Auto Schedules
Change detection
Every capture of a page compared with the previous one. A capture that changed is marked with how much, shows what changed next to what was there before, and can tell you about it.
What it does
With change detection on, each new capture is compared with the previous capture of the same page. When enough of it is different, the capture is marked Changed with the share of the page that changed — Changed 12%, for example — and a picture of what changed is kept beside it.
- It works on image captures. Video and PDF profiles cannot use it.
- It needs captures that are kept. A profile set to Do not keep after delivery has no previous capture to compare with.
- It is set on the Web Profile, so every schedule using that profile is compared.
Turning it on
Open the profile under Auto SchedulesConfigureWeb Profiles and go to its After the capture section.
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
Detect changes | Compare every capture with the previous one of the same page. Unavailable, with the reason shown, on a video or PDF profile, or one set to Do not keep after delivery. |
Low / Medium / High | How much has to change before a capture counts as changed. See below. |
Email me when the page changes | Send an email, with the part of the page that changed, when a capture changed. At most one an hour for each schedule. |
Comparing starts with the next capture after you save. Captures taken before that are not compared afterwards.
Sensitivity
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
Low | Only big changes count: a new section, a replaced banner, a layout that moved. A new profile starts here, and it is the setting to begin with. |
Medium | A changed headline, price or picture counts. |
High | Nearly any visible change counts, down to a few words of text. |
Every compared capture records how much of the page differed, even when that was too little to count. The capture viewer shows it — for example “No change since the previous capture (0.4% differed, below this profile’s sensitivity)” — which tells you whether a higher setting would have caught it.
What is compared with what
- A capture is compared with the latest earlier capture of the same address on the same schedule that is still stored. A deleted capture is never used.
- The first capture of a page has nothing before it, so it is not compared.
- On a sitemap schedule, each page is compared with that page’s own previous capture.
- A capture of a page that answered with an error (HTTP 400 or above) is never compared, and never used as the previous capture. An outage does not count as two changes, and the first good capture afterwards is compared with the last good one before it.
- If the capture width changed — a different device or size on the profile — that capture is not compared. The next one is compared with it.
- The timestamp band, if the profile stamps one, is left out of the comparison. A page that grew or shrank counts the rows it gained or lost as changed.
Seeing what changed
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
The schedule list | A schedule whose page changed shows its latest change on its card, such as Changed 12% · 2 hr. ago. |
The capture cards | A capture that changed carries a Changed badge with the percentage. |
The capture viewer | When a capture was compared, the viewer has three tabs: Capture, What changed (this capture with the changed parts tinted red) and Before / after (the previous capture and this one on top of each other, with a handle to slide between them). Its details then include a Changes line. |
See Viewing captures for the rest of the viewer.
Being told
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
Email | With Email me when the page changes on, a capture that changed sends a “page changed” email instead of the ordinary capture email, with a picture of the part that changed and a link that opens the capture on What changed. At most one change email per schedule per hour. The pages of a sitemap schedule are never emailed one by one. |
Notifications | Every member of the workspace gets a Page changes notification in the app. Further changes on the same schedule within the hour join that notification while it is unread. The pages of a sitemap schedule get no notification in the app. |
Webhook | capture.changed is sent right after capture.succeeded, when the profile’s Trigger webhook switch is on. Not limited to one an hour. |
The change email goes where the profile’s capture emails go — see Email notifications and Notifications. The webhook payload is described under capture.changed.
Pages that change on every visit
A carousel, a clock, a rotating advert or a live price makes a page different every time it is captured. Leave those parts out with the schedule’s hide selectors, under Page tweaks, or lower the sensitivity. Blocking ads and pop-ups on the profile also helps.
Sitemap schedules hide on every page
Plans
Change detection is included in every paid plan — Starter, Pro, Business and Business Plus. It is not part of the free trial.
If the workspace moves to no plan that includes it, a profile that already had it on keeps the setting, but captures are no longer compared. The profile says so, and the switch can still be turned off.
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