5 Best Practices for Capturing Workflows in 2025

March 7, 2025

Are you tired of manually scripting every step of your application workflow?

With Enterprise Script Recorder, capturing workflows has never been easier, with no coding required. Whether you’re testing application performance, validating updates, or streamlining end-user workflows, following best practices ensures more accurate, efficient recordings.

Below, we cover five key best practices to help you make the most of Script Recorder in 2025.

1. Test Your Workflow Before You Record

Before hitting “record,” manually perform the workflow to get familiar with the application’s interface, identify key steps, and account for any response time variations. Many administrators do not actively use the applications they are testing, so a quick run-through helps:

• Identify overlapping actions that can be reused, such as clicking the “Open Menu” button before selecting different options.
• Recognize secondary windows that might appear outside the main interface, as some recorders may not differentiate these properly.
• Confirm workflow consistency to ensure that every step behaves as expected before recording.

By understanding the workflow upfront, you avoid unnecessary re-recordings and ensure a smoother capture process.

2. Record in Sections for Better Accuracy

Rather than attempting to record the entire workflow in one go, break it down into smaller segments. Script Recorder’s Run and Record feature allows you to execute your script up to a certain point and then seamlessly continue recording the next steps.

Why record in sections?

• Avoid errors from complex workflows.
• Quickly verify that previously recorded steps function as expected.
• Enable reusability—workflow segments, such as login processes, can be applied to multiple scripts.

For example, separate recordings for customer and project workflows can streamline script maintenance by reusing shared steps when working with ERP systems.

3. Optimize Your Settings for Best Performance

Script Recorder provides two primary ways to fine-tune your workflow recordings:

• Global Settings: Applied to the entire script, allowing you to control test speed, wait times, and whether to use element-based recognition or coordinates for automation.

• Action Settings: These are adjusted per step, making them ideal for handling workflow variations, such as increasing wait times for large file uploads or database queries.

By optimizing these settings, you ensure smooth script execution across different application environments.

4. Ensure the Recorder Recognizes UI Elements

A common mistake is interacting with an application’s UI before the Recorder fully detects the element. Here is how to avoid this:

• Hover over the UI element and wait for the blue frame to blink before clicking.
• Verify that the action message correctly identifies the interaction, such as LeftClick, DblRightClick, or Type.
• If elements are not being recognized properly, use the Application X-Ray tool. This tool allows for manual UI selection and testing before adding steps to the script.

5. Measure What Matters: Track Key Performance Indicators

Once your workflow is recorded, adding response timers helps capture real-world application performance. There are two key areas to measure:

• Local Performance Indicators – Steps that interact primarily with local resources, like opening a file or rendering an image.
• Environmental Performance Indicators – Steps that rely on external infrastructure, such as logging into an app, accessing a database, or loading cloud-hosted content.

You can diagnose workflow slowdowns and optimize the end-user experience by tracking both aspects. Many application teams already know which steps are performance bottlenecks, so coordinating with them before recording can provide valuable insights.

Final Thoughts: Capture Workflows with Confidence

By following these best practices, testing before recording, capturing workflows in sections, optimizing settings, ensuring UI recognition, and tracking performance indicators, you can maximize Script Recorder’s capabilities.

Want to learn more about how to maximize the power of Login VSI’s Script Recorder? Connect with us today!