Hover Web Element

The Hover Web Element block moves the mouse over an element, the way you would to reveal a drop-down menu, a tooltip, or content a site only shows on hover.

Hovering is usually only the first step of using revealed content. Follow it with the block that acts on whatever appears: for example, a Click Web Element block on a menu item, or a Save Web Element block on a value that shows up on hover.

How To Use It

Web Element Selector

The CSS or XPath selector for the element to hover over. See Using Selectors. If it matches more than one element, the first match is used.

Timeout

How long to wait for the element to appear before giving up, in seconds. The default is 1 second.

Block-level Delays

Min sec and Max sec represent a pause after the hover, before the next block runs. The wait is randomized between the two values, and setting both to the same number makes it fixed. This block defaults to 2 seconds.

See the Delay block for how these two fields behave, including decimals, references, and what happens when a field is left empty. See Delay Times between the Building Blocks for how block-level delays fit into a TaskBot's run.

Things To Know

• It reveals hover-only content, then you act on it. Menus, tooltips, timestamps, and action icons that a page shows only while the mouse is over an element aren't reachable until you hover. Hover first, then target what appears with the next block.

• Keep the hover and the follow-up block close together. Whatever appears on hover usually disappears the moment the mouse moves away, and your next block may move it. Put the block that acts on the revealed content immediately after, and point it straight at that content.

• What appears on hover may live elsewhere in the web page's code. Menus, tooltips, and popovers are often injected into a separate part of the page, frequently near the end of it, instead of right beside the element you hovered. When you build the selector for the next block to act on what appears, point it at that content directly rather than assuming it sits inside or next to the hovered element.

• Hover only triggers hover effects. If a menu opens on a click rather than a mouse-over, this block won't open it; use Click Web Element block instead.

Block Behavior

When the element is found the block moves the mouse over it, and logs that it hovered over the element, noting the selector used.

When the element can't be found within the timeout the block fails with a selector error and stops the run.