Blog Post 3 Big Updates You’ll Love in Universal Automation Center V7.2

We’re always on the lookout for ways to make Stonebranch customers’ lives easier. After all, that is the universal goal of automation, right? Make. Life. Easier.

The V7.2 release of Stonebranch Universal Automation Center (UAC) offers many new features with that goal in mind, workflow enhancements, a new security feature, and multiple new extensions in the Integration Hub. Here, we take a closer look at some extra-special UAC V7.2 updates — a fresh UX, new monitoring capabilities for third-party applications, and a Visual Studio surprise:

1. New Modern User Experience

Months of hard work have gone into completely refreshing the navigation, screens, and more. As a result, the UAC is easier and more intuitive to use than ever. In fact, our internal tests show it takes up to 50% fewer clicks to get things done in UAC V7.2, compared to previous releases. So what’s changed?

One-Click Services Menu

The simplified services menu allows you to see all your options at once and quickly get to wherever you need to go. You can even access the Stonebranch Integration Hub directly from UAC!

Fully Customizable Left-Hand Navigation

You’re in charge — it’s entirely up to you which items show up here. In the Available Services menu, click the star next to your favorite and most-used services. Those will then appear in your left-hand navigation to save you clicks… and time.

New Vertical Screen Layout

Bigger work windows help you see more and scroll less. Moving from a horizontal work screen to a vertical split allows end-users to review and make changes within a single view. Additionally, tabs are easier to manage and control, with the ability to pin and save tabs that automatically open when you log in.

Google-like Global Search Bar

Quickly search the UAC database and navigate to workflows, agents, tasks, triggers, and more. When combined with the new Services menu, it's never been easier to find what you’re looking for.

Enhanced Workflow Editor

Your workflows will look better than ever! Clean and visually consistent icons make workflows more intuitive for you — and anyone else who wants to admire your work.

Dark and Light Themes

Choose the mode that’s easiest on your eyes. It’s that simple.

See UAC V7.2 In Action

Curious to see more? The video below highlights these user-experience updates and more. Click to watch it now.

2. Universal Monitors

Forget about remote procedure calls! The Universal Integration Platform (UIP) offers a whole new set of features that help you easily create real-time workflows based on events that take place in any third-party system.

Universal Events, Universal Monitors, and Universal Monitor Triggers work together to asynchronously coordinate actions between systems:

• Stonebranch integrations can now stream Universal Events to UAC. This new capability monitors third-party applications and cloud platforms for specified events, which then triggers any number of UAC tasks, actions, and workflows.
• Within the UAC, Universal Monitors keep an eye on those Universal Events based on the rules you configure. Universal Monitors can be placed directly into your workflows, or they can just watch for events generated by UAC integrations or REST APIs.
• Any incoming event can be monitored according to your filters and rules. If a rule matches, then the Event Monitor Trigger launches a corresponding task using information from the event.

3. Jobs-as-Code Enhancements

The UIP got another significant upgrade: it now integrates directly into the Visual Studio integrated development environment (VS IDE). Now you can create integrations directly from Visual Studio without flipping between VS and UAC. Start from scratch or use the templates available to build, prototype, and upload integrations.

You can also execute tasks within VS or with the new UIP command-line interface (UIP-CLI). A Python-based utility, UIP-CLI also integrates with common CI/CD tools to enhance jobs-as-code support for DevOps teams.

UIP is available in the Visual Studio Marketplace as a Visual Studio code extension.

Learn More About UAC 7.2

Maybe there should be an automation oath, like the Hippocratic oath for new doctors. Instead of First, do no harm; ours could be First, make life easier. We’ll be the first to take it.

If you’d like to see how UAC 7.2 can make life easier for you — at least while you orchestrate your hybrid IT environment — contact us to request a demo.