This article provides an overview of how to set up a Monitor on a password-protected URL or webpage using the platform's Manual User Actions feature. If you are new to ChangeTower and/or if this is your first attempt at monitoring a page behind a log-in modal, we strongly recommend first attempting to do this with ChangeTower's Log In Feature. This method will work just as well but it's just a little more cumbersome to set up:
The Product Team introduced the Manual Actions feature to help users solve a wide range of scenarios. It allows you to record a series of mouse clicks, enter text into specific fields and/or add custom crawl delays. While those are helpful for an infinite range of use cases, it also provides users with a nice workaround if they're attempting to Monitor a website behind a login and it's not congruent with ChangeTower's Login Feature.
The steps are a little more involved but the general premise is to:
Click on the field(s) where a username and/or password needs to be entered
Enter the text for those field(s)
Clicking on the 'Log In' button once those fields have been filled out
(optional) Add a custom crawl delay to ensure the site fully renders after the log in is complete
In most instances, you'll have to repeat the mouse click + text entry steps for both username and password fields (as in the example below) and/or click an 'Already have an account?' button (if the Sign Up modal appears by default), but the concept can be easily described in those three steps!