Retrieving XPaths (XML Path Language) for Web Crawler - Amazon Q Business

Retrieving XPaths (XML Path Language) for Web Crawler

If the website you are crawling with Amazon Q Business Web Crawler uses Form or SAML authentication, you need to provide Amazon Q with the absolute XPaths for the username and password fields on your web page. Optionally, you may also need to provide the absolute XPaths to the username and password buttons.

XPaths are expressions used to uniquely identity and locate the content of any XML like language document (including HTML). Amazon Q uses the XPaths you provide to confirm access to the website you want to crawl. XPaths usually follow the following format: //tagname[@Attribute='Value'].

The following tabs provide a procedure for retrieving XPaths required for your Amazon Q Web Crawler connector using different web browsers.

Chrome

To retrieve XPaths for an Amazon Q Web Crawler

  1. Make sure you're on the web page you want to crawl. Then, either select or click on the web page element you want to retrieve the XPath for. This could be the username or password fields, or the username and password buttons.

  2. Then, open the context (right-click) menu and then choose the Inspect option.

    Example 1

    In the Developer Tools window that opens, the details for the element you've chosen will be highlighted.

  3. Right click on the highlighted element to open the context (right-click) menu.

  4. Choose Copy.

  5. Then, choose Copy XPath.

    Example 2

  6. Then, open a text editor of your choice and paste the XPath you copied. The format of the XPath will look like this: //tagname[@Attribute='Value'].

    Input the relevant XPaths you've copied in the Authentication section when you configure Amazon Q Web Crawler connector.

Firefox

To retrieve XPaths for an Amazon Q Web Crawler

  1. Make sure you're on the web page you want to crawl. Then, either select or click on the web page element you want to retrieve the XPath for. This could be the username or password fields, or the username and password buttons.

  2. Then, open the context (right-click) menu and then choose the Inspect option.

    Example 1

    In the Developer Tools window that opens, the details for the element you've chosen will be highlighted.

  3. Right click on the highlighted element to open the context (right-click) menu.

  4. Choose Copy.

  5. Then, choose Copy XPath.

    Example 1

  6. Then, open a text editor of your choice and paste the XPath you copied. The format of the XPath will look like this: //tagname[@Attribute='Value'].

    Input the relevant XPaths you've copied in the Authentication section when you configure Amazon Q Web Crawler connector.