Understanding and locating Locators in Selenium IDE

What is meant by Locator in Selenium

Selenese commands are executed on the target element. The target element is defined in the web application based on the locators. For example, suppose there is an link in the page with id as homepage, the link element will be located and identified by ‘id=homepage’ and then we can execute click command on the link homepage identified by locator ‘id=username’.

What are different locator types in Selenium IDE

The various locator types in Selenium IDE are as follows: 

• Locating elements by ID – an element can be identified using the ‘id’ attribute defined for the object. Since it is assumed that id attribute is unique for an element in the page, hence element will be uniquely identified in the page using id attribute for target. E.g. ‘id=iamunique’.

• Locating elements by name – In case id attribute is not defined for the target element, we can identify the element using name attribute in the target. E.g. ‘name = sonamgupta’. In case of object is not identified uniquely by name locator, we can use multiple locators like ‘name = sonamgupta value = bewafahai’ to uniquely identify the element.

• Locating elements by link text – For link element, we can identify an element using link text in the target. e.g. ‘link =loginkaro’ will identify a link with text as loginkaro.
• Locating elements by XPath – We can also use XPath to identify an element in the page. XPath allows us to query the DOM structure of the page like a XML document. For e.g. //input will find first input box in the page and perform action on the same. Can use firepath/firebug to uniquely identify the element xpath
• Locating elements by css – Elements in the webpage can be identified using CSS selectors to find the objects that you need. Selenium is compatible with CSS 1.0, CSS 2.0, and CSS 3.0 selectors. Syntax for identifying an element using css is ‘css = CSS Selector’ for e.g. ‘css=input.kyabaathain’ where input is the tag name for element and kyabaathain is the classname. Both xpath and css are useful to identify elements with complex identifiers.

Tools to identify the attributes and locators for element in the webpage

We can identify element locators using different developer tools in different browsers. Below are some of the developer tools that help to identify objects in the page.

• Firebug: Firebug is a Firefox developer add-on used to identify elements on the page by using the find functionality.

• FirePath: It is a Firefox add-on used with firebug and helps in testing XPath and CSS on the page. Highlights all elements on the page that match the selector to your element location.

•  IE Developer Tools: IE developer tools helps in identifying element. This is inbuilt with IE browser and can be launched by pressing F12.

• Google Chrome Developer Tools: This is inbuilt in Google chrome and can be launched by Pressing F12.

scrollIntoView JavaScriptExecutor - How to Scroll until element is visible

We can scroll to an element using Action class or JavaScript executor, Below code can be useful in case you encounter such a scenario in selenium Webdriver:

A. Using JavaSript Executor - scrollIntoView

Provide parameter value as true or false for scrollIntoView
true - Provide value as true if the element is below in the page from the current scroll position
false - Provide value as true if the element is below in the page from the current scroll position

WebElement webElement = driver.findElement(By.xpath("element xpath"));
((JavascriptExecutor) driver).executeScript("arguments[0].scrollIntoView(true);", webElement);
Thread.sleep(500); 

B. Using Actions - MovetoElement method

WebElement webElement = driver.findElement(By.xpath("element xpath"));
Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
actions.moveToElement(webElement);
actions.perform();