Skip to main content
February 6, 2026
Solved

How do you implement a try/catch in Appian RPA no code environment?

  • February 6, 2026
  • 13 replies
  • 0 views

How do you implement a try/catch in Appian RPA no code environment?

Thank you.

    Best answer by shubhama926776

    Use conditional blocks (Element exists?, Window exists?, return codes) to branch flow: success path = try, failure path = catch.
    For task failures, handle in calling process model via Execute Robotic Task's error outputs (status, message).​


    Better to go through this documented links:
    https://docs.appian.com/suite/help/26.1/rpa-9.17/design-patterns.html

    https://community.appian.com/success/w/guide/3289/appian-rpa-design-development-best-practices

    13 replies

    stefanhelzle0001
    February 7, 2026

    There is no direct implementation of a try/catch in Appian RPA, just like there is not in Appian expressions.

    But, what problem do you try to solve?

    February 9, 2026

     [mention:a11f77a729fb4db2af76b09948583328:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] - use the "try" to find the error and based on the type of the error to do something in the "catch" section. Similar to what modern RPAs (UIPath RPA/Blue Prism RPA/Automation Anywhere RPA) are able to implement. 

    stefanhelzle0001
    February 9, 2026

    Think of Appian RPA as a bandaid to integrate a legacy system. Use standard Appian processes for the more complex logic.

    shubhama926776
    February 7, 2026

    Use conditional blocks (Element exists?, Window exists?, return codes) to branch flow: success path = try, failure path = catch.
    For task failures, handle in calling process model via Execute Robotic Task's error outputs (status, message).​


    Better to go through this documented links:
    https://docs.appian.com/suite/help/26.1/rpa-9.17/design-patterns.html

    https://community.appian.com/success/w/guide/3289/appian-rpa-design-development-best-practices

    February 9, 2026

    [mention:9861aef97eb2483a8b76175d9eda1e37:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] - yup, I was aware of this "go around" techniques. I was hopping for something more powerful, something that modern RPAs (UIPath RPA/Blue Prism RPA/Automation Anywhere RPA) have.

    February 11, 2026

    I disagree that a 'catch' block is 'powerful' in the longer term. Most of the time they are a 'code smell' because they imply that a developer has not checked the assumptions about initial conditions / data in their code prior to running it. The reality of nearly all code I've written and reviewed is that a 'catch' block is just a way for developers to ignore problems by logging them to deal with later. Sometimes that is all that can be done (e.g. leaky abstractions, where a lower-level library throws a generic exception with no relevant means of handling it in a specific way), but most other times it is far more performant and maintainable to check assumptions ahead of the try() block.

    The lack of generic error-handling in Appian, while absolutely frustrating at times in early development, is a way to force developers to properly address errors in their code as part of productionization. I do wish Appian would formally support try/catch (specifically to gracefully handle issues with data-driven dropdowns), but I also know developers would simply abuse it.