Unable to select elements from ServiceNow macroponent using UI element picker

[DReyes07]

Hi All,

Has anyone used Power Automate Desktop with ServiceNow website? the site recently upgraded their UI, now the screen elements from before are no longer identifying bby PAD. when i tried to select the elements using the element picker, it's showing the whole screen as macroponent. I know it's possible to use text editor for defining the elements in PAD but am not familiar with html or codes of some sort. is there another way to select the elements?

[Nived_Nambiar · Accepted solution]

Hi @DReyes07 

Could you try with ui automation action, select any ui automation action and try to indicate the ui element and see whether it works for u or not 

[DReyes07]

Thanks it worked for some actions but actions like Set drop-down list value in window is failing.

[New_User2]

Also using UI Automation in web automation reduced the speed which we have while using Browser Automation.

[MacMan]

I tried this solution and, while I can select UI elements at design time this way, I can't actually automate anything. PAD won't find the elements at runtime. Are there any more tricks for dealing with Service Now?

[ajihub]

I realise this is a few months old now, but I have a workaround for this which might be more ideal for other people, I hate using windows elements because often times it means they change focus and disrupt the users work if you are using a desktop flow, whereas with Edge elements you can keep working with no interference.

The issue you are having seems to relate to what are known/used to be known as 'iframes', in IE there were easy ways to get to the underlying elements, it seems with Edge this is a bit harder, but there is a way, whenever you have this issue where a large element is being referred to as a macroponent, try getting a direct link to the underlying URL that gets you there... in the case of Service-Now, you would normally use the top nav bar and select "All" and "New" to create a new case for the relevant area, instead of "clicking" the element to navigate you to the page, just take the direct URL there after you are logged into service now, to get the direct URL, don't click on it, scroll to create or look at a "New" case via the nav bar, and instead of clicking it with the left mouse, right click and open in a new tab, you will note that it doesn't have the top nav bar in this view and you can actually access the elements directly!!!!!!!!!

example in my case is I have to load this URL, so instead of clicking the link, I use the Power Automate function 'Go to webpage' for this link:

fakeURL.service-now.com/customer.do?sys_id=-1&sysparm_query=active=true&sysparm_view=case

I hope this helps others.

[rishabhuppal14]

A follow up question, are you aware what is causing this issue? Is it because ServiceNow is using iframes (its an older tech from my understanding and not recommended) or they're deliberately trying to deter any automation on their pages.

[ajihub]

based on other people asking how to work around this, it does appear that S-Now uses iFrames, whether or not they are intentionally obfuscating automation via scripting tools is up for debate, usually that's just an added benefit/consequence of using a legacy design. in most cases, legacy design approaches that need to change, will be associated to a high business case cost, so companies tend to avoid it and do things "the same way with a nice new colour/superficial design change".