Install the browser extension

The Botream Element Capture extension lets you click an element in Chrome or Edge to fill in its selector, and records what you do in the browser; it is normally installed for you by the agent installer.

#What the extension does

• Element capture: the Capture button next to a Selector field in the editor lets you click the element in your browser. The extension works out how to find it and sends the selector back to the editor. See Finding elements.
• Recording: Record in the editor toolbar notes your clicks, typing, choices, keys and the pages you open (passwords are left out), and adds them to the task as commands. See Recording.

The extension is only for building tasks. Running them does not need it: the agent drives the browser itself through Playwright.

#How it connects

The extension talks only to the Botream Agent on the same computer:

Editor (web app) ──▶ Botream Server ──▶ Botream Agent (tray app) ──▶ extension
                                        ws://127.0.0.1:17311

• The agent listens on the loopback address 127.0.0.1, port 17311. Nothing from the network can reach it, and it accepts only browser extensions, not web pages.
• The Botream Agent tray app must be running on the computer where you capture. A machine where nobody is signed in cannot capture.
• Because of this, you capture on a computer that has both the browser and an agent — usually your own workstation.

#Automatic installation (agent installer)

When Install the Botream extension in Chrome and Edge is checked in the agent installer (the default), setup adds the extension to the Chrome and Edge forced-installation policy (ExtensionInstallForcelist). The browsers then install it from your Botream server (<server>/extension/update.xml) and keep it up to date from there. Users cannot remove it.

Note: Browsers accept extensions from outside the Chrome Web Store only on managed machines: joined to an Active Directory domain, or enrolled in a browser management service such as Chrome Browser Cloud Management or Intune. On an unmanaged machine the policy is ignored and you install the extension by hand (see below).

To skip the policy, clear the checkbox in the wizard or pass EXTENSION=0 to a silent installation (Install agents). Uninstalling the agent removes the policy again.

If your organization distributes the extension through the Chrome Web Store instead, the agent installer is built to point the same policy at the store. Edge installs Chrome Web Store extensions through the same policy.

#Check the policy

Open chrome://policy (or edge://policy) and look for ExtensionInstallForcelist. Then open chrome://extensions (or edge://extensions): Botream Element Capture should be listed and enabled.

#Manual installation (developer mode)

On a machine where the policy does not take effect:

1. Get the unpacked extension folder from your Botream administrator (the extension package that comes with the installers, unzipped).
2. Open chrome://extensions (or edge://extensions).
3. Turn on Developer mode.
4. Click Load unpacked and choose the extension folder.

An extension loaded this way is not updated automatically: load the new version after a Botream upgrade.

#Check that it works

Click the extension's icon in the browser toolbar (pin it first if it is hidden under the puzzle-piece menu). The popup shows the connection state:

While it cannot reach the agent, the extension's icon shows a red !.

The extension's texts (the popup, the capture banner and the recording bar in the page) follow the browser's language: Turkish when Chrome or Edge runs in Turkish, English otherwise.

#Capture an element

1. Open the page you want to automate in a Chrome tab.
2. In the editor, select a command with a Selector field (for example capture) and click Capture next to it.
3. The browser shows the right tab: the one with the address of the command's --browser page if it is open (the same address, else the same site), otherwise the tab you used last.
4. Elements are highlighted as you move the mouse. Click the element: the click does not reach the page, and the editor comes back to the front. Esc asks whether to cancel the capture.
5. If several selectors were found, choose one in the editor and click Use selected.

If several agents are online, the editor first asks you to choose the one on this computer.

Some pages cannot be captured: browser pages such as chrome://, the Chrome Web Store, the built-in PDF viewer, and the Botream web app itself.

#Troubleshooting

#Capture does not work

Work through these in order:

#The extension does not install itself

• The machine is not managed, so Chrome and Edge ignore the policy: install the extension by hand.
• The agent was installed with EXTENSION=0 or with the checkbox cleared, so no policy was added: install the extension by hand.
• The browser has not picked up the policy yet: restart the browser, or open chrome://policy and click Reload policies.