Is there any reason why both WebElements and locators shouldn't be used in one Selenium test project

user_8864739 0
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In my Selenium tests, I sometimes need to use locators (eg. driver.findElement(locator)) and sometimes I need to use webElements (eg. List). I wonder if there is any reason, that using these to in one project is not correct and I should stick to one type and declare only locators or only webElements in every pageObject.

Thanks for your help!

automated-tests selenium java
2 Answers

If I am correctly understanding what you are asking, I've found that while it is generally possible and most convenient to declare all or most of what you need for testing as webElements on a pageObject, it is sometimes necessary to dynamically use locators directly in the tests to identify certain elements. I'm guessing that's what you've run in to when you say you "sometimes need to use locators".

In general, I'd say it is generally easier to read something like

myCheckBox.click();

rather than

driver.findElement(possiblyCrypticLocator);

and obviously it would be convenient to define webElements whenever you need to reuse them.

However I don't see an inherent reason to avoid "mixing" locators and webElements if you need to use the locators dynamically. Others might disagree.

user_81630710

If I have understood you Question properly, your Question is regarding the Locators and finding element(s)

Locators :

Locators are used to search for elements in the Current Browsing Context. As per the current W3C WebDriver Specs the following table of location strategies lists the keywords and states defined for this attribute:

enter image description here

Locator Examples:

We are free to use any of the following locators to find/search/identify element(s):

  • CSS

    driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("my_cssSelector"));

  • Link Text

    driver.findElement(By.linkText("my_linkText"));

  • Partial Link Text

    driver.findElement(By.partialLinkText("my_partialLinkText"));

  • Tag Name

    driver.findElement(By.tagName("My_iframe"));

  • Xpath

    driver.findElement(By.xpath("my_xpath"));

Finding WebElement(s):

WebElement is an interface which represents an HTML element. Generally, all the user operations to interact with a page will be performed through this interface. findElement() and findElements() are two among the several implemented methods. These methods call will do a check to ensure that the element reference is still valid as per the current state of the DOM Tree. This essentially determines whether the intended element is still attached to the HTML DOM or not.

  • findElement()

    findElement(By by) //Find the first WebElement using the given method.

  • findElements()

    findElements(By by) //Find all elements within the current context using the given mechanism.

The major difference between the two is, findElement() returns the WebElement where as findElements() returns a List<WebElement>. But we can use any of the above two methods anywhere in our Project as per necessity and requirement.

user_74294470
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