What is the Standalone Inspector
The Standalone Inspector is a tool provided within the Silktide platform for quickly testing a single Web page in isolation. It is designed to generate a single page report on the common module checks from Content, Accessibility, Marketing, and UX. The output will be instantly familiar, as the report is shown in the standard Inspector which is used when inspecting site issues after testing.
How to find it
It can be found in the toolbar within your Silktide account. Select the Inspect option next to the magnifying glass.
This will open a new page with a text input that expects a single URL to scan.
When to use it
Use this tool when you
want to quickly scan a single page or document and be taken to the report immediately
do not want to take any decisions on the reports findings
are demonstrating the scan results
are testing a competitors site for comparison
are testing a page or website that is outside of your normal reporting
How does it differ from the Inspector
There are several differences in the presentation of the Standalone Inspector. While the report format and the information given about the checks is the same as the standard Inspector, it is useful to know the limitations of the Standalone Inspector. Some of the options you might expect to see will be missing.
Inspector Features
The Standalone Inspector does not show buttons for displaying heat maps or adding annotations.
Multiple tests
It is instantly recognisable that the the standalone tool has been used for a page scan because the report shows the 'Test another' option at the top of the page. This allows you to run another test on your chosen URL.
Decisions
There are no options to 'Approve', ‘Ignore’, or 'Learn' in the Standalone Inspector, as it is not linked to Decisions that are stored in your account. It simply displays the checks as if no previous decisions had been made. For example, the ‘Check that each page has an appropriate title’ check detailed below would still be included in the report, even if your team had approved the title value already.
Analytics
The Standalone Inspector does not give an option to view Analytics data from within the side panel. You will notice the Analytics button is not present even if an Analytics property is linked to the site.
Whereas the standard Inspector tool will have an option to view Analytics if your account has access to this feature and it is configured for the site.
Expectations
Take care to observe the differences in the presentation of the Standalone Inspector, as it can appear as though there are errors in the platform if it is used in a scenario where you expect to see up-to-date reports, decisions, and analytics.
Summary
The Standalone Inspector is an additional testing tool provided within your SIlktide account. It is there for running quick checks that will run outside of your normal site testing. The Standalone Inspector offers a similar environment to the Inspector tool used during normal site tests, but does lack some of the features you might expect to see. This makes it ideal for a number of single use-case scenarios, as detailed in the ‘When to use it’ section.