A SPA is a Single Page Application. WalkMe works by identifying when a page refreshes. If your site is a Single Page Application (SPA), it means that the site does not use traditional page refreshes to transition from page to page.
If your site has any one of the following behaviors, it can indicate that it is a SPA.
- Site URL doesn't change when you navigate between pages.
- Site URL contains a #.
To identify the next two indications that your site may be a SPA, you will need to right click on the page of your site and click Inspect to open the console.
- In the Elements tab - HTML doesn’t reload when you navigate between pages.
- In the Network tab - iFrames are loading after the page loads.
Note
If you suspect that your site is a SPA, reach out to your Account Manager who will work with you to enable a SPA feature for your account if necessary.
Enabling the SPA feature often resolves issues where steps will not play, or issues where WalkMe Apps that are based on elements do not appear.
Lightning SPA
When a site is a Single Page Application, it means that we don't see a hard page refresh when navigating throughout the application. To get a better understanding, try navigating through different pages in Salesforce Lightning vs. Salesforce Classic.
Take a special note of your refresh button on your browser. Did it change? You'll notice when you navigate in Lightning the button doesn't change but if you navigate through different pages in classic you'll see the refresh button change as your page is doing a hard refresh.
Watch the following video to learn more about Lightning SPA.
Build Considerations
- Identify if URL & On-Screen Element rules are working
A Single Page Application (SPA) can affect any rule that involves a URL rule as well as any rule condition that identifies the visibility of an On-Screen Element. These are affected because rules such as Segments, Start Points, etc. are evaluated when the page loads, but if the page only technically loads once, then when you navigate anywhere else in the application the rules for new pages will not be evaluated.
- Request for SPA to be enabled & use jQuery as needed
Your WalkMe team should enable a feature on the backend so that WalkMe can evaluate these rules properly and while this solves most cases, in some rules you'll have to use jQuery.