--- title: "Create a custom policy" date: "2021-09-20T08:09:38+00:00" summary: "Create custom policies in Acquia Web Governance to scan for specific content issues across your website's assets, HTML pages, documents, and links." image: type: "page" url: "/web-governance/create-custom-policy" id: "578a88ab-6106-4342-8f4a-054ac6f35c7f" --- Introduction ------------ The Policies feature includes a large collection of pre-made policies, as well as the option to create custom policies. This article provides instructions on how to create a custom policy. Add a pre-made policy --------------------- For instructions on how to add a pre-made policy, visit [Pre-made policies](/node/58771). Instructions ------------ This section provides instructions on how to create a custom policy. 1. Click **Global Policy Overview** (mallet icon) on the top menu bar of the domain dashboard. ![The Global Policy Overview button on the top page menu bar.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/773c313e-353d-4f74-8968-823b4fd53480/web/WebGov_MainMenu-GlobalPolicyOverview.png) Alternatively, click on the header of the _Content Policies_ section on the domain dashboard. ![Images for Monsido Statistics feature.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/12fadcfb-b5bd-4b98-ab9a-9bc29e8653fb/web/Mon_Statistics-Dashboard-ContentPolicies.png) The _Global Policies_ page opens. 2. Click **Create your own policy** if there is no suitable pre-made option. 3. Note Policies are not 100% compatible with Regular Expressions as source-code exclusions. The languages are different (Java and Ruby). ![The location of the Create Your Own Policy button on the New Policy configuration page.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/6d99049f-376f-4c83-ba71-aa10f45f851f/web/Mon_Policies-NewPolicy-CreateYourOwnPolicyButton.png) The _New Policy_ creation page opens. Select the type of policy to configure -------------------------------------- This section provides instructions for the types of policies: * All Assets (HTML and Documents) * HTML Pages * Documents ### All Assets (HTML and Documents) 1. Click to select **All Assets (HTML and Documents)**. ![The New Policy type selection page.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/f5646546-e996-4b21-a99e-e77d71026994/web/WebGov_Policies-NewPolicyPage.png) 2. Select **Settings** from the options at the top of the _New Policy_ page ![The new policy creation page as described in the document text.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/8c4bede8-ab15-4a31-bcf4-c11312b73338/web/Mon_Policies-NewPolicyCreationPage.png) 3. **Display this policy as** Select a tag for the policy: * **Unwanted**: Unwanted items are displayed with this tag. * **Required**: Required items are displayed with this tag. * **Matches**: Items that match are displayed with this tag. 4. **Priority** Select a priority level for this policy. * **Low** * **Medium** * **High** For more information, visit [Issue priority](/node/58621). * **Scheduled**: Click to switch scheduled scanning for this policy **OFF** or **ON**: * **OFF** to include this policy in the scan manually. * **ON** to include this policy every time the website is scanned. * **Choose where the policy should apply**: * **Global-All Domains**: This policy will run on all domain scans. * **Choose Domains**: This policy will run on only selected domain scans. * Click in the field and select the domains from the drop-down list. * **Rule Operator**: In the _Policy Rules_ section, tick the radio button to select the **Rule Operator**. The choices are: * **Or** * **And** Select **+Add rule to policy**: Click to add a rule to the policy. The rules selection list opens. ![The location of the Add Rule to Policy Button on the top left side of the page.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/265ab2ee-9a94-4e38-912a-321acb49b3e7/web/Mon_Policies-NewPolicy-AddRuleToThePolicyButton.png) Skip to the section in this document: _Add Rules to Custom Policies_. ### HTML pages 1. Click to select **HTML pages**. The _New Policy_ configuration pane opens. 2. Select **Settings** from the options at the top of the page: ![The new policy creation page as described in the document text.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/8c4bede8-ab15-4a31-bcf4-c11312b73338/web/Mon_Policies-NewPolicyCreationPage.png) * **Display this policy as**: * **Unwanted**: Unwanted items are displayed with this tag. * **Required**: Required items are displayed with this tag. * **Matches**: Items that match are displayed with this tag. * **Priority**: * **Low** * **Medium** * **High** For more information, visit [Issue priority](/node/58621). * **Scheduled**: Click to switch scheduled scanning for this policy **OFF** or **ON**: * **OFF** to include this policy in the scan manually. * **ON** to include this policy every time the website is scanned. * **Choose where the policy should apply**: * **Global-All Domains**: This policy will run on all domain scans. * **Choose Domains**: This policy will run on only selected domain scans. * Click in the field and select the domains from the drop-down list. * **Rule Operator**: In the _Policy Rules_ section, tick the radio button to select the **Rule Operator**. The choices are: * **Or** * **And** 3. Select **+Add rule to policy**: Click to add a rule to the policy. The rules selection list opens. ![The location of the Add Rule to Policy Button on the top left side of the page.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/265ab2ee-9a94-4e38-912a-321acb49b3e7/web/Mon_Policies-NewPolicy-AddRuleToThePolicyButton.png) 4. Skip to the section in this document: [Add Rules to Custom Policies](#h_010f3e3072). ### Documents 1. Click **Documents**. 2. Select **Settings** from the options at the top of the page. ![The new policy creation page as described in the document text.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/8c4bede8-ab15-4a31-bcf4-c11312b73338/web/Mon_Policies-NewPolicyCreationPage.png) Select the options that fit the policy you want to create. * **Display this policy as**: * **Unwanted**: Unwanted items are displayed with this tag. * **Required**: Required items are displayed with this tag. * **Matches**: Items that match are displayed with this tag. * **Priority**: * **Low** * **Medium** * **High** For more information, visit [Issue priority](/node/58621). * **Scheduled**: Click to switch scheduled scanning for this policy **OFF** or **ON**: * **OFF** to include this policy in the scan manually. * **ON** to include this policy every time the website is scanned. * **Choose where the policy should apply**: * **Global-All Domains**: This policy will run on all domain scans. * **Choose Domains**: This policy will run on only selected domain scans. * Click in the field and select the domains from the drop-down list. * **Rule Operator**: In the _Policy Rules_ section, tick the radio button to select the **Rule Operator**. The choices are: * **Or** * **And**. 3. Select **+Add rule to policy**: Click to add a rule to the policy. The rules selection list opens. ![The location of the Add Rule to Policy Button on the top left side of the page.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/265ab2ee-9a94-4e38-912a-321acb49b3e7/web/Mon_Policies-NewPolicy-AddRuleToThePolicyButton.png) 4. Skip to the section in this document: [Add Rules to Custom Policies](#h_010f3e3072). For more information, visit [Pre-made policies](/node/58771). Add rules to custom policies ---------------------------- 1. Select **+Add rule to policy**: Click to add a rule to the policy. The rules selection list opens. ![The location of the Add Rule to Policy Button on the top left side of the page.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/265ab2ee-9a94-4e38-912a-321acb49b3e7/web/Mon_Policies-NewPolicy-AddRuleToThePolicyButton.png) 2. Drag and drop a rule into the **Policy Rules** section. The **New rule** pane opens. ![The New rule setup page, as described in the document text.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/008261bf-8d75-4142-93c8-bfdc1c9f32c0/web/Mon_Policies-NewRuleSetupPage.png) 3. Fill in the fields, each policy rule selection may have any combination of the following configuration options: * **Rule name** (required): Click in the text field and create a short description of the rule. * **Search for content that**: Click the drop-down arrow and select the type of text to search for. The options are: * **Starts with**: Scans for a match that starts with a specified character, word, or string. * **Contains**: Scans for a match that contains single characters, words, or phrases. * **Contains Words**: Scans for a match that contains specific individual words. * **Ends with**: Scans for a match that ends with a specified character, word, or string. * **Equal**: Scans for a match that is equal to a specified character, word, or string. * **Regex**: Scans for a match in a regular expression set of strings. Note Policies are not 100% compatible with Regular Expressions as source-code exclusions in Web Governance. The languages are different (Java and Ruby). * **Conforms with**: Search for content that conforms with (free text field). * **And does not conform with**: Enter text to exclude. * **CSS Selector**: Enter a CSS selector. Note The Browser Extension does not yet support CSS selectors and therefore does not take any user-defined CSS selectors into consideration when highlighting matches. For more information, visit [Policies that use CSS selectors](/node/58756). * Tick the box to indicate that the search will find pages that are: **Containing** or **Not containing** the query. * **Rule operators**: Skip to the full list of [Rule Operators](#h_b72dcd65f9). * **Rules**: Skip to the full list of [Rules](#h_7f4030b15b). * **Limit or exclude**: Add CSS selectors to either limit the search within those values or exclude the snippets with the given inputs. Note The Browser Extension does not support CSS selectors and therefore does not take any user-defined CSS selectors into consideration when it highlights matches. For more information, visit [Policies that use CSS selectors](/node/58756). * **Limit search**: Click the drop-down arrow ad select **Limit search** or **Exclude**. * **Value**: Enter a CSS selector value. * **Characters**: Use the drop-down list to select a value limit: * Less Than * Less than or equal * Greater than * Greater than or Equal * Equal. Enter a numerical value in the text field. * Meta Name: For the Meta Header option, enter a name in the field. * Meta Header Expr: * Drop-down list: Select a limitation for the Meta Header expression: * Starts with * Contains * Contains Words * Contains sentence * Ends with * Equal * Regex * Date age greater than * Date age less than. * In the text field, define the meta headers to match * Click **Save**. The _New rule-Text_ window closes and the _Policy Rules_ page is visible. * Click **Save** on this page to save all of the changes. A dialog box opens. * Enter the policy **Name** (required) and include a **Note** in the dialog box and then click **Save**. * From the options at the top of the page, select **+Add rule to the policy**. Repeat the steps above to add as many rules as needed. * Click **Save**. The _Policy List_ is open and the new policy is present. A Policy scan begins automatically. **Edit or remove a policy** --------------------------- This section provides instructions on how to edit or remove a policy from the global policy list. 1. From the Web Governance dashboard (Home), click the URL for a website.  2. Click **Global Policy Overview** (mallet icon) on the top menu bar of the domain dashboard. Alternatively, click on the header of the _Content Policies_ section on the domain dashboard. The _Global Policies_ page opens. 3. Click **Policy List** on the page navigation bar. ![The location of the Policy List button on the Policy List dashboard.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/53e13abc-7c6b-4223-954f-99942b317c66/web/WebGov_Policies-PolicyLIstButton.png) 4. On the same row as a policy, click **Action** and select **Edit**. ![The location of the Action menu on the same row as a policy.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/511ce7da-3b45-45e8-aef7-c66cf9b6e712/web/WebGov_Policies-PolicyList-Action.png) Edit as needed and save your changes. Unarchive a policy ------------------ To retrieve an archived policy: From the Home page, click **Global Policy Overview** (the mallet icon on the menu bar). The _Global Policies_ page opens. 1. Click **Policy List**. ![The location of the Policy List button on the Policy List dashboard.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/53e13abc-7c6b-4223-954f-99942b317c66/web/WebGov_Policies-PolicyLIstButton.png) The _Policy List_ page opens. 2. Click **Action** on the same row as a policy.  3. Select _Unarchive_. A dialog box asks for confirmation, "Are you sure you want to remove the policy (policy name) from the archive?" Click **OK** to restore the policy to the active policies list, it will run on the next scan. 4. **Delete**: Click to remove the policy permanently. 5. **Save** the changes. A dialog box opens. 6. In the dialog box, edit the policy **Name** and **Note** if needed and then click **Save**. History ------- The History Center stores all policy details from previous scans. This section provides instructions on how to view policy history. 1. Click **History Center** (bar graph icon), located on the top menu bar. ![The location of the History Center button on the domain menu bar.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/99c7c82b-6912-4aaa-8a27-b6e0698f2069/web/WebGov_MainToolbar-HistoryCenterButton) 2. The _History Center_ landing page opens. ![The history center landing page. The fields are described in the document text.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/cbc1c0b8-62f0-46f4-90c7-061cd4444973/web/Mon_Opt_HistoryCenter-Dashboard.png) 3. The page contains the following layout: * **Domain**: In the first field, click to expand the list of domains. ![The Domains selection menu. Your domains appear in the drop-down list.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/dde969d2-5087-4d12-b90c-fc0f09c43b2d/web/Mon_Opt_HistoryCenter-Dashboard-DomainsDropdown.png) * Click to select a domain from the list or switch to another domain. * **Module**: In the second field, click to expand the list of available modules. ![The location of the Modules selection drop-down on the History Center landing page.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/f7004dc9-afe5-4ab5-b975-a171a65bcf0b/web/Mon_Opt_HistoryCenter-Dashboard-ModulesDropdown.png) * Click to select **Policies** from the drop-down list. The _Policies_ page of the History Center opens. * The top section provides information on the profile that is being used for the results shown. * **Viewing as Profile**: This shows the profile that is being used. * **Device**: The type of device used. * **Measure from**: Distance from the server location. * **Network speed**: The speed of the network. * **Check frequency**: The frequency of the check. * Important The Dashboard always displays data with the default profile selected. To change this, select a new profile (click the drop-down arrow to see the available profiles). When you change the profile, the numbers on all three sections within the Performance module update accordingly. * **Graph** with performance speed and date as well as a donut chart showing the average performance score. * **Scan history results**: This table provides valuable scan data from previous scans. * **Scan history results**: This table provides valuable scan data from previous scans. * **Crawled at**: Date and time of scan. * **Pages crawled**: Number of pages scanned. * **Documents crawled**: Number of documents scanned. * **Domain compliance**: Percentage of compliance achieved. * **Comparison to average**: The score of the website as compared with the average score within the industry. * **Policies**: The number of policy issues, broken down into category icons. * **Changes since previous crawl**: Percentage of changes made since the last scan. For more information, visit [History Center](/node/58646). Rule operators -------------- This section provides information about the rule operators and how they can be used. * **Starts with**: Policy will search for any snippet starting with the inserted text * **Contains**: Policy searches for any instances of the inserted text (single word) * **Contains words**: Policy searches for multiple words. Use commas to separate the words. * **Contains sentence**: Policy searches for any instances of the inserted sentence or text. * **Ends with**: Policy will search for any snippet ending with the inserted text * **Equal**: Policy searches for an exact match for the inserted text or value. Example: “Monsido” - match. “About Monsido” - no match. * **Regex**: Use regular expressions to define the search parameters. Note Policies are not 100% compatible with Regular Expressions as source-code exclusions in Web Governance. The languages are different (Java and Ruby). * **Conforms with**: Use regular expressions to define the correct structure or form of the inserted value * **Less than**: Find any results less than the inserted value * **Less than or equal**: Find any results less than or equal to the inserted value * **Greater than**: Find any results greater than the inserted value * **Greater than or equal**: Find any results greater than or equal to the inserted value * **(Meta header) Date age greater than**: Find meta tags older than the inserted value. Choose the time interval that matches the way your meta tag dates are written. * **(Meta header) Date age less than**: Find meta tags younger than the inserted value. Choose the time interval that matches the way your meta tag dates are written. * **CSS selector**: Policy searches for the inserted CSS selector. Note The Browser Extension does not yet support CSS selectors and therefore does not take any user-defined CSS selectors into consideration when it highlights the matching values. Rules ----- This section provides information about rules and how they can be used. * **Page HTML**: Search for text in the entire domains html * **Page URL**: Set a rule for internal page URLs * **Text**: Search for text excluding CSS and HTML tags * **Page title**: Search for text in the page title (title is not the header) * **Page title length**: Define when the rule should apply for the title * **Heading text**: Search for text in headers (h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6) * **Heading text length**: Define when the rule should apply header texts * **Meta header**: Search for meta header tags, that matches query * **Meta header length**: Define when the rule should apply for meta headers * **Link text length**: Define when the rule should apply for link texts * **External link count**: Define when the rule should apply for external links * **File size**: Search files across selected domains * **Image size:** Search for images across selected domains * **Image text**: Search for images with this name * **Image text length**: Define when the rule should apply for image texts * **Readability level**: Search for text that is in compliance with a school degree. **Additional resources** ------------------------ To add the Policies feature to your plan, contact your sales representative.