selenium-webdriver Locating Web Elements Locating page elements using WebDriver

Example

To interact with WebElements in a webpage, first we need to identify the location of the element.

By is the keyword available in selenium.

You can locate the elements By..

1. By ID
2. By Class Name
3. By TagName
4. By Name
5. By Link Text
6. By Partial Link Text
7. By CSS Selector
8. By XPath
9. Using JavaScript

Consider the below script example

<form name="loginForm">
Login Username: <input id="username" name="login" type="text" />
Password: <input id="password" name="password" type="password" />
<input name="login" type="submit" value="Login" />

In the above code the username and password are set using id's. Now you are going to identify the elements with id.

driver.findElement(By.id(username));

driver.findElement(By.id(password));

As selenium support 7 different languages, this document gives you an idea to locate the elements in all the languages.

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By ID

Example of how to find an element using ID:

<div id="coolestWidgetEvah">...</div>

Java       -  WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id("coolestWidgetEvah"));
C#         -  IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(By.Id("coolestWidgetEvah"));
Python     -  element = driver.find_element_by_id("coolestWidgetEvah")
Ruby       -  element = driver.find_element(:id, "coolestWidgetEvah")
JavaScript/Protractor -  var elm = element(by.id("coolestWidgetEvah"));

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By Class Name

Example of how to find an element using class name:

<div class="cheese"><span>Cheddar</span></div>

Java       -  WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.className("cheese"));
C#         -  IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(By.ClassName("cheese"));
Python     -  element = driver.find_element_by_class_name("cheese")
Ruby       -  cheeses = driver.find_elements(:class, "cheese")
JavaScript/Protractor -  var elm = element(by.className("cheese"));

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By Tag Name

Example of how to find an element using tag name:

<iframe src="..."></iframe>

Java       -  WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.tagName("iframe"));
C#         -  IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(By.TagName("iframe"));
Python     -  element = driver.find_element_by_tag_name("iframe")
Ruby       -  frame = driver.find_element(:tag_name, "iframe")
JavaScript/Protractor -  var elm = element(by.tagName("iframe"));

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By Name

Example of how to find an element using name:

<input name="cheese" type="text"/>

Java       -  WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.name("cheese"));
C#         -  IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(By.Name("cheese"));
Python     -  element = driver.find_element_by_name("cheese")
Ruby       -  cheese = driver.find_element(:name, "cheese")
JavaScript/Protractor -  var elm = element(by.name("cheese"));

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By Link Text

Example of how to find an element using link text:

<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=cheese">cheese</a>>

Java       -  WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.linkText("cheese"));
C#         -  IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(By.LinkText("cheese"));
Python     -  element = driver.find_element_by_link_text("cheese")
Ruby       -  cheese = driver.find_element(:link, "cheese")
JavaScript/Protractor -  var elm = element(by.linkText("cheese"));

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By Partial Link Text

Example of how to find an element using partial link text:

<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=cheese">search for cheese</a>>

Java       -  WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.partialLinkText("cheese"));
C#         -  IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(By.PartialLinkText("cheese"));
Python     -  element = driver.find_element_by_partial_link_text("cheese")
Ruby       -  cheese = driver.find_element(:partial_link_text, "cheese")
JavaScript/Protractor -  var elm = element(by.partialLinkText("cheese"));

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By CSS Selectors

Example of how to find an element using CSS Selectors:

<div id="food" class="dairy">milk</span>

Java       -  WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("#food.dairy")); //# is used to indicate id and . is used for classname.
C#         -  IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(By.CssSelector("#food.dairy"));
Python     -  element = driver.find_element_by_css_selector("#food.dairy")
Ruby       -  cheese = driver.find_element(:css, "#food span.dairy.aged")
JavaScript/Protractor -  var elm = element(by.css("#food.dairy"));

Here's an article about creating CSS Selectors: http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css_selectors.asp

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By XPath

Example of how to find an element using XPath:

<input type="text" name="example" />

Java       -  WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input"));
C#         -  IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//input"));
Python     -  element = driver.find_element_by_xpath("//input")
Ruby       -  inputs = driver.find_elements(:xpath, "//input")
JavaScript/Protractor -  var elm = element(by.xpath("//input"));

Here's an article about XPath: http://www.w3schools.com/xsl/xpath_intro.asp

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Using JavaScript

You can execute arbitrary javascript to find an element and as long as you return a DOM Element, it will be automatically converted to a WebElement object.

Simple example on a page that has jQuery loaded:

Java       -  WebElement element = (WebElement) 
((JavascriptExecutor)driver).executeScript("return $('.cheese')[0]");

C#         -  IWebElement element = (IWebElement)
((IJavaScriptExecutor)driver).ExecuteScript("return $('.cheese')[0]");

Python     -  element = driver.execute_script("return $('.cheese')[0]");
Ruby       -  element = driver.execute_script("return $('.cheese')[0]")
JavaScript/Protractor -

Please note: This method will not work if your particular WebDriver doesn't support JavaScript, such as SimpleBrowser.