---
title: "Site navigation"
slug: "what-should-i-know-about-site-navigation-1"
updated: 2025-03-12T18:25:12Z
published: 2025-03-12T18:25:12Z
canonical: "help.mozenda.com/what-should-i-know-about-site-navigation-1"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.mozenda.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Site navigation

### What should I know about site navigation?
[dexi.io ](https://www.dexi.io/){target="_blank"}robots can navigate a Web site in virtually any way a human can. This document discusses a number of Web site navigation elements you may encounter on your travels throughout the Internet and how to address them in our scraper editor.

#### Links and buttons
To instruct the scraper to follow a link:

1. Select the link or button element to select it.
2. In the Element Panel, select **Click Element**.

![Screenshot 2021-03-29 at 12.50.09.png](https://cdn.document360.io/03076343-9561-4857-8a4e-9f3bfed20ced/Images/Documentation/Screenshot%202021-03-29%20at%2012.50.09.png){height="" width=""}

#### Navigation menus
To instruct the scraper to follow a single navigation menu item, follow the directions found above, under **Links and buttons**.

To instruct the scraper to iterate through all menu items:

1. Select menu items.
2. In the Element Panel, select **Loop Through Elements**.
3. Select the **Step Forward** button twice to adjust the timeline position to just after the *Loop Through Elements* step.
4. Select the first menu item to select it.
5. In the Element Panel, select **Click Element**.
6. Follow this step with any further navigation or extraction steps to be performed after clicking each menu item.

The robot will perform all configured steps for each menu item before continuing with steps following the *Loop Through Elements* loop.

#### Authenticating with username and password
Make sure you have input fields and testing values configured for the username and password under the editor's **Inputs** tab. See [Input and output](/v1/docs/what-should-i-know-about-input-and-output){target="_blank"}

To sign in to a site protected by a username/password security model:

1. Select the username field to select it.
2. In the Element Panel, select **Input**.
3. In the Step Panel, choose the input field from which to retrieve the username.
4. Make any other required configuration changes.
5. Select the password field to select it.
6. In the Element Panel, select **Input**.
7. In the Step Panel, choose the input field from which to retrieve the password.
8. Make any other configuration changes as needed.
9. Select the **submit credentials** button to select it.
10. In the Element Panel, select **Click Element**.

#### Captcha
To address a Captcha or similar anti-robot feature:

1. Select the Captcha image element to select it.
2. In the Element Panel, select **Resolve Captcha**. If selecting a Captcha element doesn't reveal the **Resolve Captcha** option, temporarily choose another option, such as an **Extract** option. You can then edit the step to select **Resolve Captcha** from the **Step Type** menu and enter the required configuration settings.
3. Select the response input field to select it.
4. In the Element Panel, select **Input** and complete the configuration.
5. Select the **submit response** button to select it.
6. In the Element Panel, select **Click Element**.

#### How the extractor navigates
Whenever extractor robots navigate to a new URL they do so by opening up a "tab" - once the iteration for a given page is done it automatically jumps back - closing down the newly opened tabs and shifting back to the existing tab. 

Often this will be a loop through a list of links - where each click on the links will open a new tab and perform the actions you've described - and once it iterates to the next link in the list it simply closes the new tabs and shifts back to the existing tab containing the list - causing no additional loading or waiting time. 

This is also called *page state*. Read more about it in [The extractor editor](/v1/docs/what-should-i-know-about-the-extractor-editor){target="_blank"}