Pages that share the same layout are ideal for tracking with wildcard; an example of this would be product detail pages. Most product detail pages share the same layout; the only difference is the displayed product. Another example would be an article/blog post page. Articles like product pages share the same layout and can be tracked using a wildcard or regular expression.
When tracking with a wildcard or regular expression, a valid URL that uses the page layout you'd like to track is required. The URL captures a screenshot and aggregates results from pages that match the wildcard or regular expression pattern to the screenshot.
Create a Wildcard Snapshot - Step by Step
While this example will show you how to set up a wildcard snapshot, please note that you will also follow the same steps for creating a Regular Expression (RegEx) snapshot.
This example starts from the snapshot configuration page. We assume you have chosen the correct method to create the snapshot -- either using the traditional single snapshot method or Page Camera.
- Step 1
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Click on show advanced settings.
- Step 2
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Scroll down to the Tracking Options section and choose either Use a Wildcard or Use a Regular Expression.
- Step 3
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Click on (in this example) Setup a Wildcard.
- Step 4
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Now you are ready to configure your wildcard settings.
Setting up a Snapshot to track by wildcard or regular expression is straightforward.
The URL you use for the main report needs to match the wildcard or RegEx pattern. It is under step 4 that you will configure the pattern matching.
Let’s use a product details page as an example. A wildcard pattern allows you to replace parts of the URL that change based on the product with an asterisk.
Product Detail Page: http://www.example.com/products/some-product
Wildcard Pattern: http://www.example.com/products/*
Our system will default take the URL you entered and place an * at the end of the line. You need to remove that * and place it in the appropriate location. In the above example, the some-product is the changing variable, so I remove some-product and replace it with *.
The second field in the screenshot (in step 4) lets you place the URL of other pages to see if it will match the pattern. Green means yes, and red means no.