Select Visible Frontend Output or Search for a Phrase in Discovery

Discovery can identify a target in two practical ways: click the visible frontend element directly, or search the rendered page for visible wording. Both methods lead into the same inspector, source-evidence, fingerprint, impact-scan, and Draft Rule workflow.

Selection mode starts on by default. QCDR intercepts clicks while it is active so normal link/button behavior does not run accidentally during selection.

Select an Element by Clicking It

  1. Launch a private Discovery session on the page you want to inspect.
  2. With Selection: On, hover the visible output and click the useful element.
  3. Discovery highlights the selection and opens the inspector.
  4. Review the detected find value before using it in a Rule.

You can pause selection when you need to interact with the page normally. Re-enable it when you are ready to choose another target.

What QCDR Uses as the Selected Value

  • Most elements use normalized visible text.
  • An image can use its src or alt text.
  • A link with no visible text can use its href.
  • An input can use its current value or placeholder.
  • If no useful value exists, QCDR can fall back to the element's HTML.

The value transferred by the selector is bounded; long selections are truncated and the inspector warns you to narrow or edit the find value before creating a Rule.

Search for Visible Wording

  1. Enter wording in the Discovery toolbar and choose Find phrase.
  2. QCDR searches visible text case-insensitively after normalizing whitespace.
  3. Matches are highlighted, and the first match is opened in the inspector.
  4. Review the actual find value before saving a Rule.

The search intentionally excludes Discovery UI and text inside script, style, noscript, template, textarea, code, and pre elements. It finds up to 50 visible matches in the rendered text stream.

Watch for Multi-Node Phrases

A phrase displayed as one sentence can be split across multiple DOM text nodes or elements. Discovery tells you when the first match spans multiple nodes. In that case, the visible phrase may not exist as one uninterrupted rendered-output string, so inspect the contributing elements separately instead of assuming one literal Rule will match it.

Selection Is the Beginning, Not the Proof

After selection, distinguish the selected DOM element, page context, source evidence, and Target Fingerprint. Route ownership or nearby markup can be useful context without proving which stored record or file produced the exact output.

Community Discussion

Want to compare workflows, share practical tips, or discuss how you use this QCDR feature? Visit the QC Dynamic Replacer Community. For private support, bug reports, account-specific issues, or feature requests, use the QuantaCade support system.