Descriptors for scripts

This topic describes how to use the TruClient Descriptor editor to identify objects in your scripts.

About descriptors

Descriptors support object identification by specifying logical conditions for identifying the object. These include using the object's HTML and CSS properties (such as ID, Class, Position). Each condition contains a property, an operator, a value, and when applicable, optional arguments.

The descriptor conditions are created during recording, or when you select an object in the step editor.

You can use the Descriptor editor to improve or control identification, by adding or editing conditions. For example, you can edit a descriptor to:

Select a different menu item on each iteration, by parameterizing the menu text.
Identify one of several similar objects by its ordinal position on the page. You can also choose a different object each iteration, by parameterizing the ordinal position.
Add a condition that uses a property that TruClient does not record.
Delete properties that are not required and may change in a way irrelevant to identification.

Manually configure descriptors

You can configure a descriptor in an existing step in your script, or add a Generic object action step.

To configure a descriptor:

Click the More link in the step to open the Step editor.
In the Object section, select Descriptors as the ID method.
From the Descriptors box, open the Object identification - Descriptors editor.
Set the value for the tagName condition.
Edit the existing conditions as required.
To add additional conditions, click New condition and define the condition parameters:
1. Select an object property. For details, see List of object properties.
2. Select an operator. For details, see List of operators.
3. Set the property value. The property value can be parameterized. For details, see Use parameters in scripts.
If relevant, specify the Object ordinal.

When an element cannot be identified uniquely, you can use the Object ordinal to specify which occurrence to pick.

Note: The Object ordinal is 1-based.

For example, you would like to identify the third row of the column in the table below. You cannot do it without setting the Object ordinal to 3, since all the columns look the same.
```
<table>
    <tr><td class”emptyrow”></td></tr>
    <tr><td class”emptyrow”></td></tr>	
    <tr><td class”emptyrow”></td></tr>
    <tr><td class”emptyrow”></td></tr>
</table>
```
You can also set the field to random ordinal, to randomly select from a set similar objects.
Click OK.
Click the highlight object button to verify that the object can be identified.

Use a custom property or attribute

You can use DOM attributes or JavaScript properties to identify an object. JavaScript properties are attached to the DOM object by JavaScript, or by the browser code during initialization. Both attributes and properties can be changed.

Differences between custom properties and custom attributes

The APIs to manipulate properties contain the dot operator. The attribute APIs use the “getAttribute”and “setAttribute” methods.
JavaScript properties cannot be set by the HTML markup.
JavaScript properties cannot be seen in the outerHTML/innerHTML strings of an element, but attributes can be seen in the strings.
The JSON.stringify function serializes a subset of JavaScript properties, but not DOM attributes.

List of object properties

The following table provides a list of object properties:

Property Category	Property	Value type	Description
Role	role	String	Standard role DOM attribute
ID	id	String	Standard id DOM attribute
Name	name	String	Standard name DOM attribute
Class	class	Comma-separated string	List of the class style-sheet selectors
Text	text	String	Inner text
Label	text	String	Element label
ARIA label	labeledby	White space separated string	Element IDs used as labels for the object
Title	title	White space separated string	Standard title DOM attribute
Input type	input/type	String	Type attribute of an input element
Input text	input/text/value	String	Text value of a text box
Button value	input/button/value	String	Caption for a button
Alternative text	alt	String	Alternative text when the text property is not available
Image source	img/sc	String	Standard src attribute of an image element
Hyperlink	url protocol pathname search	String	Standard hyperlink properties
Form action	form/action	String	Standard form action
Form method	form/method	String	Standard form method DOM attribute
Table columns	tr/cols	Number	Number of columns for table row elements
Number	isNumber	Boolean	Determine if the text content is a number
Currency	isCurrency	Boolean	Determine if the text content is a currency value
Date	isDate	Boolean	Determine if the text content is a date value
Time	is Time	Boolean	Determine if the text content is a time value
DOM leaf	isLeaf	Boolean	Determine if the element is a tree leaf
Custom Attribute	attributeA attributeB ... attributeZ	String	Custom DOM attribute with an arbitrary name
Custom Property	propertyA propertyB ... propertyZ	Expected value is a string while the actual value can be any JS type	Custom JS property with an arbitrary name

List of operators

The following table provides a list of operators:

Operator	Description
equalsIgnoreChars	Compares the object property to the value specified in the descriptor editor, ignoring any characters specified in the Arguments section.
endsWith	The object property ends with the value specified in the descriptor editor.
equals	Compares the object property to the value specified in the descriptor editor. For example, for class, the class has all the style-sheet selectors in the value, and no others.
equalsIgnoreDigits	Compares the object property to the value specified in the descriptor editor, ignoring any numeric characters.
equalsIgnoreCase	Compares the object property to the value specified in the descriptor editor, ignoring case considerations.
equalsIgnoreDeviation	Slight deviations are ignored when comparing the object property to the value specified in the descriptor editor. Applicable only for metrics such as length and width.
startsWith	The object property begins with the value specified in the descriptor editor.
contains	The object property contains the full value specified in the descriptor editor. For example, for class, the class has all the style-sheet selectors in the value, and may have others.
contained	The object property contains the value specified in the descriptor editor. For example, for class, the class has at least one of the style-sheet selectors in the value, and may have others.
isRegExpMatch	The object property matches the regular expression specified as the value in the descriptor editor. The value is a JavaScript regular expression object.
isSubstring	The object property, for example alt, is a substring of the value specified in the value field. Example: If the object alt is "aaa" and the value specified in the descriptor editor is "aaab", the return value for the specific expression will be true.