What is a browser tab reference?
Some actions return a reference to a particular browser tab, which is accepted as input parameter by other actions.
Here's a simple example: A "Create Empty Browser Tab" action returns a reference which is then used as input parameter in a "Get Details of Browser Tab" action.
Properties
This data type comes in two different flavours, standard and detailed, which contain several properties. The former is the default. The detailed variant is only returned by the "Get Details of Browser Tab" action.
Browser
Page Title
The title of the web page as defined by its HTML document.
Page URL
The address of the displayed web page.
Is Loading?
A boolean indicator (true/false) specifying if the web page/document is still loading.
Note: Safari does not support this natively, so Browser Actions tries to figure it out but the results might be unreliable.
Is Private?
A boolean indicator (true/false) specifying if the tab belongs to a private window.
Internal ID
A transient ID which is exposed but shouldn't be used in workflows.
HTML Document
Part of the detailed variant. The up-to-date, current DOM document.
Text Contents
Part of the detailed variant. All the text, none of the tags. Depending on the web page, it might look somewhat disjointed and messy.
Current Selection
Part of the detailed variant. The currently selected text. Depending on the web page, it might look somewhat disjointed and messy in terms of line breaks and whitespace.