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Record a session

Recording is the shortest path from "I do this by hand" to a working flow: do the task once while Robomotion watches, and it writes the nodes.

Starting a recording​

Record in the Designer asks what do you want to record? — the browser through the extension, or a machine through a connected agent. For a desktop recording you pick the machine and can switch to its screen.

If it says No Connected Agents, no machine is available to record on; connect an agent first.

Two ways to record​

Automatic watches and records your actions as you go. Fastest, and it catches everything — including the stray clicks you did not mean to keep.

Manual records only what you choose: you right-click an element and pick the action. Slower, and the result needs far less cleaning up.

The recorder can be paused and resumed, which is the usual way to handle the middle of a session where you need to look something up without it ending up in the flow.

What it produces​

Not a script — real nodes on the canvas, the same ones you would have dragged out yourself:

NavigationOpen, Open Link, Switch Window, Switch Frame
InteractionClick Element, Type Text, Set Value, Send Keys, Scroll, Move To Element, Upload File
ReadingGet Value, Scrape Table, Scrape List, Save Image
ControlWait Element, Run Script, Sub Flow

Clicks keep their kind — single, double, hold, release — and each action carries a preview image of the element it targeted, pinned to the node.

Waits​

The recorder records waiting, which is the part hand-built flows usually get wrong. A step can wait for an element to appear, to disappear, or to appear and then disappear — the last being how you wait out a loading spinner properly, rather than sleeping for five seconds and hoping.

Scraping a list or a table​

The best trick in the recorder. To capture repeating content you do not describe the pattern — you point at two examples, and the extension works out the repetition and offers every column it found. You get a Scrape Table or Scrape List node with the columns already defined, and a preview of the rows it would return.

That is one node instead of a loop, and no selector arithmetic.

Afterwards​

Treat a recording as a first draft:

  • Delete the noise. Automatic mode records stray clicks and scrolls.
  • Check the selectors. The recorder picks a reasonable one; a fragile page may need a better one — inspect the node to replace it.
  • Add error handling. A recording is the happy path. Real runs need Catch.
  • Replace typed credentials. Anything you typed while recording is in the flow as literal text. Move passwords into a vault.
Passwords typed during recording

The recorder captures what you type, including into password fields. Check the resulting nodes before saving and move any credential into a vault item.

See also​