Selenium: Get unique value? - selenium

Question

Just using selenium to fill out some forms for me. I need it to generate a unique value for my username field. How can I do that?
I've got
Command: type
Target: id_of_my_field
Value: username+unique_value ???

Answer 1

You can use javascript to do that:
Value: javascript{'username'+Math.floor(Math.random()*100000)}
This will append a 6 digit random number to your username.
See this SO question and answers for more details and other ways to do this...

Answer 2

My solution which works well for me:
Save the following TEXT as a .js file and add to the Options->Options "Selenium Core Extensions" list...
Selenium.prototype.doTypeRandomName = function(locator)
{
/**
* Sets the value of an input field to a random "name"
* as though you typed it in.
*/
// All locator-strategies are automatically handled by "findElement"
var element = this.page().findElement(locator);
/* The following block generates a random name 8 characters in length */
var allowedChars = "abcdefghiklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
var stringLength = 8;
var randomstring = '';
for (var i=0; i<stringLength; i++) {
var rnum = Math.floor(Math.random() * allowedChars.length);
randomstring += allowedChars.substring(rnum,rnum+1);
}
// Replace the element text with the new text
this.browserbot.replaceText(element, randomstring);
}
Once done, you can simply select the TypeRandomName command in Selenium for each text box where you want a random "name" to be generated.

Answer 3

Steps for a globally reusable solution is as follows
1) Download sideflow.js from Download here
2) Add following lines into it :
Selenium.prototype.doTypeRandomName = function(locator) {
/**
* Sets the value of an input field to a random email id,
* as though you typed it in.
*
* #param locator an element locator
*/
// All locator-strategies are automatically handled by "findElement"
var element = this.page().findElement(locator);
/* The following block generates a random email string */
var allowedChars = "abcdefghiklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890";
var stringLength = 8;
var randomstring = '';
for (var i=0; i<stringLength; i++) {
var rnum = Math.floor(Math.random() * allowedChars.length);
randomstring += allowedChars.substring(rnum,rnum+1);
}
// Replace the element text with the new text
this.browserbot.replaceText(element, randomstring);
};
3) Save the file
4) Go to Selenium ide -> options -> options ->Selenium Core extensions -> give reference of your file there.
5) Now your randomname function will appear in auto-intellisense and will be as "typerandomname" command category.
6) Sample usage could be (if base url is google.com)
<tr>
<td>open</td>
<td>/</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>typerandomname</td>
<td>css=input[class='gbqfif']</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
Hope this helps you

Answer 4

Here is a way to generate unique numbers without using JavaScript in your code: (i used Java)
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("ddHHmmss"); /* Here you create object of the class DateFormat, and SPECIFY THE FORMAT (ddHHmmss). (Don`enter code here`t forget to import class Date(ctrl+shift+o if you are using Eclipse)) */
Date date = new Date(); /* Here you create object of the class Date. (Dont forget to import class Date. (Dont forget to import class Date(ctrl+shift+o if you are using Eclipse)) */
String random_number = dateFormat.format(date); /* Assign your current Date(something like 19184123) (ddHHmmSS) to a local variable(it require a String) */
yourWebDriver().findElemnt(By.cssSelector("input#someId")).sendKeys("test"+random_number+"#tester.com"); /* send keys to your input injecting random number */
Such method will give truly unique number that will never repeat itself, because it use your current time...
You can add even further randomness if include mile seconds into DateFormat