Applications Systems

The WPM Player cannot find any web item on the page

The WPM Player cannot find any web item on the page. Element was not found.

First published date

11/12/2018 1:17 PM

Last published date

2/3/2026 11:32 PM

Overview

This article describes the issue where recording/playback fails because some element cannot be found on page during playback.

Product section

Web Performance Monitor

Resolution

WPM Player 

  • A recording of actions on the website records steps properly, but when played back, the WPM Recorder/Player fails to complete the steps
  • The WPM Player cannot find previously recorded item on the web page even though the Recorder is working correctly (that is the transaction is in “Down” status in the Player)
  • The WPM Player/Recorder fails to detect the standard input of text into the given fields or buttons or other active elements (that is the transaction is in Down status in the Player)
  • The screenshot of the step is blank or does not full display the page
  • The page shown in the screenshot looks different to that displayed in Internet Explorer
  • The transaction is failing with an  "element not found" error, but the error screenshot shows the element is present on page
  • The Element “image” is not found during playback
  • The Element “text” is not found during playback
  • No action occurs after click on page element (button, field)
  • One of the  following messages is displayed in AgentWorker logs at the debug level:
    • Object does not support property or method “createEventObject”
    • Image was not found on the page
    • Element was not found on the page
    • Element 'button' was not found
    • INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND

WPM Recorder 

  • The action was successfully recorded but failed during playback in Recorder with the following messages:
    • “The current URL does not match the recorded URL, Do you want to permanently fix the recording to use the recorded URL"
    • "Playback failed: it appears that the URL used in recording as the URL in the last navigation step"

Cause  

The WPM Player cannot find some web item on the page for the one or more of the following reasons:

  • The Internet Explorer engine being used does not support fully modern JavaScript frameworks such as KnockoutJS, AngularJS, Modernizr, MomentJS and others
  • The page is using Java applets
  • The page is using Microsoft Silverlight

 

Resolution 

In most cases described above, you should use X/Y Capture Mode in recording. This simulates current keyboard and mouse events using specified coordinates and directly sends keys to the browser window.

  • Use X/Y mode to recreate the recording. Create the whole recording with X/Y mode, and use X/Y mode to recreate the recording in steps where issues occur
  • Use X/Y click on the problematic element

How to use X/Y mode 

  1. Open the Recorder, and start the recording.
  2. Press X/Y mode button to start X/Y mode.
  3. Press X/Y mode button again when you want to finish using X/Y mode.

How to use X/Y mode to bypass login windows (that is, where rest of elements works fine but login process is failing) 

  1. Enable X/Y mode, and click into the text field for username and enter the username.
  2. With X/Y mode still enabled, click into password field for password and enter the password.
  3. Disable X/Y mode, click on Login, and continue recording in normal mode.

Additional info 

Because X/Y mode uses only coordinates, some assertion (such as Text match or Image match) should be used in recording to verification that a transaction has worked as expected.
  • To check which technologies are used on the web page, install the Wappalyzer add-on for Firefox or Google Chrome.