Element Editor

Robility Spy is a built-in tool in the Robility platform that supports Web Automation by detecting, capturing, and interacting with webpage elements. It reveals the underlying HTML properties of an element—such as tag, ID, name, or class and allows you to select the right attributes to uniquely identify it.

This is essential for reliable automation, as activities can only work when the correct element is targeted, such as a button to click, a text box to fill, a table to extract, or a link to open etc.

By bridging activities and the browser, Robility Spy ensures accurate execution and stable automation, even on webpages with dynamic elements. In situations where multiple elements share the same attributes, it further helps by offering a highlight option to visually identify and validate the correct element. Click here to learn more.

Best Practices for Using Robility Spy

1. Use Robility Spy to detect and select webpage elements for automation.
2. Each element has HTML tags and attributes—choose the most reliable ones to uniquely identify the element.
3. By default, attributes are auto selected when you click an element. In most cases, these default option works fine.
4. If an activity does not run as expected, or if the XPath or text values change dynamically, choose different attribute for stable automation.
5. Avoid using “innertext” as attribute for dynamic webpages, as changing text values may result in “Element not found”
6. For stable automation, follow these attribute selection guidelines:

a. Tables: Use tag, tabrow, or tabcol.
b. Single text box: Use tag.
c. Multiple text boxes: Use name, id, or class. For better accuracy, combine tag with name, id, or parent identifiers (parent id or parent class).

For more troubleshooting steps, click here to learn more.

Properties

IMAGE

Image: Displays the image of the element that has been detected on the webpage. The user will not be able to edit the image, they have to re-spy the element again to change it.

ATTRIBUTES EDITOR

XPath – This will display the highlighted element’s absolute Xpath.

1. The Xpath won’t function if any attributes are changed from the root to the element.
2. Using this attribute does not need other attributes along with it.
3. This is helpful while working on a dynamic webpage where the element’s unique attributes are not constant.
4. Once this attribute is selected, all other attributes will be disabled.

RelXPath – The Relative XPath helps to search the element anywhere on the webpage.

1. This works because it identifies the element directly and not from the root.
2. Using this attribute will disable all the attributes except XPath.
3. Though XPath will be enabled, we can choose either XPath or RelXpath and not both the attributes together.

ClassName – The class name of the element will be available here. This can be chosen along with the other attributes.

Tag– The tag name of the highlighted element such as input tag, anchor tag or button tag will be available. This will be selected as default attribute. You can select/ deselect it as per your requirement.

InnerText – The Inner text of the highlighted element will be available here. You can select/deselect as per your requirement.

ParentClass – The Parent Class of the highlighted element will be available here. This will be selected as default attribute. You can select/deselect it as per your requirement.

Title– The title of the webpage will be available here. You can select/deselect as per your requirement.

Href– The Href attribute is used to specify the URL of the page that the link goes to.You can select/deselect based on your requirement.

Aria-Role– The Aria-role of the highlighted element to be treated on the website will be available here. If the selected element is a button, it will be treated as button. You can select/deselect based on your requirement.

ElementIndex – The index position of the highlighted element will be available here. You can select/deselect based on your requirement.

ParentTag –  The parent tag returns the parent element of the spied element. You can select/deselect based on your requirement.

ParentElementIndex –  The index position of the parent tag highlighted element will be available here.  You can select/deselect based on your requirement.

SecondParentTag – The second parent tag name of the highlighted element will be available here. You can select/deselect based on your requirement.

SecondParentElementIndex –  The index position of the second parent tag highlighted element will be available here. You can select/deselect based on your requirement.

EXECUTE BY – This area displays the element values and its attributes that has been chosen from the Attributes editor. Any changes made in the attribute’s editor field will be reflected here. This field cannot be edited, only changes will be reflected.

MATCHFULLURL – Users can choose this option when they need to perform or execute a set of activities within a specified URL only. Specify either “True” or “False.”
True: It will continue to match the full URL during execution.
False: It will continue to execute with only the domain name of the URL.
By default, it will be set to “False”

Highlight option

The Highlight option allows you to visually identify and validate which element has been detected on the webpage. When selected, the element is outlined or highlighted directly in the browser.

When to Use the Highlight Option?

The Highlight option is especially useful when multiple elements on a webpage share the same tag name or appear similar, such as two <button> elements (Click and Save) or links with identical labels (e.g. The save button will be available on several places on the webpage).

You can identify that elements share the same tag by checking the element details in the Robility Spy Window, which displays the tag name (e.g., <button>, <a>, <div>) along with attributes like ID, class, or name.

If two elements show the same tag, Highlight allows you to visually confirm which one is being targeted in the browser.

This real-time validation helps you distinguish between similar elements, ensures your automation points to the correct target, and reduces exception during execution.

How to use the Highlight option?

1. The option is available only when selecting elements in the Robility Spy Window (during design time) and will be available in all the activities.
2. Highlighting works only if the detected webpage is open and visible on your screen.
3. To highlight an element:

a. Open the target webpage.
b. Use the Robility Spy Window to detect the element.
c. Select the Highlight
d. The element will be highlighted directly in the browser for confirmation.

Once you select Highlight in the Robility Spy Window, the feature sends a signal to the browser to temporarily overlay a visible marker (such as a colored border) around the detected element.