In
WebDriver automation everything related with web elements as it is
web application automation tool.
WebElement
is nothing but, all DOM objects appeared in the web page. To do
operations with DOM objects/ web elements we need to locate those
elements exactly.
WebElement
element=driver.findElement(By.<Locator>);
As
we've seen in the above statement we have to specify some locator to
identify web element.
'By'
is the class, in that class we have different static methods to
identify elements. Those are,
By.className
By.cssSelector
By.id
By.linkText
By.name
By.partialLinkText
By.tagName
By.xpath
By.className
See
below example
Example:1
<td
class=name> </td>
WebElement
td=driver.findElement(By.className("name"));
By.cssSelector
CSS
selector is the one the best ways to locate some complex elements in
the page.
See
below some examples for easy understanding
Example:1
<td
class=name> </td>
driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("td.name"));
In css selector we can denote class name with dot (.)
(or)
driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("[class=name]"))
We can specify the attribute name and its value.
Example:2
<input
id=create>
driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("#create")).sendKeys("test");
shortcut for denoting id is #
(
or )
driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("[id=create]")).sendKeys("test")
Example:3
<td
value=dynamicValue_13232><td>
driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("[value*=dynamicValue]"))
* is for checking contained value
(here
value contains dynamicValue)
Example:4
<div
value=testing name=dynamic_2307></div>
driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("[value=testing][name*=dynamic]"));
If
you want to include more attribute values in locator criteria use css
locator as above.
By.id
See
below example
Example:1
<td
id=newRecord> </td>
WebElement
td=driver.findElement(By.id("newRecord"));
here
we can specify the id attribute value directly.
By.linkText
See
below example
Example:1
<a
onclick=gotonext()>Setup </a>
WebElement
link=driver.findElement(By.linkText("Setup"));
This
is the best locator for locating links (anchor tags) in your web
page.
By.partialLinkText
See
below example
Example:1
<a
onclick=gotonext()>very long link text </a>
WebElement
link=driver.findElement(By.partialLinkText("very"));
(or)
WebElement
link=driver.findElement(By.partialLinkText("long link"));
This
is the locator for locating links (anchor tags) using partial text it
contains .
By.name
See
below example
Example:1
<td
name=WebDriver> </td>
WebElement
td=driver.findElement(By.name("WebDriver"));
By.tagName
See
below example
Example:1
<td
class=name> </td>
WebElement
td=driver.findElement(By.tagName("td"));
If
you want to get the entire text of web page use below logic.
driver.findElement(By.tagName("body")).getText()
XPath
is the language used for locating nodes in an XML document. As HTML
can be an implementation of XML (XHTML), Selenium users can leverage
this powerful language to target elements in their web applications.
XPath extends beyond (as well as supporting) the simple methods of
locating by id or name attributes, and opens up all sorts of new
possibilities such as locating the third checkbox on the page.
One
of the main reasons for using XPath is when you don’t have a
suitable id or name attribute for the element you wish to locate. You
can use XPath to either locate the element in absolute terms (not
advised), or relative to an element that does have an id or name
attribute. XPath locators can also be used to specify elements via
attributes other than id and name.
Absolute
XPaths contain the location of all elements from the root (html) and
as a result are likely to fail with only the slightest adjustment to
the application. By finding a nearby element with an id or name
attribute (ideally a parent element) you can locate your target
element based on the relationship. This is much less likely to change
and can make your tests more robust.
For
instance, conside this page source:
<html>
<body>
<form
id="loginForm">
<input
name="username" type="text" />
<input
name="password" type="password" />
<input
name="continue" type="submit" value="Login"
/>
<input
name="continue" type="button" value="Clear"
/>
</form>
</body>
<html>
The
form elements can be located like this:
login_form
= driver.find_element_by_xpath("/html/body/form[1]")
login_form
= driver.find_element_by_xpath("//form[1]")
login_form
= driver.find_element_by_xpath("//form[@id='loginForm']")
Absolute
path (would break if the HTML was changed only slightly)
First
form element in the HTML
The
form element with attribute named id and the value loginForm
The
username element can be located like this:
username
= driver.find_element_by_xpath("//form[input/@name='username']")
username
= driver.find_element_by_xpath("//form[@id='loginForm']/input[1]")
username
= driver.find_element_by_xpath("//input[@name='username']")
First
form element with an input child element with attribute named name
and the value username
First
input child element of the form element with attribute named id and
the value loginForm
First
input element with attribute named ‘name’ and the value username
The
“Clear” button element can be located like this:
clear_button
=
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//input[@name='continue'][@type='button']")
clear_button
= driver.find_element_by_xpath("//form[@id='loginForm']/input[4]")
