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Selectors in UiPath

In this article, we will discuss the selectors in UiPath.

Scenario

Consider the following scenario. We have 2 notepad applications.

Picture showing the 2 notepad applications with different text

Click to Enlarge

Our requirement is - We should write the text "Hello" inside the notepad with the text "This is notepad2".

To accomplish that, we will use the "Type Into" activity.

Picture showing the type into activity for writing text in the notepad

Click to Enlarge

The problem with this approach is - UiPath Robot is not able to identify each notepad uniquely. Sometimes the text is written in notepad 1 or sometimes in notepad 2 based on the notepad position.

To address this problem, selectors come into the picture.

What are selectors?

The user interface and its attributes are stored in the form of XML fragments. To access the selectors.

1. Click on the UI element and go to the properties window.

2. In the properties window, check the "Selector" attribute.

Picture showing the selector attribute in the property window

Click to Enlarge

3. Click on the "..." button to open the "Selector Editor".

Click to Enlarge

How to identify the notepad uniquely?

We will add one more check to uniquely identify the notepad. The check is - text should be "This is the notepad 2". To do that.

1. Click on the "Open in UI Explorer" link on the "Selector Editor".

Picture showing the Open in UI Explorer in the selector editor

Click to Enlarge

2. The "UI Explorer" window will open.

3. In the "Selected Items" window, check the checkbox "text".

Picture showing unchecking the text attribute in the selector editor

Click to Enlarge

4. Save the changes and close the "UI Explorer".

5. Save and run the bot.

Output

Click to Enlarge

Posted By -	Karan Gupta

Posted On -	Wednesday, January 27, 2021

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