How do I recognize if it makes sense to use Anchor Element?

Anchor Element supports the concept of “Element Family” in accelQ. This is one of the key capabilities enabling handling of dynamic content in a web based application.

If your Action logic involves dealing with elements that seem to repeat in groups, Anchor Element is an obvious choice. Examples include group of items presented on an E-Commerce site, set of flight options presented in Flight Availability page or a group of records presented on an ERP application.

In the Element Repository, before you add one of the Elements in the group (e.g. Item Price), create an Anchor Element. On the View Canvas, select an encompassing rectangle of one of the groups and save the element in the Repository. This will become Anchor Element.

Now, when you are creating the actual element, choose the Anchor Element that you created in the previous step, as the “Match Count Reference”. Review the element uniqueness properties once you change the Match Count Reference point.

In the figure below, you find the “duration” showing unique match despite the fact that the element description is just using the “class” attribute, which is common across all the “duration” elements in the screen.