How to create an RPA flow using Try-Catch activity

1

Open RPA Studio

• Launch RPA Studio on your machine.
• If not signed into the Tenant, sign in before proceeding to the RPA flow designer scree

2

Create a New Project

• On the Home page, click Create New Project and specify:
• Name: _TryCatchExcel_
• Project Location: <default>
• Description: _Try Catch with Read Range in Excel._
• Language: _VB (selected by default)_

3

Try Block

• Since Excel activities will not run if Excel is open, we will start by:
• Adding a Try-Catch activity to the flow.
• Dragging and dropping the “Read Range” activity inside the Try block.
• Ensuring an exception is thrown by unchecking Continue on Error in the Properties panel.
• Storing the output of the Read Range activity in a DataTable variable (to validate if Excel was read successfully).
• If Excel is running, an exception will be thrown, which will be handled in the Catch block.

4

Catch Block

• Exceptions are caught using appropriate Exception classes.
• Here, we use System.Exception to catch errors.
• We add a Message Box activity that:
• Displays the encountered exception message.
• Instructs the user to close Excel and click OK to proceed.
• Uses a Delay activity to allow time for the user to act.
• Message Box Input: exception.message + " RPA cannot access Excel since it is open. Please close Excel and click OK to proceed."

Example Screenshots:

5

Finally Block

• The Finally block executes regardless of whether an exception occurs.
• We use it to validate if Excel was running by checking: IF dt is Nothing
• If dt is empty, it means Excel was open and the Read Range failed.
• If dt contains data, Excel was closed, and the activity executed successfully.
• If Excel was initially open but later closed, we rerun the Read Range.

Example Screenshot:

6

Run the RPA Flow

• Click Run to execute the RPA Flow.