ScreenRecorder

ScreenRecorder

This is a simple program that will record a computer’s screen, and is used for diagnosing problems with RPA robots.

Problem

In the RPA system, robots can perform actions automatically on “Desktop Automation” devices. These devices are typically workstations running in a headless environment with no display attached. Because of this, it is often difficult to see what is happening on these devices, making problems harder to diagnose. We looked at various screen recording programs, however a lot of these were premium programs with a cost associated, for which there was no budget.

Solution

Instead of using a third party application to record a screen, I developed ScreenRecorder to achieve this task. This is a simple console application that will record the screen for a set amount of time, and was developed as a free alternative to some of the costly solutions available.

Example Video

Technologies

I used several technologies to develop this application:

Microsoft .NET Framework / C#

I used the Microsoft .NET Framework to develop a console application written in C#.

FFMPEG

Screen recordings are taken by capturing a series of bitmap screenshots and using FFMPEG to encode them as video.

Challenges

One of the main challenges with this program was generating video. To achieve this I used FFMPEG, a common library that is used in various video applications.