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
Related
I have had this question a while, but I had never done anything about it. When mapping some elements for UI tests I sometimes come across elements that return two identical results.
We have got around this in the past by using findelements and then using an index [1].
But I still don't understand why it returns two elements when I can only see one in the code that should be located.
An example would be the following. You can see this username field box below.
And if I use some XPath expression like,
//input[#name='username']
I'm expecting only to get one element in return, but using the tool Chropath I can see that I get two elements in return.
These elements look identical, one is not hidden, etc.
I have never understood why this is happening, because if I use a findelement, I get an element, not interactable error, as I guess the driver can’t decide which one to use? Or they are in the way of one another.
So the workaround I have always used is:
return self.browser.find_elements(by=By.XPATH, value="//input[#name='username']")[1]
when I realisticly should be able to use:
return self.browser.find_element(by=By.XPATH, value="//input[#name='username']")
Why is this?
Some excellent response and it has made me understand what’s going on now. Moving forward, I will use the following:
for e in self.browser.find_elements(by=By.XPATH, value="//input[#name='username']"):
if e.is_displayed():
return e
This seems to work for me.
I see this often when a website has both the "desktop" version and a mobile or smaller screen version. At full (or near full) screen, the desktop elements are visible while the small screen elements are hidden. Once you resize the browser small enough, the desktop elements are hidden and the small screen elements become visible.
To get around this in a generic way, filter the returned two elements based on visibility, e.g.
return [e in self.browser.find_elements(by=By.XPATH, value="//input[#name='username']") if e.is_displayed()]
That should always return the visible element of the two.
The answer is within the snapshot:
The following xpath
//input[#name='username']
Identifies 2 different elements within the HTML DOM. Among the two matching elements, the first matching element is for mobile displays which remains hidden while you access the DOM Tree in Desktop mode. In the given snapshot of the Chropath the classname as modal-content-mobile is the best hint.
Solution
In these cases there are different approaches to identify the desired element. While some users tends to use an index and some users tends to probe the displayedness, from a personal perspective I find it quite easier and handy to traverse up the DOM to find the difference in attribute values in any of their ancestors and then finally follow down till the desired element.
It is possible you can have more than one same element on the page with same name attribute. One must be hidden.
If you want to access the first one use following xpath.
return self.browser.find_element(by=By.XPATH, value="(//input[#name='username'])[1]")
If you want to access last one use following
return self.browser.find_element(by=By.XPATH, value="(//input[#name='username'])[last()]")
It's quite often occurs that multiple elements will match the same locator.
For example, several code blocks may be implemented for login: one for a computer browser, another for a mobile browser, etc. The proper elements will be presented according to what you use to browse that page.
Selenium find_element always returns the first element found matching the passed locator on the page.
So, in case the first matching element is hidden return self.browser.find_element(by=By.XPATH, value="//input[#name='username']") will always retunt that hidden element.
You will need to make your locator more precise to match the desired web element.
A locator like "(//input[#name='username'])[2]" may be good, but it's better to use a unique parent element here, something like "//div[#class='pc_modal']//input[#name='username']", so your code would be something like this:
return self.browser.find_element(By.XPATH, "//div[#class='pc_modal']//input[#name='username']")
Well, in the strictest sense of way, no two elements have the same XPath expression. If you look at the absolute path, you will find the difference. The key is to find a path which is unique. In many case, you will find a web page where you find many textboxes/labels/dropdowns that have the same ids but are only differentiated by their absolute path.
Most of the times, such things depend on the framework used to develop the webpage and also developer's preference. An application developed in React will have a different DOM structure than one developed using Angular, for instance.
Yes, you are correct that it becomes difficult to find out which is the element of interest in such situations. In such cases, do not only depend on the particular element but add either a parent/sibling or ancestor to access the element. Although it might take some time and will jot be straightforward but it will be possible to find a unique XPath most of the times.
There are some test automation tools, like Ranorex, that have an object browser (objext spy as it is called) that can be used to pin on any web element and access its properties like hidden, visible. enabled, etc. But such tools are not free :(
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.
I am new to test automation and I need help of experts who can help me in proceeding with the current difficulties.
Currently there is a web browser application which is tested manually based on the test cases in an excel.
There is also an automation framework also which uses Selenium and uses WebDriver and runs on Google Chrome.
The test cases(in excel) used for manual are taken up and another set of test cases(in excel) are written which is nothing but the div elements and the action which the framework should do like click or find which the framework will understand.
1.First I need to manually find out each div id for all the elements and put it in excel which the framework understands.How can I avoid this?
2.Also a new version of the application has come in which all the div id for the elements differ.Hence its pain to note the div id again and put them in excel.
How can I write the test cases only once for each case even if the div changes?
Please help.
Follow a design pattern, e.g. Page Objects
If ids will be changed try to use css and xpath selectors that do not stick to ids. The main idea is to specify such selectors that allow tests to find elements on the page using knowledge by their parents, tag names, other attributes that won't change (class and so on).
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.
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.