Performance Considerations

• Activity-level rules must be lightweight — they run for each activity in the workflow.
• Workflow-level and project-level rules can perform heavier analysis since they're called less frequently.

Workflow Representation

• Studio represents workflows with:

  • ActivityModel: contains type info, variables, properties, children, etc.
  • This abstraction is used for analysis without referencing actual runtime types.

Parameterization of Rules

• Rules can have parameters, configured by the user or set with defaults.
• Example: a string to check for in variable names.

InspectionResult Object

• Returned by rules with:

  • A list of messages (violations).
  • Recommendation text.
  • Severity (error/warning/info), configurable by the user.

Governance Integration

• Rule configurations can be centrally pushed across organizations using UiPath’s governance files.

Rule Metadata

• Rules have:
  • Name (human-readable)
  • ID (unique and descriptive, e.g., “DEMO.USG.001”)
  • Error level
  • Parameter definitions

Diagnostics

• Uses System.Diagnostics.TraceLevel (standard .NET) for logging.

Deployment Directory

• Rules must be placed in:

  • C:\Program Files path for MSI installations (Enterprise).
  • %LocalAppData% for Community Edition.

Invocation

When a custom rules library (DLL) is brought into the Workflow Analyzer process, UiPath calls a specific function inside it to register the rules. This is done by implementing the IRegisterAnalyzerConfiguration interface, which contains a method that gets invoked automatically by Studio.

That method acts as the entry point for rule registration. Within it, you’re given a WorkflowAnalyzerConfigurationServices object, which you use to:

• Add custom rules.
• Add counters.
• Check for feature support using HasFeature(...).

This means when UiPath Studio loads the DLL, it:

• Locates the implementation of IRegisterAnalyzerConfiguration.
• Calls its Initialize method.
• Injects the configuration service into it.
• Executes your rule registration logic.