Dates, dropdowns and popups
How ReplayQA handles date pickers and calendar popups, dropdowns, checkboxes, dialogs and cookie banners, and how to keep date-based tests working over time.
Real forms are more than text boxes. Here's how ReplayQA handles the controls that usually make recorded tests fragile.
Dates and calendar popups
When a video shows a date being chosen, whether typed or clicked in a calendar, ReplayQA records it as one step with the date itself, such as Type 14 Nov 2026 into Check-in, not a chain of calendar clicks.
At run time it works out what kind of field it's facing:
| Field | What ReplayQA does |
|---|---|
| Native date, date-time, month or time input | Sets the value directly |
| Text field that accepts a typed date | Types the date in the page's format, moves on, and checks the field kept it |
| Read-only field with a calendar popup | Opens the calendar, moves to the right month (using month and year dropdowns if there are any, otherwise the next and previous arrows), and clicks the day, skipping greyed-out days from neighbouring months |
To change the date later, edit the value in the step editor. Most common formats work: 2026-11-14, 14 Nov 2026, November 14th, 2026.
A date that was "tomorrow" when you recorded is a fixed date in the test, so it eventually becomes a past date that many booking forms disable. For long-lived tests, choose a date well in the future, and update it now and then.
Dropdowns
- Standard dropdowns become Choose option with the visible option text, for example "Canada".
- Custom dropdowns (searchable selects and menus built from buttons) become a Click to open them and a Click on the option, both by their visible text.
Checkboxes, radio buttons and switches
These become Tick or Untick with the label text. They're idempotent: ticking an already-ticked box leaves it ticked, so a test doesn't flip a setting the wrong way.
Dialogs, cookie banners and pop-ups
- In-page dialogs and modals are just more elements: their buttons are clicked by their text.
- Cookie banners that appear in the video become a click on "Accept" (or whatever you clicked). If the banner doesn't appear on every visit, the click fails when it's missing. Remove that step and accept cookies in your sign-in test instead; it runs first, so the choice is remembered for the rest of the test.
- Browser-native pop-ups (the plain grey
alert()andconfirm()boxes drawn by the browser, not the page) are dismissed automatically, so a flow that depends on pressing OK in one won't work yet. Dialogs built into the page work normally.
Not supported yet
- Choosing a file to upload. A video can't contain the file you picked, and tests can't attach files yet. Record flows that upload files only up to the point before the file is chosen.
- Browser-native pop-ups that need OK, as described above.
- Content inside frames from other websites, such as some embedded payment forms.