I am currently working on a retail project using UiPath where the web elements have dynamic IDs that change every time the page refreshes. This is causing my automation bots to fail consistently during the checkout process. What are the best practices for creating stable selectors in such scenarios to ensure long-term bot reliability?
3 answers
I always recommend using 'Attributes' like innerText or aaname instead of id or idx for web elements. These are usually more descriptive and less likely to change based on the session.
To handle dynamic attributes, you should prioritize using wildcards like the asterisk (*) to replace changing parts of a string or the question mark (?) for a single character. Additionally, leverage the "Open in UI Explorer" feature to identify stable parent elements or use 'Fuzzy Selectors' and 'Image Automation' as fallbacks. In modern versions of UiPath, the 'Anchor Base' activity is also incredibly effective; by anchoring your target element to a static label nearby, the bot remains accurate even if the underlying ID changes. This approach significantly reduces maintenance overhead.
Have you tried using the 'Strict Selector' combined with 'Fuzzy Search' attributes in the newer Studio versions? Sometimes just adding a regex search in your selector can solve the problem without needing complex anchors.
Charles, I actually tried the Regex approach last week. It works wonders for attributes that follow a specific pattern, like "client-ID-12345" where only the digits change. You just have to enable the "matching:name='regex'" tag in the selector editor. It’s much cleaner than using multiple wildcards which can sometimes lead to the bot picking the wrong element if the page is crowded.
I agree with Susan. Switching to aaname solved 90% of my selector issues in my last finance automation project. It's a much more human-readable way to identify buttons.