Access Selenium IDE output in Selenium WebDriver - selenium

I'm having this requirement in which i need to access an element on my page and want to get all the properties of the element. I have already written a webdriver script to get the id,name,css,linktext but i'm not getting the idea how to get the xpath and css selector for that element.
One thing which i'm having in my mind is select the element using Selenium Ide and in the Select tab it will get all the attribute value which is very useful for me, but how to get this result in my selenium webdriver.
I dont know whether this is possible or not but if someone can give me some reference that will be very useful.
Hope for some positive answers.

You can generate absolute xpath. Please take a look at this: https://github.com/seleniumhq/selenium-google-code-issue-archive/issues/5520

Css and xpath selectors are based on the element attributes and/or tags.
You can write a method to generate some selectors but this does not guarantee that your selector would be efficient and it can break even when a slight change in the page is done.
Even if you are using a method like #arun-prakash suggested for xpath is the same thing. I don't see the reason behind this.
You will have to use a selector to identify the element so why get the selector again? You should ask the reason and how these selectors would be used.

Related

How to identify an element without using xpath when id name is not available in selenium

There are few elements in an UI page without ID. I will download a particular version and then save all the current element tags and give to script as input, since few elements are not having id, this is causing script failures.
How can I locate the element without using Xpath.
Is there any simple way when there is no fixed id.
The short answer is "no." Sorry. All of the usual ways (by id, class, etc.) are relying on the same css information to locate elements. Xpath just shows all the ugly plumbing out in public. I don't think xpath has ever been described as "simple" but there is usually a way, using xpath, to find any element.
Xpath can be intimidating. Start with a plugin that will generate the xpath for you, once you click on an element. Usually the xpath generated will be extremely long and inefficient, but with practice you can see what can be trimmed and what is crucial. And to do that, also use a plugin that will "check" your xpath to see if it can find the element. Once you can find it (and ONLY the element you want) try trimming it to see if you can still find it with the abbreviated xpath locator.
reference ImageDon't be afraid of Xpaths. It's relatively easy to grab an Xpath using the Google Chrome browser. Navigate to your page and open Developer tools. Right-click on the particular tag for which you need an Xpath. Copy -> Xpath

Selenium Webdriver selecting wrong input in jquery dialog

I am testing a site that has a dialog box with multiple text fields, some with datepickers, some without.
For some reason, when I attempt to locate the inputs by their XPath selenium finds the element, but when it comes time to input data, it send the keys to the top field. Here is an example of my selenium code:
DriverHelper.SendKeysByXpath("//input[#name='registrationStartDate']",CurrentDate);
DriverHelper.SendKeysByXpath("//input[#name='firstStartDate']",CurrentDate);
DriverHelper.SendKeysByXpath("//input[contains(#name,'lastStartDate')]","01/01/2018");
FYI, the DriverHelper is a class I call to save myself from typing the same selenium calls over and over again.
The XPath names are all unique and as far as I know there shouldn't be any confusion as to which input I'd like to send the keys to.
Has anyone run into similar situations before?
I'm trying to get an example up in jsfiddle but so far I'm unable to replicate the issue there.
It is sending keys to the top element probably because that is the one that he is selecting.
Try to use this:
List<WebElement> result = webDriver.findElements( by );
Debug your code and check how many elements your selector is retrieving.
Try to narrow and improve your search in such a way that you narrow the group os selected elements as possible.
Very personal opinion:
The code is easier to fix and to read if you avoid using xPaths as selectors. I prefer id's and classes whenever its possible.
Selenium best pratices source

Locating elements in selenium IDE

I have tried to locate button in my web app using xpath but it changes automatically each time I open selenium IDE. Is there any other way to locate it except using xpath or position? can I locate it using class name? If yes then how can I do it?
You can use xpath to find element by class name.
//*[#class='someClass']
where, someClass is the class name of your element.
Since it is your webapp, consider adding an id or a name to uniquely identify the element. It also makes the xpaths easier to write as you don't need to consider the possibility where you might be grabbing too many elements.
Answer - If by default recorded xpath are not working for your application, then you can define your own xpath for those components which should remain same throughout execution.
Please refer below URL which shows ways to develop userdefined xpath :-
http://docs.seleniumhq.org/docs/appendix_locating_techniques.jsp
Use a CSS selector. This site really helped me: http://saucelabs.com/resources/selenium/css-selectors
if it has an id on it you can just say "id=yourid"
for css it could be something like this: "css=button[class*='yourclass']" <-- that says it's a button, and that in class it contains yourclass.

Finding clickon Element using Selenium. (JAVA)

I spend hours already trying to find the way to find the Element using Selenium WebDriver. I assume I need to use driver.findElement(By.xpath("")), but I am not quite sure how.
I somehow need to find and click on "clickon" element. The problem is that part of that element is changing (see screenshot) I need to pick up from the file and putted into the xpath.
I would appreciate any help.
We have been rigorously searching for automated functional testing solutions recently, and we began with Selenium. The entire reason we decided to search for other solutions was that our application also has dynamic IDs with no other obvious XPath mechanism to identify them. Selenium is unable to identify these elements on the page without some additional knowledge, just as you would be unable to identify these elements on the page if you didn't already know what they are.
If you are controlling the DOM creation, consider adding a unique ID or class to this element.
We recently came across eggPlant from testPlant, and it is an interesting approach to functional testing. It's essentially image based. Other viable solutions are Ranorex or HP's QTP or SmartBear's TestComplete.
You can use xpath. If the div class is constant, you can use something like:
driver.findElement(By.xpath("list-row field-item")).click();
To view the xpath, you can install firefox plugin called 'xpath checker' found here and right click on the dom element and click 'View Xpath' option to get the xpath of the element and then you can use that xpath in your code.
Or you can even use regex in the xpath which is suitable for the similar problems. Xpath with regex is really powerful.
It seems that you want to click the div that has the on click attribute that contains certain text that doesn't change, ignoring the part that does. In that case, use an xpath like this:
//div[contains(#onclick, '/challenge/index/rfp_id/')]
This will select the first div with an onclick attribute with a value containing /challenge/index/rfp_id.

How to handle dynamic id from xpath

I am trying to explore IDE with this site http://www.barnesandnoble.com/, by just recording and play back.
1.In the search box just enter any text to search,
2.Ten click on All Products, select Books.
When i record its xpath is as below
/html/body[#id='CDS']/div[#id='navContainer']/div[#id='bnnav2011']/div[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355746621091_93']/div[#id='bn-global-header']/div[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355746621091_92']/div[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355746621091_91']/form[#id='qs']/div[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355746621091_90']/div[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355746621091_89']/ul[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355746621091_88']/li[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355746621091_99']
But when we play ti again it gives error,[error] locator not found:
Wehn i search for its xpath , its chnaged and is as below
/html/body[#id='CDS']/div[#id='navContainer']/div[#id='bnnav2011']/div[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355748592221_91']/div[#id='bn-global-header']/div[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355748592221_97']/div[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355748592221_96']/form[#id='qs']/div[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355748592221_95']/div[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355748592221_94']/ul[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355748592221_93']/li[#id='yui_3_3_0_1_1355748592221_98']
Observe that, its ID's are changing.
Can any one tell me how to handle this ?
The IDE is not very smart at generating XPath queries, in fact, there isn't an automated tool out there that will calculate a reliable XPath query. Why? The reason is because to generate the XPath query, it will walk down the tree from the top (at the html element), down to the element you are interacting with.
Whilst this is fine for a lot of things, if you have elements that have dynamic values (dynamic text/ID/name/classes or even if it changes position), it's never going to work.
You'll need to look at a different way to get it, so you'll have to override what the IDE is giving you.
Looking at the source, they give whatever is selected a class value of ui-selectmenu-selected. So when the page loads, the 'All Products' list item (li) will have that class, when you change the item the new item will have that class.
So you could use this XPath:
//li[#class='ui-selectmenu-selected']
Or, this CSS selector:
li.ui-selectmenu-selected
Or, use this XPath to get the 'All Products' item specifically. It will start one level up, using the actual menu, then go down and find the item:
//ul[#class='ui-selectmenu']/li[text()='All Products' and not(#class='ui-selectmenu-hidden')]
You can try using xpath: Position. It seems that the IDs are changing all the time.
As an answer to your question you should move away from id's and try using xpath or css selectors where you can select the nth child of the parent.
Since you are new to selenium I would like to point to my notes here at.-
http://selenium-testing-notes.blogspot.in/
it will help you through a lot of other pitfalls I fell in.
The best way I found to help with selectors is to work with firebug with firepath installed. This setup can help you verifying your xpath and css selectors.
I saw your question based on that answer is first you need to add on fire-path in Firefox .Using firepath you can find the xpath locator. it is very simple to you
Example:
driver.find_element_by_xpath("see![image which i have attached in this question][1] the xpath path locator details").click()
Hi Arran i am able to click the All Products button using the xpath you have given ( xpath= //ul[#class='ui-selectmenu']/li[text()='All Products' and not(#class='ui-selectmenu-hidden')]
and also get the list available. But then not able to click the Books item from the Menu.