ST-USG-014 - Package Restrictions

Rule ID: ST-USG-014

Scope: Project

Description

The rule allows restricting the use of activity packages in a given project by defining allowed or prohibited packages. After restrictions are defined, the rule checks the project to determine if any prohibited packages were added as dependencies. By default, if any prohibited package has been installed in the project, the rule logs an error in the Error List panel.

Note: Default activities built-in Studio cannot be excluded using this rule, as they do not belong to a specific package.

Recommendation

Make sure only packages that are approved by your organization are installed in your project.

Modifying the Rule

In the Project Settings window, select the Workflow Analyzer tab. Find the rule and select the rule, as in the image below:

By default, this rule does not restrict the use of any activity package. To define allowed or prohibited packages, add them to the corresponding box.

If the same package is added as both allowed and prohibited, the package is prohibited. If any allowed packages are defined, all other packages are prohibited.

Add a package by writing its full name together with its version separated by the equals sign (=), for example, UiPath.Excel.Activities=2.5.3.

Add the greater than (>=) symbols to allow or prohibit higher versions. For example, adding UiPath.Excel.Activities>=2.5.3 to the prohibited packages box prohibits all 'UiPath.Excel.Activities' packages having a version of 2.5.3 or higher. The greater than (>) symbol can only be used together with the equals sign (=), inputs such as UiPath.Excel.Activities>2.5.3 are invalid.

The less than (<) and the less than or equals (<=) symbols are not supported, therefore inputs such as UiPath.Excel.Activities<2.5.3 or UiPath.Excel.Activities<=2.5.3 are considered invalid.

You can use a wildcard character * to match any number of characters. For example:

Adding UiPath.Excel.Activities=2.7.2-beta*to the prohibited packages box prohibits all beta versions 2.7.2-beta of the UiPath.Excel.Activities=2.7.2 package, while allowing the usage of other versions of the same package, including UiPath.Excel.Activities=2.7.2, any other prerelease versions of the UiPath.Excel.Activities=2.7.2 package (like alpha versions), or any other stable or prerelease versions of the UiPath.Excel.Activities package.
Adding UiPath.* to the allowed packages box allows only packages published by UiPath.

When using the greater than or equals (>=) symbol together with a wildcard character *, the greater than symbol (>=) is interpreted as the equals sign (=), for example, UiPath.Excel.Activities>=2.7.2-beta* is a valid input, but is interpreted as UiPath.Excel.Activities=2.7.2-beta*.

Examples:

UiPath.Excel.Activities=2.8.4-*
UiPath.Excel.Activities>=2.7.2
UiPath.Excel.Activities=2.7.2

To add multiple packages, separate them by a comma. For example, adding UiPath.Excel.Activities, UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities to the prohibited packages box prohibits all versions of these two packages.

Note: To check which package an activity belongs to, use the Group by Packages option in the Activities panel, as explained here. Another easy way to check is to hover over an activity in the panel and read the tooltip.

After adding packages to the rule, use the Analyze Project button to try out the rule.

Reset to Default

By default, the rule does not prohibit any packages. However, if you wish to quickly remove the packages that you've added, right-click the rule in the Project Settings window, and then click Reset to default. The Default action is also reset to its default value Error.