About Selectors

To automate specific actions in the user interface, you are required to interact with various windows, buttons, drop-down lists and many others. One of the ways in which UI elements can be identified is by using their position on the screen, but this can be unreliable.

To overcome this problem, Studio uses what we call selectors. These store the attributes of a graphical user interface element and its parents, in the shape of an XML fragment.

Most of the times, selectors are automatically generated by Studio and do not require further input from you, especially if the apps you are trying to automate have a static user interface.

However, some software programs have changing layouts and attribute nodes with volatile values, such as some web-apps. Studio cannot predict these changes and, therefore, you might have to manually generate some selectors.

A selector has the following structure:

<node_1/><node_2/>...<node_N/>

The last node represents the GUI element that interests you, and all the previous ones represent the parents of that element. <node_1> is usually referred to as a root node, and represents the top window of the app.

Each node has one or more attributes that help you correctly identify a specific level of the selected application.

Each node has the following format:

<ui_system attr_name_1='attr_value_1' ... attr_name_N='attr_value_N'/>

Every attribute has an assigned value. It is important to pick attributes with a constant value. If the value of an attribute changes each time the app is started, then the selector will not be able to correctly identify the element.

Selectors are displayed in the Properties panel of activities, under Input > Target > Selector. All activities related to graphical elements have this property.

The Selection Options window enables you to select and edit a target. To access this window, in the Workflow Designer panel, click the Options button in the body of an activity and select Indicate target on screen or Edit target.

The Selector Editor window enables you to see the automatically-generated selector and edit it and its attributes. To access this window, use the Ellipsis button next to the Selector field, in the Properties panel.

Option	Description
Validate	The button shows the status of the selector by checking the validity of the selector definition and the visibility of the target element on the screen. The Validate button has three states: Selector is being validated Valid selector Invalid selector Modified selector, revalidate The button is correlated with UI Explorer validation states.
Indicate Element	Indicate a new UI element to replace the previous one.
Repair	Enables you to re-indicate the same target UI element and repair the selector. This operation does not completely replace the previous selector. The button is available only when the selector is invalid.
Highlight	Brings the target element in the foreground. The highlight stays on until the option is disabled with a click. The button is enabled only if the selector is valid.
Edit Attributes	Contains all the application components needed to identify the target application (a window, a button etc.). This section is editable.
Edit Selector	Holds the actual selector. This section is editable.
Open in UI Explorer	Launches the UI Explorer. The option is enabled only for valid selectors.

Note:

In some situations, when Studio and the targeted application are opened with different elevated privileges, the selector might not work. We recommend to always open both applications with the same privileges.

Supported Tags and Attributes

The following tables present the compatibility between tags and attributes used to build selectors and the selector capability.

On macOS the selector types wnd, ax, java, and sap can be used for different use cases:

• AX selectors are available for all types of macOS desktop applications.

• SAP selectors are available for SAP GUI for Java on macOS and require a SAP server with scripting enabled. These selectors are the most stable for SAP applications and offer the best range of features, like extracting table data.

• Java selectors are available for Java applications. Since SAP GUI for Java is also a Java based application, one can use the Java selection strategy to switch from the default one and get Java selectors instead.

  Note:

  Selectors generated for Java applications which contain multiple WND tags cannot be used with events monitoring.

WND

Attribute	Fuzzy	RegEx	Case-Sensitive	OS
app	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
cls	✅	✅	✅	Windows
title	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
aaname	✅	✅	✅	Windows
ctrlname (WinForms)	✅	✅	✅	Windows
ctrlid (WinForms)	✅	✅	✅	Windows
idx	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS
tid	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS
pid	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS
isremoteapp	❌	❌	❌	Windows
aastate	✅	✅	✅	Windows
role	✅	✅	✅	macOS
enabled	✅	✅	✅	macOS
focused	✅	✅	✅	macOS
selected	✅	✅	✅	macOS
expanded	✅	✅	✅	macOS
sapClient (SAP)	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
sapLanguage (SAP)	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
sapProgram (SAP)	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
sapScreen (SAP)	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS
sapSession (SAP)	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS
sapSysName (SAP)	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
sapSysNumber (SAP)	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS
sapSysSessionId (SAP)	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
sapTransaction (SAP)	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
sapUser (SAP)	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
curlApplet (Curl)	✅	✅	✅	Windows

HTML

Attribute	Fuzzy	RegEx	Case-Sensitive	OS
url	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
htmlwindowname	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
title	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
class	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
app	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS Linux
idx	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS Linux
pid	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS Linux
tid	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS Linux
excludehwnd	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS Linux
bsid (Browser Session ID)	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS Linux
isremoteapp	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS Linux

WEBCTRL

The tag and idx attributes use string values. All other WEBCTRL attributes have dynamic values.

Attribute	Fuzzy	RegEx	Case-Sensitive	OS
tag	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
idx	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
aaname	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
name	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
id	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
parentid	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
class	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
css-selector	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS Linux
innertext	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
visibleinnertext	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
isleaf	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
parentclass	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
parentname	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
src	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
href	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
tableCol	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
tableRow	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
colName	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
rowName	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
aria-label	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux
aria-labelledby	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS Linux

CTRL

Attribute	Fuzzy	RegEx	Case-Sensitive	OS
role	✅	✅	✅	Windows
name	✅	✅	✅	Windows
automationid	✅	✅	✅	Windows
labeledby	✅	✅	✅	Windows
aastate	✅	✅	✅	Windows
virtualname	✅	✅	✅	Windows
text	✅	✅	✅	Windows
rowName	✅	✅	✅	Windows
idx	❌	❌	❌	Windows

UIA

Attribute	Fuzzy	RegEx	Case-Sensitive	OS
accelkey (Accelerator Key)	✅	✅	✅	Windows
acskey (Access Key)	✅	✅	✅	Windows
automationid	✅	✅	✅	Windows
cls	✅	✅	✅	Windows
helpText	✅	✅	✅	Windows
legacyAccHelp (Legacy Accessible Help)	✅	✅	✅	Windows
enabled	✅	✅	✅	Windows
kbfocus (Is Keyboard Focusable)	✅	✅	✅	Windows
ispwd (Is Password)	✅	✅	✅	Windows
itemstatus	✅	✅	✅	Windows
itemtype	✅	✅	✅	Windows
rtid (Runtime ID)	✅	✅	✅	Windows
role	✅	✅	✅	Windows
name	✅	✅	✅	Windows
pid	✅	✅	✅	Windows
tableRow	❌	❌	❌	Windows
tableCol	❌	❌	❌	Windows
rowName	✅	✅	✅	Windows
colName	✅	✅	✅	Windows
idx	❌	❌	❌	Windows

JAVA

Attribute	Fuzzy	RegEx	Case-Sensitive	OS
role	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
name	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
virtualname	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
javastate	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
tableRow	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS
tableCol	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS
rowName	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
colName	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
idx	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS
cls	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
accessibleClass	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS

SAP

Attribute	Fuzzy	RegEx	Case-Sensitive	OS
id	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
leafid This attribute is not exposed in the Attribute panel because it is mutual-exclusive with the id attribute. It can be added manually.	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
tableRow	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS
tableCol	❌	❌	❌	Windows macOS
colName	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
relpath	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS
itemId	✅	✅	✅	Windows macOS

AX

Attribute	Fuzzy	RegEx	Case-Sensitive	OS
role	✅	✅	✅	macOS
subrole	✅	✅	✅	macOS
name	✅	✅	✅	macOS
title	✅	✅	✅	macOS
identifier	✅	✅	✅	macOS
filename	✅	✅	✅	macOS
url	✅	✅	✅	macOS
help	✅	✅	✅	macOS
enabled	✅	✅	✅	macOS
focused	✅	✅	✅	macOS
selected	✅	✅	✅	macOS
expanded	✅	✅	✅	macOS
idx	❌	❌	❌	macOS
rowCount	❌	❌	❌	macOS
columnCount	❌	❌	❌	macOS
tableRow	❌	❌	❌	macOS
tableCol	❌	❌	❌	macOS
rowName	✅	✅	✅	macOS
colName	✅	✅	✅	macOS

CURL

Attribute	Fuzzy	RegEx	Case-Sensitive	OS
cls	✅	✅	✅	Windows
role	✅	✅	✅	Windows
text	✅	✅	✅	Windows
title	✅	✅	✅	Windows
tableRow	❌	❌	❌	Windows
tableCol	❌	❌	❌	Windows
colHeader	✅	✅	✅	Windows
idx	❌	❌	❌	Windows

SILVERLIGHT

Please note that the Silverlight tag does not support Fuzzy, RegEx, and Case-Sensitive capabilities.

Attribute	Fuzzy	RegEx	Case-Sensitive	OS
role	❌	❌	❌	Windows
name	❌	❌	❌	Windows
text	❌	❌	❌	Windows
idx	❌	❌	❌	Windows

RDP

The RDP tag is used for remote automation and its attributes are identical to WND tag.

Attribute	Fuzzy	RegEx	Case-Sensitive	OS
app	✅	✅	✅	Windows
cls	✅	✅	✅	Windows
title	✅	✅	✅	Windows
aaname	✅	✅	✅	Windows
ctrlname (WinForms)	✅	✅	✅	Windows
ctrlid (WinForms)	✅	✅	✅	Windows
idx	❌	❌	❌	Windows
tid	❌	❌	❌	Windows
pid	❌	❌	❌	Windows