View Categories

Testing a URL Entry

0:00 11:42

The Test Entry tool lets you check whether PriceFetchWP can successfully reach an external product page and find a price using the current configuration of a URL Entry.

It is one of the best ways to confirm that a PriceFetchWP setup is working before using it on your pages, posts, or WooCommerce products.

  1. – Where to Find Test Entry
  2. – Enter the Exact Product URL
  3. – Understanding the Test Result
    1. Price Found
  4. – N/A vs. —
    1. N/A
    2. —
  5. – No Selector Match Found
  6. – Fetch Failed
  7. – Sale Price and Regular Price
  8. – Sale Match and Regular Match
  9. – Testing Script Selectors
  10. – Testing “Also Check” Selectors
  11. – Fetch Mode
  12. – Proxy Cost
  13. – HTTP Status
    1. 200 OK
    2. 403 Forbidden
    3. 404 Not Found
    4. 429 Too Many Requests
    5. 500 / 502 / 503 / 504
  14. – SSL / TLS Connection Information
  15. – See Raw HTML
  16. – Testing Advanced Options
  17. – Testing Affiliate Entries
  18. – Reverse Order
  19. – Timing
  20. – Test Entry and Logging
  21. – Run Another Test
  22. – A Good Testing Workflow
  23. ⚠️ If the Test Still Doesn’t Work
    1. The Page Fetches, but No Price Is Found
    2. The Page Cannot Be Fetched
    3. You Need More Information
  24. – Test Before You Use It

You can use Test Entry to check:

  • Whether the external page can be fetched
  • Whether your Sale Price or Regular Price selector matches
  • Which selector produced the price
  • What price PriceFetchWP found
  • Whether a proxy or Affiliate API is being used
  • HTTP and connection information
  • Request and total test timing
  • Proxy cost when available
  • The raw HTML PriceFetchWP received from the source

You can also test changes before saving the URL Entry, making it easy to adjust selectors or Advanced Options and immediately test them again.

– Where to Find Test Entry

Go to:

WordPress Dashboard → PriceFetchWP → URL Entries

Find the URL Entry you want to test.

Under that entry, click: Test Entry

PriceFetchWP will ask for the exact product or page URL you want to test.

– Enter the Exact Product URL

Your URL Entry normally contains the domain PriceFetchWP uses to determine which configuration should handle an external URL.

For example:

example.com

The Test Entry tool needs the exact page containing the price.

For example:

https://example.com/products/example-product

Click: Test now

PriceFetchWP will fetch that page and evaluate the selectors and Advanced Options currently shown in the URL Entry.

– Understanding the Test Result

A Test Entry result will generally fall into one of three categories:

  • Price found
  • No selector match found
  • Fetch failed

Price Found

If PriceFetchWP successfully retrieves the source and finds at least one valid price, you will see:

Price found

For example:

Sale price      29.99
Regular price   39.99

PriceFetchWP may find:

  • only a Sale Price
  • only a Regular Price
  • both prices

depending on the selectors you configured and the pricing available on the tested product.

– N/A vs. —

Test Entry distinguishes between a selector that was not configured and one that was configured but did not return a usable price.

N/A

N/A means you did not configure a selector for that price type.

For example, if you only entered a Regular Price selector:

Sale price      N/A
Regular price   34.99

Sale match      N/A
Regular match   row 1 / XPATH / ...

Nothing is wrong with the Sale Price test. PriceFetchWP simply had no Sale Price selector to test.

—

A dash means a selector was configured, but no usable price was returned for that price type.

For example:

Sale price      —
Regular price   34.99

This may be completely normal.

A product may not currently be on sale, or an embedded field such as a compare-at price may return $0.00, indicating that no separate Regular Price is available.

– No Selector Match Found

You may see: No selector match found

This means PriceFetchWP successfully retrieved usable page content, but the current selector configuration did not produce a valid price.

Check:

  • The selector type
  • The selector value
  • Whether you entered the exact product URL
  • Whether the price exists in the HTML PriceFetchWP received
  • Any Also check selectors configured for the entry

PriceFetchWP currently supports:

  • XPath
  • ID
  • Class
  • Script

If you are still working on your selectors, see: Finding Price Selectors

– Fetch Failed

If you see: Fetch failed

PriceFetchWP was unable to retrieve usable content for the price test.

Possible causes include:

  • The source website blocked the request
  • The request timed out
  • The source returned an HTTP error
  • The website is rate limiting requests
  • A proxy provider could not retrieve the page
  • An Affiliate API request failed
  • A server or SSL/TLS connection problem occurred

Test Entry may display a Hint with additional information when it recognizes certain types of failures.

– Sale Price and Regular Price

Test Entry displays separate results for:

  • Sale price
  • Regular price

For example:

Sale price      24.99
Regular price   34.99

means both price types were found.

If you see:

Sale price      N/A
Regular price   34.99

no Sale Price selector was configured.

If you see:

Sale price      —
Regular price   34.99

a Sale Price selector was configured, but it did not return a usable Sale Price for that product.

For the best test, try several products from the same website—including normally priced and sale-priced products when available.

– Sale Match and Regular Match

Test Entry also shows which selector produced the price.

For example:

row 1 / CLASS / product-price

or:

row 1 / SCRIPT / #viewed_product::Price

This tells you:

  • Which selector row matched
  • Which selector type was used
  • Which selector value produced the price

If that price type was not configured, the match will show:

N/A

If selectors were configured but none produced a usable price, the match may show:

None

This becomes especially useful when a URL Entry contains Also check fallback selectors.

– Testing Script Selectors

Test Entry supports PriceFetchWP’s Script selector type.

For example:

#viewed_product::Price

may be used to retrieve a Price field from supported script data already present in the page source.

Test Entry will show the selector type and script expression when it produces a match:

row 1 / SCRIPT / #viewed_product::Price

Script selectors read compatible data already contained in the fetched HTML.

They do not execute JavaScript.

If a price is only created after JavaScript runs in a browser, a normal Direct Fetch may not contain that price.

– Testing “Also Check” Selectors

A URL Entry can contain additional Also check selector rows.

PriceFetchWP works through the configured selectors until it finds a usable price.

For example:

Row 1

Class: product-price

Also check

Class: current-price

If the first selector does not produce a price but current-price does, Test Entry will show which row ultimately matched.

This is useful for websites that use different markup across products or page layouts.

– Fetch Mode

Test Entry shows how the request was performed.

Depending on the URL Entry configuration, the result may include:

  • Direct fetch
  • PhantomJSCloud
  • ScrapFly
  • Affiliate API information

This confirms that the Advanced Options currently shown for the URL Entry were actually used during the test.

For example, if you enable ScrapFly for the entry and run Test Entry again, the result should indicate that the proxy provider was used.

– Proxy Cost

When a supported proxy provider reports the cost of a request, Test Entry may also display: Proxy cost

For example:

Proxy cost      25 credit(s)

This can be useful when testing services such as ScrapFly, where different websites may require different request resources.

See the documentation for your selected proxy provider for additional information about provider usage and pricing.

– HTTP Status

Test Entry displays the HTTP status returned during the fetch when available.

Common examples include:

200 OK

200 OK

The request completed normally.

403 Forbidden

403 Forbidden

The source may be blocking the request.

See: Blocked Requests

404 Not Found

404 Not Found

Check that the exact product/page URL is correct.

429 Too Many Requests

429 Too Many Requests

The source may be rate limiting requests.

500 / 502 / 503 / 504

These may indicate a temporary problem with the source website or selected fetch provider.

Test Entry may display an additional troubleshooting Hint for recognized HTTP or connection errors.

– SSL / TLS Connection Information

If a Direct Fetch fails with a recognized SSL/TLS-related connection error, Test Entry may also display information about the server’s cURL and SSL/TLS environment.

For example:

Server TLS      cURL 7.85.0 / OpenSSL/1.0.2u

This information can help identify whether the WordPress server’s networking environment may be contributing to the connection problem.

– See Raw HTML

When page content is available, Test Entry provides a: See raw HTML link.

This downloads the page content that PriceFetchWP actually received during the test.

This can be extremely useful when a price appears in your normal browser but PriceFetchWP cannot find it.

The content returned to your WordPress server may not always be identical to what you see in your browser.

For example, an external website may:

  • Add a price later using JavaScript
  • Return different content to server-based requests
  • Return an access or verification page
  • Remove portions of the normal page
  • Change content depending on the request or visitor

If your selector looks correct but Test Entry cannot find the price, inspect the downloaded HTML for:

  • The expected price
  • Your expected ID
  • Your expected class
  • Script data containing the price
  • Nearby HTML you saw while inspecting the product page

If the expected price does not exist anywhere in the HTML PriceFetchWP received, changing the selector alone may not solve the problem.

Note: Very large raw HTML captures may be truncated.

– Testing Advanced Options

Test Entry uses the current Advanced Options shown for the URL Entry, even if you have not saved your latest changes yet.

This makes it useful for comparing different fetch configurations.

For example, if a Direct Fetch receives a 403 Forbidden response, you could:

  1. Open Advanced Options
  2. Enable a supported proxy provider
  3. Run Test Entry again
  4. Compare the result

You can use the same approach when adjusting:

  • request headers
  • timeout
  • proxy settings
  • SSL Verification
  • Affiliate Integration

Once you find a configuration that works, remember to save the URL Entry.

– Testing Affiliate Entries

If Affiliate mode is enabled for the URL Entry, Test Entry uses the selected Affiliate API as the price source.

Normal XPath, ID, Class, or Script selectors are not used for the affiliate price request.

The result can show information identifying the Affiliate API/provider and the price returned by that provider.

See: Affiliate Integration for additional setup information.

– Reverse Order

If the selector row that finds the price has Reverse order enabled, Test Entry applies that setting during the test.

The result will indicate:

Reverse        Applied to matched selector row.

This lets you confirm the final Sale Price and Regular Price interpretation before saving the URL Entry.

– Timing

Test Entry displays request timing information.

A Direct Fetch may show something similar to:

Request: 462ms; Total test: 499ms

This can help you compare how quickly different fetch configurations respond.

Proxy or other fetch modes may display slightly different timing information depending on how the request is performed.

Timing can vary between tests because it depends on:

  • the external website
  • your WordPress server
  • network conditions
  • the selected proxy provider
  • JavaScript rendering
  • the external provider’s response time

– Test Entry and Logging

When PriceFetchWP logging is enabled, Test Entry activity is also recorded in the logs.

Test-generated entries are identified with:

[TEST]

For example:

[INFO] [fetch] [TEST] Source page fetched

or:

[INFO] [selector] [TEST] Sale price matched

This makes it easier to distinguish manual Test Entry activity from normal PriceFetchWP requests.

If a configured selector returns a zero value such as $0.00, PriceFetchWP may record that as informational rather than treating it as a selector error.

See: Logging & Debugging for more information.

– Run Another Test

After a test completes, click: Run Another Test

to test another product/page URL using the same current URL Entry configuration.

We strongly recommend testing several URLs before considering a selector setup complete.

Try:

  • A normally priced product
  • A product currently on sale
  • Products from different categories
  • Products using different page layouts, if applicable

A selector that works on one product is useful.

A selector that works consistently across the website is what you are looking for.

– A Good Testing Workflow

When creating a new URL Entry:

  1. Add the domain
  2. Enter your Sale Price and/or Regular Price selector
  3. Select the correct selector type
  4. Click Test Entry
  5. Enter the exact product/page URL
  6. Confirm that PriceFetchWP can retrieve the page
  7. Confirm the correct price was found
  8. Check which selector produced the match
  9. Test additional products from the same website
  10. Add Also check selectors if needed
  11. Adjust Advanced Options if the website requires them
  12. Save the URL Entry once you are satisfied with the results

⚠️ If the Test Still Doesn’t Work

First determine which type of problem you are seeing.

The Page Fetches, but No Price Is Found

Focus on:

  • Selector type
  • Selector value
  • Sale vs. Regular Price configuration
  • Also Check selectors
  • Script selectors
  • Raw HTML

The Page Cannot Be Fetched

Focus on:

  • HTTP status
  • Timeouts
  • Website blocking
  • Connection errors
  • Proxy configuration
  • Advanced Options

See:

You Need More Information

Check: Logging & Debugging

PriceFetchWP logs can provide additional information about Test Entry requests, selector matching, APIs, proxy activity, and fetch behavior.

– Test Before You Use It

Test Entry removes much of the guesswork from configuring an external price source.

Instead of saving a selector and hoping it works, you can verify the exact URL, fetch method, matched selector, extracted price, timing, and returned page content directly from the PriceFetchWP dashboard.

Whenever you create or modify a URL Entry, Test Entry should be one of your final steps before putting that configuration into use.

Updated on September 10, 2026

Was this helpful?

  • Happy
  • Sad
Shopping Cart
Scroll to Top