Selenium Webdriver Onlink Text - selenium

Question

What command in webdriver should I use to make sure it clicks the specific text i.e Last Month
the code is
<div class="dt_padded_medium_div">
<a onclick="setLastMonth()" href="#">Last Month</a>
I tried xpath by using firepath but still doesnt work
it was
//*[#id='block-2']/div/div[3]/table/tbody/tr[1]/td[5]
I used
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[#id='block-2']/div/div[3]/table/tbody/tr[1]/td[5]")).click();
but still didnt work, am I missing something?
Update:
Got the Code working guys, thanks for the help!

Answer 1

If there is only one 'a' element in the page with this text, try this XPath:
//a[text()='Last Month']
If there are more than one element, please, post the full HTML tree else we're unable to write a xpath without know the tag path and ensure it will work

Answer 2

Are you sure your xPath is correct?
Install FirePath on Firefox and experiment with your xPath as on screenshot below.
Also, that does look like a long and brittle xPath. Look up xPath cheat sheets to learn how to make your xPath more robust.
In your case I would imagine something like:
//*[#id='block-2']/descendant::a[text()='Last Month']
(get the element with a particular ID, then search for an <a></a> in that element, no matter how deep, with a particular text)

Answer 3

In your question, you have used a "id" that is not shown in your code, where is #id='block-2'. It is possible for you to have used the wrong id. For us to help you, can you please provide the whole HTML code?
What I can suggest based on the information you have provided is:
Making sure the Xpath you have provided is unique, there is an add-on for Firefox called Firebug you can use. It will help you find out the xpath you are after fast and easy. What you need to do is basically:
download firefox and install it;
download firebug add-on and install it to firefox;
you will notice there is a small bug symbol to the top right of your tool bar, please enable it;
you will see a console pops out, click on inspection button and click on any web element you want to inspect and its html code will be highlighted in the console;
right click on the highlighted code and choose to copy its xpath to clipboard. This way you will never get your xpath wrong.
Here is a quick tutorial:
http://www.wikihow.com/Find-XPath-Using-Firebug
P.S. There are more than one way to locate a webelement, please consider using the following options as well:
Css selector
class name
id
This link will direct you to an awesome cheat cheet.
http://scraping.pro/res/xpath-cheat/xpath_css_dom_recipes.pdf
Hope it helps.

Answer 4

Please try to use below code to click on the text Last Month
driver.findElement(By.xpath(".//a[text()='Last Month']")).click();
Hope this helps.

Answer 5

You can use below code to click on the link containing the text 'Last Month'
driver.findElement(By.linkText("Last Month")).click();

Answer 6

First of all make sure that your xpath works correctly, try to use more specific xpath other than just td[5] or smthn like that, for example above could be like:
//div[#class='dt_padded_medium_div']/a[#href] - meaning, we need to find <div> element with specific parent and within it <a> element that has href property

Answer 7

There are a few possibilities.
If you're site doesn´t get rewritten to much you could just go for the link name via
driver.findElement(By.linkName("Last Month");
You could also go for any of the attributes if your site is subject of many rewrites like this and just put "href" and "#" or "onclick" and "setLastMonth()" as arguments when calling it.
static WebElement getLink(String Attribute, String Value /*String ItemText*/){
List<WebElement> Elements = driver.findElements(By.tagName("a"));
for(int Counter = 0, Counter < Elements.size(); Counter++){
if(Elements.get(Counter).getAttribute(Attribute).contains(Value) /* && Elements.get(Counter).getText().equals(ItemText){
return Elements.get(Counter);
}
}
return null;
}
If you remove the comments it will go completely sure and check for the Attributes and the displayed text.