jQuery should be used for edge cases only
We recommend using jQuery as little as possible. Web applications are constantly changing and small updates to the UI and page structure can break any jQuery used.
WalkMe's out of the box element selection adapts to changes in the underlying application without the use of jQuery.
Brief Overview
jQuery is a Javascript library that can be used to manipulate a page of HTML. jQuery selectors allow you to identify elements in the HTML structure based on their characteristics such as ID, class, type, attributes, or values of attributes.
The most common jQuery selectors in the WalkMe Editor are used to:
- Create Onboarding Goals: Create Onboarding goals based on an On Screen Element
- Selected Element Launchers: Add the jQuery Selector into the Selected Element tab of a Launcher
- Grab Values: Grab a value from a user variable or a text on the screen to be incorporated into a dynamic announcement or use it in a rule
- Check Page Conditions: Direct WalkMe to analyze the attributes of an element on the screen to use as a Rule Type in the Rule Engine
How It Works
Find the element in the HTML by right-clicking on the element and selecting Inspect Element. The element will be highlighted on the screen and in the developer panel. Identify the element's unique characteristics (such as location, class, ID, or style) in order to build your jQuery selector. Elements can be identified by their location or attributes (class, ID, and style).
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Step 1: Build the jQuery selector
The basic syntax for using jQuery elements in WalkMe is: Element → Selector → Value
After identifying the element, build a jQuery Selector that will look at specifically what you are interested in.
Here are some examples of jQuery Selectors:
- ul element with id create-account: ul#create-account.
- ul elements with class nav: ul.nav.
- ul elements with class nav and class fl type: ul.nav.fl.
See a list of useful jQuery Selectors below.
Create jQuery using your WalkMe Data
You can now utilize existing WalkMe Data in favor of a jQuery selector.
This can be accomplished by adding '${wm-data-key}' to the desired selector. For example: the selector: [id="${key}"], will have the '${key}' replaced by the actual WalkMe data and will look like: [id=”value”].
Step 2: Test your selector in the console
- Type wmjQuery(“”) in the command line in the developer panel with your jQuery selector between the “” and click Enter
- Note: You'll only be able to use wmjQuery in a browser with the Editor Extension enabled
- If your query returns the desired value, your selector is working!
- Note: To see the selected elements on the screen, click More…
- Hover over the returned objects to see the highlighted element
Step 3: Use jQuery selectors in WalkMe
Depending on how you would like to use the jQuery element, jQuery can be used in WalkMe in the following locations:
- Use the jQuery element to identify an element for a step or Launcher using the Selected Element tab of the Options Menu
- Use the jQuery element to trigger the next step in a Walk-Thru when clicked or hovered in the Additional Step Triggers Menu
Note
Using a non-unique selector to detect click or hover on multiple elements at once might not work as expected.
- Use the jQuery element to grab a value on screen to use as Dynamic Text in the Rich Text Editor in a step balloon or ShoutOut
- Use the jQuery element to build a goal in the Goal tab
- Use the jQuery Selector in the Rule Engine as a Rule Type (similar to jQuery is used similarly to On Screen Element Rule Type)
Tip
Remember that jQuery should be used sparingly in your WalkMe builds, and always in combination with lighter conditions. Please refer to the following article for more information: WalkMe Performance Best Practices
Available Rule Engine jQuery Operators:
- True: Means that at least one element was found
- False: Means that no elements were found
- Visible: Means that the element is visible
- Text Is / Is Not: Means text is equal to text input
- Note: When the selector returns more than one element, all elements' text are combined as one element
- Greater Than / Less Than: Means value is above or below a whole number
- Like / Not Like: Means a complicated text syntax
- Length Is / Is Not / Greater Than / Less Than: Means equal to, above or below a whole number
- Used when to query how many elements the query returns
- Discover exact query length in the console: wmjQuery(“element.value”).length
Note
WalkMe's Editor only supports selectors written in jQuery syntax up to that used in jQuery 1.8.3. However, you may use any version of jQuery for other purposes on your website without fear of a conflict with WalkMe's version of jQuery (wmjQuery).
We recommend that you also utilize WalkMe's jQuery Selector Optimizer.
Useful jQuery Selectors
| Query |
Description |
| element |
Query an element |
| element[attribute] |
Query an attribute of an element |
| element[attribute][attribute] |
Query multiple attributes of an element |
| element[attribute="attribute value"] |
Query an attribute of an element and its value |
| element[attribute^="text"] |
Query text at the beginning of an attribute |
| element[attribute*="text"] |
Query text contained in an attribute |
| element[attribute!="text"] |
Query text excluded from an attribute |
| element child-element |
Query the child of an element (space indicates that the first element is the parent of the second) |
| element:checked |
Query the status of a checkbox (checked or unchecked) |
| [element='']:visible |
Query if an element is visible |
| element:contains(Text) |
Query element contains text |
| element:eq(#) |
Query specific result in order (count starts from 0) |
Testing Your jQuery Selectors
When choosing a jQuery selector, it is wise to compare a few to ensure you are picking the one with the least performance impact on your website/application. To do so, please follow these steps:
- Open your web browser's dev tools
- Navigate to the dev tools' console tab
- Type the following into the console:
- var time1 = window.performance.now(); wmjQuery('<your jQuery selector>'); var time2 = window.performance.now(); console.log(time2 - time1);
- Click Enter
- Run this command several times in the console to see the approximate average of the time it takes
- Run this same command with some alternative jQuery selectors and choose the one that takes the least time to run
Note
- If Shadow DOM support, you should then be able to capture Shadow DOM elements in the Editor and use jQuery to identify them
- However, you won't be able to run wmjQuery in the DevTools Console, you'll need to use this syntax instead:
_walkmeInternals.ctx.get('JQuerySelectorRunnerShadow').run('enter your selector here')
jQuery in WalkMe Share
- jQuery element selections don't display correctly in WalkMe Share because of the Editor's screen capture infrastructure. So, when the screenshot from the Editor sends the image to WalkMe Share, the item will sit in the top left-hand corner of the image at the 0x and 0y coordinates.
- WalkMe Share has a feature that allows users to adjust the items on-screen location for this use case. When this feature is used and the item is adjusted to appear in the correct location, the screenshot in the Editor is updated to reflect the change made in WalkMe Share.
- When the element selection takes place using the find element algorithm or DeepUI, the Editor's screens capture infrastructure is able to determine the X & Y coordinates of the element, thus in WalkMe Share, the item will be seen in the correct location.
