TRIGGERBLOCK: Selenium : How to Create Xpath

Selenium : How to Create Xpath

https://www.w3.org/TR/xpath/#path-abbrev

Target URL: www.mouthshut.com

Target Web element: Signup button, Login Button

Tools used:

· FireBug : To formulate Xpath

· Selenium Ide : To Test the formulated Xpath

Things to remember:-

1. Target page should be open is FireFox

2. Selenium ide and Firebug should be open

3. The formulated Xpath will go into “Target” field of Selenium IDE.

4. All Xpath which go into IDE start with “xpath=//”

5. The page usually start with <body> , therefore the foremost parent will always be “//Body” while writing Full Path

6. Html Page may be like :

<body id=”aaaaa”>

<div id=”bbbbb”>

<div id=”cccc”>

<a id=”dddd” class=”1111”>

<ul id=”eeee” target=”2222” href=”5555”>

<div id=”ffff”>

Syntax in IDE:

Xpath=//branch/branch [ @property=’value’ or contains ( @property, “value”) ]

In the above example :

1. Branch or Node – body , div , a , ul ,img

Note : Each Node value will have many properties and many values .Therefore always start with a node value or "*" along with its relate property and value (Ex ://a[@target='_new'] or //*[@target='_new'] )

2. Property – id , class , target

3. Value – aaaa , bbbb , cccc , dddd , 1111 , 2222 , eeee , ffff ,5555

Syntax in Selenium (Eclipse Java):

( Note -"Syntax in Selenium IDE" is only used to create Xpath and the below syntax is the usage of Xpath created using IDE )

Syntax :

WebElement oObject_Name=Driver_Object.findElement(By.xpath("Created Xpath Goes here ,starting from '//'"));

Example :

oDriver=new FirefoxDriver();

oDriver.get("https://URL_Here");

WebElement oObject=oDriver.findElement(By.xpath("//branch/branch [ @property=’value’ or contains ( @property, “value”) ]"));

1. Using Full Path

xpath=//body/form/div[7]/div/div[2]/div/div[2]/ul/li/a

(The page usually start with <body> , therefore the foremost parent will always be “//Body” while writing Full Path )

Selenium Code :

oDriver=new FirefoxDriver();

oDriver.get("https://www.mouthshut.com");

oTitle=oDriver.findElement(By.xpath("//body/form/div[7]/div/div[2]/div/div[2]/ul/li/a"));

2. Using Last()

xpath=//body/form/div[7]/div/div[2]/div/div[last()]/ul/li/a

3. Using Full Path+ @ attribute

· xpath=//body/form/div[7]/div/div[2]/div/div[last()]/ul/li/a[@class='']

· xpath=//body/form/div[7]/div/div[2]/div/div[last()]/ul/li/a[@style='background-color: transparent;']

(For Login Button)

xpath=//body/form/div[7]/div/div[2]/div/div[last()]/ul/li[2]/a[@target='_new']

4. Using only @ attribute (For Login Button)

xpath=//a[@target='_new']

(Which is equivalent to

xpath=//body/form/div[7]/div/div[2]/div/div[last()]/ul/li[2]/a[@target='_new'] )

5. Using Descendants
xpath=//div[@class='new-menu']/descendant::div[@class='fr']

6. Using keywords

xpath=//a[contains(@href, "javascript:__doPostBack(")]

xpath=//a[contains(@id, "ctl00_ctl00_ctl00_ContentPlaceHolderHeader_ContentPlaceHolderFooter_litSignUp")]

7. And Operation

xpath=//a[contains(@id, "ctl00") and contains(@href,"javascript:_")]

8. using position()

xpath=//div[@class='tdltaln']/div[position()=2]/ul/li

9. Using starts-with keyword

xpath=//a[starts-with(@href, "https://graph.facebook.com")]

10. OR (|) condition

xpath=//a[@id='ctl00_ctl00_ctl00_ContentPlaceHolderHeader_ContentPlaceHolderFooter_litSignUpLink' or contains(@href,"javascript:__doPostBack")]

xpath=//a[contains(@id,"ctl00_ctl00_ctl00_") or contains(@href,"javascript:__doPostBack") ]

xpath=//a[contains(@href,"javascript:__doPostBack") or contains(@id,"ctl00_ctl00_ctl00_")]

11. Going 1 step back

Traversing from child to parent use "/.."

12. Going back multiple steps or reverse tracing ( ancestor:: )

Ex :If user "ancestor::div" , then all the ancestor elements are highlighted with "div" node

Back Trace to first occurrence of div element

//*[text()='Biological Sciences']/ancestor::div[1]

13. Going to specfic child element from parent node:( child:: )
Simialr to just "/ut[1]"

//*[text()='Biological Sciences']/ancestor::div[1]/child::ul[1]

14. Wild Card “*”

xpath=//*[@id="ctl00_ctl00_ctl00_ContentPlaceHolderHeader_ContentPlaceHolderFooter_litSignUpLink"]

15. Nth element

xpath=//ul[@class='login']/*[1]

16. No child

xpath=//img[count(*)=0]

17. Last Second or Last But one
xpath=//div[@class='dvaligncenter']/div[last()-1]//a

Examples for Xpath

xpath=xpathExpression: Locate an element using an XPath expression.

1. xpath=//img[@alt='The image alt text']
2. xpath=//table[@id='table1']//tr[4]/td[2]
3. xpath=//a[contains(@href,'#id1')]
4. xpath=//a[contains(@href,'#id1')]/@class
5. xpath=(//table[@class='stylee'])//th[text()='theHeaderText']/../td
6. xpath=//input[@name='name2' and @value='yes']
7. xpath=//*[text()="right"]
8. xpath=//*[@id='view']/*[not(@selected='selected')][1]
9. xpath=//*[text()='Biological Sciences']/ancestor::div[1]
10. xpath=.//*[local-name(.)='th' or local-name(.)='td']

Xpath summary

1.Path

Full

Full+attribute

Attribute

Wild Card(*)

Recent ancestor "/.. "

//a[6]

div[3][contains(@id,'dvheader')] -goto 3rd element and fetch if it has dvheader similar to AND

2.Functions

position

[Last()] //[Last[]-1]
[Position()= 42]
count

text

[starts-with(@,””)] -- Used For Dynamic Elements
[contains(@,””)] -- Used For Dynamic Elements
[text()=””] --text

3.Logical

And

not

Navigation

Descendants::div[1]

ancestor::div[1]

child::div[1]

Ref:

http://software-testing-tutorials-automation.blogspot.in/2013/06/xpath-tutorials-identifying-xpath-for.html

2 comments:

Priya KannanJune 22, 2017 at 10:37 AM
Great site for these post and i am seeing the most of contents have useful for my Carrier.Thanks to such a useful information.Any information are commands like to share him.
Selenium Training in Chennai
.July 21, 2018 at 4:35 PM
Thank you, You have spent good time I guess to write this kind of good articles, there is lnk for xpath, please do read it.relative XPATH in Selenium webdriver

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Selenium : How to Create Xpath

Selenium : How to Create Xpath

2 comments: