I'm trying to select element on webapp by using Xpath expression. I've choosen page with maps.
Link for page: http://www.openstreetmap.org/.
I've thought I know Xpath, but nothing works here. For example, I need to search for any city. Xpath to search box is:
//input[#id='query']
It should work but not. Can somebody explain me why Xpaths are blocked on that page?
Just use the option By.ID to find the element, If you have an ID there's no need to use XPATH.
In the IDE just type "query" in the target field.
Related
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
I am trying to explore log In button xpath with this site https://www.componence.com/login, by just recording and play back.Then I tried to get it through firepath and chrome browser default xpath copier.
But it looks like every time submit button xpath get changed with page load. I got following xpath for "Sign IN" button.
.//*[#id='yui_patched_v3_11_0_1_1487250469606_202']
.//*[#id='yui_patched_v3_11_0_1_1487251369606_202']
.//*[#id='yui_patched_v3_11_0_1_1487250229606_202']
.//*[#id='yui_patched_v3_11_0_1_1487254369606_202']
Can you please help me to retrieve correct xpath of Sign IN button which I can use with selenium IDE?
You can use below XPath to handle dynamic id:
//button[starts-with(#id, "yui_patched_v3_11_0_1_")]
But better solution is to use text content of element:
//button[normalize-space(text())="Sign In"]
I will have to disagree with the second statement of #Andersson, since it will work for .com but not for .nl.
As I see the site has a second language and my opinion is to avoid using selectors based on text on a multi-language environment.
Also as I see the id seems does not have a meaningful value, in this case try to identify a unique parent section and go from there.
One option for css/xpath would be:
css: form.sign-in-form button
xpath: //form[contains(#class, 'sign-in-form')]//button
please help me.
Actually I want to find element locator in selenium using XPath since the id is auto-generate (the ID always changed when the page refresh). but the XPath always changed too. here is the XPath locator :
html/body/div[4]/div/div[1]/div/table[1]/tbody[2]/tr[1]/td/div/nobr
html/body/div[4]/div/div[1]/div/table[1]/tbody[2]/tr[1]/td/div/nobr
html/body/div[15]/div/div[1]/div/table[1]/tbody[2]/tr[1]/td/div/nobr
html/body/div[7]/div/div[1]/div/table[1]/tbody[2]/tr[1]/td/div/nobr
Actually I already try to use :
html/body/div[class='scrollingMenu']/div/div[1]/div/table[1]/tbody[2]/tr[1]/td/div/nobr
the div itself has unique classname scrollingMenu. but it is not working. it always give the error element not found.
You can use element's id in your XPath as follow:
Suppose id="constantPart-generatedPart12345", then XPath is
//*[contains(#id, "constantPart-")]
PS. If this not works, update your question with HTML for target element, so I can edit XPath appropriatelly
Open the page in Google Chrome and use F12 to test your xPath before implementing it - has saved me a lot of time
I am trying to learn Selenium and am trying to write the xpath locator for the "About Us" link on the web page - www.hdfc.com
I can do it with link as:
link=About Us
I have tried the following and it works fine:
xpath=//a[text()='About Us']
but I wanted to write the locator using xpath axes so that its flexible enough. Can someone please point me in the right direction?
In the case you have put forward the best selector you could use is ID, this is because IDs (much like classnames etc) are not dependent on the structure of the document at all but more about the content or purpose of the element. in this case you would want something like:
driver.findElements(By.Id("ic-aboutUs");
Another thing you should be aware of in general is that xpath expressions are considered a worse way to identify your elements than the use of CSS selectors, especially if you are testing in IE as the xpath implementation there is not native and is very slow. I suggest reading over http://saucelabs.com/resources/selenium/css-selectors for a brief look at some examples and also maybe have aread of http://saucelabs.com/resources/selenium/selenium-xpath-marks-the-spot in order to see some of the negatives of using xpath.
Use the below xpaths to detect 'About Us'link in your web page
Below xpath was written by refering the immediate parent node
//li[#class='expanded']/child::span[text()='About Us']
This xpath was written by using the parent node of Menu bar(parent of whole menu items)
//ul[#class='menu hdfc-investor']/child::li[contains(.,'About Us')]
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.