Aqua 2024.2 Help

Web Inspector

Web Inspector enables you to view web applications in Aqua and capture the essential page elements needed for automated tests. Aqua automatically generates a unique CSS or XPath locator for the specific element chosen on the web page, and helps add it to the source code.

The Web Inspector tool window is opened by clicking the Web Inspector icon located on the right-hand sidebar. Alternatively, press Shift twice to open the Search Everywhere window and type Web Inspector.

Web Inspector looks similar to a web browser and consists of the following elements:

Web Inspector tool window
  1. Address bar

  2. Embedded browser

  3. Locators Evaluator

  4. Page structure

Address bar

The website address bar located at the top of the Web Inspector tool window allows you to specify a URL of a website that you want to inspect.

The controls located near the address bar are used to:

Address bar controls
  • Go BackGo Forward – navigate through the visited webpages.

  • Refresh – refresh the webpage.

  • Recent Search – show the browser history.

  • Clear Browser Cookies – clear the browser cookies cache for the current session.

  • Enable Popup Windows – allows/blocks browser popup windows.

  • Show Mobile Version – toggle to switch between a mobile and desktop versions of the website.

  • Open Developer Tools – open browser developer tools. This option is helpful when extra functionality or a workaround is needed.

Embedded browser

The embedded browser displays the website specified in the address bar. Use it like a regular browser to preview the page and navigate to the elements that you want to inspect.

Browsing a website

Locators Evaluator

The Locators Evaluator section provides the ability to select and process any web element located on the page.

The nearby controls are used to:

Locators Evaluator control
  • generate sample UI tests or a page model for the web page opened in Web Inspector.

  • Refresh – manually refresh the structure.

  • Refresh Structure Automatically – switch the automatic structure refresh on/off.

  • Settings – click to open Web Inspector Settings window.

  • Select Element in Page – click to select an element on the web page. Hovering over the element highlights it and displays a popup with its attributes. Once selected, the element gets highlighted in the Page structure section.

    Locators evaluator
  • 1 Match, 2 Variants – displays the number of elements that match the generated locator, and provides a list of alternative locators pointing to the same element.

    Alternative locators
  • Locator type – click to select the type of the locator (CSS, XPath).

    Select the locator type
  • Copy Locator – copy the selected locator to clipboard.

  • Add Element to Code – click to add the selected element to your code.

  • Add Element to Code By – add the element to your code using a specific type of selector (ID, Name, Tag with classes, and others). Additionally, this menu contains the role -based locators used in Playwright framework.

    Select a specific selector type
  • top frame – indicates the frame you are currently in. If you select an element that is not in the root frame, an additional breadcrumb will appear, indicating the frame the selected element belongs to.

    Frame breadcrunbs

    For more information on frames, refer to the Work with frames section.

Page structure

The Page structure section displays the layout of the website specified in the address bar. Here you can find all the elements of the web page, inspect them, and navigate to the desired one.

This functionality is usually used as a supplementary one, for example, to navigate to an element located above/below the one that was selected initially.

Page structure

Configure view options

You can configure the position, size, and viewing mode of the Web Inspector tool window, by clicking the the Options icon button and adjusting the settings according to your needs. The following options are available:

View settings configuration
  • Show Toolbar – hides/reveals the toolbars near the address bar and in the Locators Evaluator section. When hidden, the actions that were available on the toolbar near the address bar are moved to the View Options menu item.

  • View Mode – allows you to configure the way the Web Inspector tool window is displayed. For example, you can choose to open it in a separate window.

  • Move to – allows you to change the position of the Web Inspector tool window.

  • Resize – allows you to change the size of the Web Inspector tool window.

  • Remove from Sidebar – allows you to remove the Web Inspector tool window from the Sidebar.

  • View Options – contains a list of toolbar actions. This menu item is shown only when the Show Toolbar setting is disabled.

Last modified: 09 October 2024