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Configure Source Code Exclusions with CSS Selectors
Configure Source Code Exclusions with CSS Selectors

How to set up a source code exclusion with CSS selectors

Updated over a week ago

This chapter gives instructions on how to set up a source code exclusion with a CSS selector.

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Introduction

CSS selectors can find and filter elements by tagname, class, id, and attribute, Combine the elements as needed.

A more advanced introduction on how this works:

The Monsido API sends the parameter: source_exclude_rules. The scanner uses these as filters to create different texts which are then processed by different modules. For example, "original" contains the original text with no filter, "pagefix" contains the text after the Monsido PageCorrect script runs, and "spelling" contains the text that remains after the crawler removes everything that is indicated by source_exclude_rules (this is the text that is used in post-processing to find spelling errors).


Instructions

  1. Click Settings (gear icon) at the top of the Domain Overview page. The Admin Settings page opens.

    Note: The Settings button is only available to site admins.

  2. Select Source Code Excludes from the menu on the left side of the page under the domain selection.

    Image that shows the Source Code Excludes option on the left menu bar, and the Admin Setting button on the top right corner of the page.

    The Source Code Excludes page opens.

  3. Click Add Source Code Exclude.

    Image showing the location of the Add Source Code Exclude button, on the upper right-hand side of the page.

    The Source Code Excludes selection page opens.

    Image showing the Source Code Excludes landing page.

  4. Click to select Accessibility, Readability, or Misspellings.

    Image showing the location of the Accessibility source code excludes creation button.

    The Source Code Exclude details page opens.

    Image showing the Accessibility Source Code Excludes creation page.

  5. Short Description (required): Click in the text field and type in a short description for this excluded snippet.

  6. Default for CMS: Click in the field and identify the CMS from the drop-down menu, if applicable.

    Note: If a CMS is selected here and a domain with the same selected CMS exists on the account, the domain will automatically have the source code exclude applied to it.

    Note: If you use a CMS and it is not present in the list, contact Monsido Support to see if it can be added.

  7. Type (required): Click in the field and select the exclusion type from the drop-down menu.

    • Exact: Identifies and filters out all instances where the complete and exact HTML snippet appears. For example, the snippet https:/ /www.example.com/ is an exact match for:

      While these HTML snippets are NOT a match:

    • Regex: Identifies and filters out specific patterns of HTML through the use of regular expressions.

    • Contains: Identifies and filters out all snippets that contain the HTML values entered. For example, the snippet example.com is a match for these HTML values:

  8. Value (required): Put the HTML snippet in the text input field.

  9. Identify specific HTML snippets for the filter and enter them into the value field.

    Screenshot showing where you can create a short description, set the exclusion type, and then identify the particular HTML snippets for filtering by entering them into the value field.

  10. See the next section Locate HTML snippets to use in a Source Code Exclude for instructions on how to find the snippets.

    Note: The Source Code Exclude is now stored on an account level but not applied to any domains. See the steps HERE to apply the Source Code Exclude to a domain.


Locate HTML Snippets to use in a Source Code Exclusion

This section gives instructions on how to locate HTML snippets that can be used to set up a source code exclusion.


Locate snippets in FastTrack:

HTML snippets that affect the website compliance level can be found in FastTrack, along with a list of the checks the snippets are flagged for.

How to find HTML snippets that affect website compliance levels:

  1. From the Monsido Home page (the globe icon on the top menu bar), click the URL to the domain. The domain dashboard opens.

  2. Click Accessibility (icon of a person standing with arms outstretched) on the menu bar at the top of the domain dashboard. The Accessibility page opens.

  3. Click Fast Track, from the menu on the left-hand side of the page. The Accessibility Fast Track page opens.

    Image of the list of the checks that flagged the snippets for further attention.

  4. Copy the HTML snippets to include and paste them into the form for Source Code Excludes.


Locate snippets in Accessibility Page Details:

Click Accessibility (icon of a human with outstretched arms) on the top menu bar of the Page Details section for any page within Monsido:

Snippets with potential errors are listed in the panel on the right side of the page.

Image that shows the layout of the snippets view.
  • Copy the HTML snippets to include and paste them into the form for Source Code Excludes.

Note: The source code exclusion is now stored on an account level but not applied to any domains. See the steps below for instructions on how to apply the new Source Code Exclude to a domain.


Advanced CSS Target Selector Instructions

The Monsido scanner uses jsoup "select” to find source code snippets:

To find elements, refer to this external source: selector-syntax, and then use the Source Code Exclude function to remove the elements from the HTML.

Note: This is almost identical to the:

Find and filter elements by tagname,class, id, and attribute. It is also possible to combine elements in this way.

Anything in the front-end field CSS Target Selector is sent to the scanner as the value that is passed on the jsoup select.

The API sends the parameter source_exclude_rules and the scanner uses these asbfilters to create different texts for processing by different modules.

For example,

  • "original" contains the original text with no filter.

  • "pagefix" contains the text after the Monsido PageCorrect script has run.

  • "spelling" contains the text after the scanner removes everything that is indicated by the source_exclude_rules.

    Note: This is the text that is used in post-processing to find spelling errors.


Apply the Source Code Exclusion to a Domain

This section gives instructions on how to apply a source code exclusion to a domain.

  1. Click Admin Settings (gear icon) on the toolbar at the top of the Domain Overview page. The Admin Settings page opens.

    Note: The Settings button is only available to site admins.

    Image that shows the location of the Settings button, on the top menu bar.

  2. Click Action on the same row as the domain you want to do a scan on.

    Image showing the location of the Actions button for a domain, on the right-hand side of the page.

  3. Select Edit Domain from the drop-down list.

    Image of the location of the Edit Domain option in the Actions menu.

  4. The Edit Domain page opens.

    Image showing the Edit Domain Features section.

  5. Locate the Features section.

    Image that shows the Features section on the page.

    Source Code Excludes: Click the drop-down arrow and select the domain that contains the source code.


Additional Information

For more information about the topics covered in this chapter, see also:

Useful external sources:

For definitions and explanations of acronyms and abbreviations used in the Monsido User Guide, see:

For further assistance, contact the Monsido support team at support@monsido.com or use the Monsido chat and help features inside the application.

Image of the toolbar with the Help Center buttons highlighted.

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