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Take Screenshot

Take Screenshot

Section titled “Take Screenshot”

Type: take-screenshot  ·  Package: Desktop Activities v1.0.8  ·  Output: string

Since: v1.0.3

Captures the whole desktop —every monitor or only the primary one— to an image file and returns its path. Use it to see what was on screen when a system error happened: an unexpected dialog, a hung application, a message the robot did not expect.

How it works

Section titled “How it works”

It is an explicit activity: it only captures where you place it, usually in the catch of a Try / Catch or in the recovery playbook. The engine never takes screenshots on its own when something fails, because the screen may show sensitive information; you decide which steps are worth capturing and where the images go.

  • screen = all (default) captures the area of every monitor; primary, only the main monitor.
  • If path ends in .jpg or .jpeg it saves a JPEG; with any other extension, a PNG.
  • If path is empty, it creates a new file in the robot user’s temp folder: %TEMP%\zoan-screenshots\screenshot-YYYYMMDD-HHmmss-fff.png.
  • It creates the destination folder if needed and overwrites the file if it already exists.
  • Unlike Win Screenshot, it needs no session or selector: it captures whatever is visible, whichever the application.

It needs an interactive desktop (the person’s in attended runs, or the robot session’s in unattended ones). In the Session 0 of Windows services there is nothing to capture.

Required parameters

Section titled “Required parameters”

None.

Optional parameters

Section titled “Optional parameters”
ParameterTypeDefaultDescription
pathstring—Image file (.png or .jpg). Empty = a new .png in the temp folder (zoan-screenshots).
screenstringallWhat to capture: all (every monitor) · primary (only the main monitor).

Output

Section titled “Output”

Returns a string with the full path of the saved file, ready to attach to a review task, send by email or log together with the error.

Common errors

Section titled “Common errors”
MessageCause and fix
There is no desktop to capture (the robot is not running in an interactive session).The robot runs without a desktop (Session 0). Run it with a robot session.
The desktop could not be captured: …. The robot needs an interactive session.Windows would not let the screen be read (locked session or no desktop). Same as above.

Since it usually runs inside a catch, make sure a capture failure does not hide the original error: if the machine may end up without a desktop, put it in its own Try / Catch.

Example

Section titled “Example”

Save the screen with a unique name when a step fails, and log the path:

Try / Catch   errorVariable = error
 ├─ try:
 │    Win Click   selector = (button "Process")
 │    Win Wait For   selector = (label "Done")   state = visible
 └─ catch:
      Take Screenshot   path = pathJoin(str(Config["CarpetaCapturas"]), "error_" + now().ToString("yyyyMMdd_HHmmss") + ".png")   → output: capture
      Log   level = error   message = "Processing failed: " + error.Message + ". Screenshot: " + capture

Only the primary monitor, in the temp folder:

Take Screenshot   screen = primary   → output: capture
Section titled “Related activities”