Monitoring an entire webpage is not always necessary. If you only want to track a specific section, such as a product price, stock status, notification area, or availability message, Auto Refresh Plus (ARP) allows you to monitor only that part of the page.
Using Search in Custom Area, Page Monitor focuses on a selected element instead of scanning the entire webpage. This helps reduce false alerts and improves monitoring accuracy.
How to Monitor a Specific Element on a Page
Follow these steps:
- Open the Auto Refresh Plus extension
- Go to the Monitor tab
- Scroll down to Search in Custom Area
- Choose one of the following options:
- Select Area to choose an element directly from the webpage
- Enter CSS Selector to target a specific HTML element
- Configure your monitoring settings
- Click Start
Auto Refresh Plus will monitor only the selected area during each refresh cycle.
When Should You Use a Specific Element?
Monitoring a custom page area is useful when a webpage contains multiple sections that change frequently, but only one section is important to you.
Common examples include:
- Monitoring product availability
- Tracking price changes
- Watching a notification section
- Monitoring a specific table or list
- Tracking updates inside a particular content area
By limiting monitoring to a selected element, Page Monitor ignores unrelated changes elsewhere on the page.
Important Notes
- Custom Area monitoring is configured per website
- You can select an element directly from the page or provide a CSS selector manually
- Only the selected area is analyzed during refresh cycles
- This can help reduce unnecessary alerts caused by unrelated page updates
Summary
With the Search in Custom Area feature, you can track changes within a specific section of a webpage instead of monitoring the entire page. Simply select an area visually or provide a CSS selector, and Auto Refresh Plus will watch that targeted content for updates, helping you receive more precise change notifications.