A guide to automating button clicks in tests with Selenium and Java

Question

A guide to automating button clicks in tests with Selenium and Java

I am currently automating a test using Selenium and I am attempting to click a button using xpath. Here is the snippet of my code:

WebElement LogInButton = driver.findElement(By.xpath("/login"));
LogInButton.click();

Unfortunately, when running this code, I encounter an error message that reads:

Exception in thread "main" org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"/login"}

The only information I have about the button is as follows:

<a href="/login">Login</a>

Along with the URL it redirects to. What could be the issue with my xpath reference? How should I correctly identify this button? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

java selenium xpath css-selectors linktext

Answer 1

Answer №1

If you want to trigger a click event on an element, there are several Locator Strategies you can utilize:

Using linkText:

driver.findElement(By.linkText("Login")).click();

Using cssSelector:

driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("a[href='/login']")).click();

Using xpath:

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@href='/login' and text()='Login']")).click();

Key recommendations

When invoking the click() method, it is advisable to employ WebDriverWait for elementToBeClickable() using one of the following Locator Strategies:

Using linkText:

new WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.linkText("Login"))).click();

Using cssSelector:

new WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.cssSelector("a[href='/login']"))).click();

Using xpath:

new WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath("//a[@href='/login' and text()='Login']"))).click();

Key recommendations

When invoking the click() method, it is advisable to employ WebDriverWait for elementToBeClickable() using one of the following Locator Strategies:

Using linkText:

new WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.linkText("Login"))).click();

Using cssSelector:

new WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.cssSelector("a[href='/login']"))).click();

Using xpath:

new WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath("//a[@href='/login' and text()='Login']"))).click();

A guide to automating button clicks in tests with Selenium and Java

Answer №1

Key recommendations

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