Some pages only show the content you care about after a click, a search, or a dropdown choice. The visual action recorder lets you do those steps yourself on a live view of the page. PageCrawl saves each one as an action and repeats them, in order, before every check.
You do not need to write CSS or XPath selectors. For the full list of action types and what each one does, see Perform Actions.
Opening the Recorder
When you add a page to monitor, enter its address and wait for the preview to load. In the setup panel, click Record actions (described as "Click, type or navigate before the page is captured"). Once the monitor has steps, the same button reads Edit actions with the number of steps in brackets.
On an existing monitor, click Edit, find the Actions section and click Edit actions.
Both open a window with the live page on one side and the Actions panel on the other.
Recording Steps
The window opens with recording switched on. The panel shows "Recording." while it is active.
- Click a button, link or tab in the page. The click happens on the page and is added to the list as a step.
- Click a text field to record typing. A dialog asks for the text, types it into the field and saves it as a step.
- Click a dropdown to record a selection. A dialog asks for the option to select.
- Continue until the page shows the content you want to monitor.
When a recorded click or entry takes you to a new page, a wait step is added for you and marked Added automatically, so later steps do not run before the new page has loaded. Click Pin to element on that step if you would rather wait for a specific element on the destination page, which is more reliable on sites that change content without a full page load.
Click Stop to pause recording, and Record to start again. The Record button is shown on desktop.
Choosing a Step From the Menu
With recording stopped, clicking the page opens a menu for the element under the cursor instead of clicking it. Right-clicking does the same at any time. Use the menu for steps a plain click cannot express, such as removing an element, hovering, submitting a form or opening collapsed sections.
Recording Directly on the Preview
For some tracking modes the preview on the Track New Page form is interactive without opening the recorder. When it is, the hint under the preview reads "Click the page to use it. Clicks and typing are saved as steps that every check repeats."
After a click, a short notice names what was clicked and offers Undo. Right-click the preview (long press on a phone or tablet) for the same menu of steps.
Reviewing and Editing the Recording
Every recorded step appears in the Actions panel in the order it will run. From there you can:
- Change a step's text, option or target
- Move a step up or down
- Test the steps up to a chosen one
- Remove a step
- Click Add Action to add a step by hand, including types that cannot be recorded with a click
- Click Clear all actions to remove every recorded step and start again
Click Run to reload the page and run every step from the start. This is the best check that the recording works on a fresh visit, which is what each check does.
Saving the Recording
Click Save to close the recorder. If a step is missing a value, you are told which one before the window closes. The preview then reloads with your steps applied.
The steps are stored with the monitor only when you save the monitor itself, so finish the rest of the setup and save as usual. From then on the steps run before every check.
Recording a Sign-In
Do not record a username and password as typing steps. Save the login once under Settings > Website Logins instead: paste the address of the login page, and if the fields are not detected, press Pick the fields on the page and click the username box, the password box and the login button directly. If the form only appears after a step such as accepting cookies, add that under Pre-login steps.
Website logins are available on paid plans. See Monitoring password-protected pages for the full setup, including testing the login and one-time codes.
Common Uses
- Open a tab or accordion that holds the content you want to track
- Run a search or apply a filter so the results page is what gets monitored
- Pick an option from a dropdown, such as a size, region or currency
- Dismiss a dialog that covers the page
Note: Record the fewest steps that reach the content. Each extra step is one more thing that can stop working when the site changes its layout.