Capture Similar Elements

"Similar elements" means UI elements with similar structure, like a list of items, or field of a list. Locators generated by this feature can be used when a list of UI elements are processed in automation.

• Capture Similar Elements
  • Start recorder
  • Capture wizard
  • Start capture
  • Highlight elements
  • Clear elements
  • Remove element
  • Cancel capture
  • Recapture

Remarks:

• Support web UI element only by now.
• Xpath locator is not supported .
• Image locator is not supported.

Start recorder

Here we get three ways to start the recorder.

• Start recorder in LOCATORS tab in Visual Studio Code
  
• Start recorder in CLOUD LOCATORS tab in Visual Studio Code
  
• Start recorder with keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F10 in code.

Capture wizard

Click the button Similar elements to display a wizard window.

• Click the button Similar elements

• A window of capturing similar elements wizard will be displayed as below.

Start capturing

1. Capture the first element
   Hover the mouse onto one UI element of the target list, and when the element is highlighted, press Ctrl+click to capture the locator. The image of the element will be added to the wizard window. The locator of this element will be generated accordingly and the count of the matched elements will be displayed.
   

2. Capture another element
   Hover the mouse onto another element of the target list and capture it by pressing Ctrl+click. The image of this element will be added to the wizard window too. The locator will be updated in light of the captured elements. Check if the count of the matched elements is as expected to determine if more elements need to be captured.
   

3. Save the locator
   Click the button Save to save the locator, and the locator of matched similar elements will be added to the locator store.
   

Highlight elements

It takes several seconds to highlight all matched elements to check if the generated locator is correct.

• Click the matched elements count button
  
• All matched elements will be highlighted as below.
  

Clear elements

Clear all the captured elements by clicking the button Clear on the right-top of the wizard window. It is normally used if the matched elements are not as expected and you want to start it over. Once clicking the button, the elements are removed and the button Clear and Save buttons are disabled when there is no data.

• Click the Clear button
  
• The button Clear and Save buttons are disabled when there is no data, shown as below.

Remove element

Remove one element in the wizard window.

• Remove the element by clicking the icon ❌
  

Cancel capture

Discard the currently captured results and return to the main capture window.

• Click the button Cancel
  

Recapture

Recapturing similar element can be used to update the single locator or similar locators.

1. Start by clicking the button Recapture in Visual Studio Code
   
2. Click the button Similar elements
   
3. Follow steps in Start capture to generate the locator. After clicking the button Save, the locator will be replaced by the recaptured one.