Tips on locating distinctive identifiers for elements on pages within ExtJS when working with Selenium?

Question

Tips on locating distinctive identifiers for elements on pages within ExtJS when working with Selenium?

Utilizing Selenium along with Firefox Webdriver to interact with elements on a webpage that features distinct CSS IDs, which change every time the page loads, is proving to be challenging. The reason for this inconsistency is due to the fact that the webpage is an ExtJS web application.

Attempting to utilize Firebug to gather element information has been my current approach.

My objective is to identify a unique xPath or selector in order to individually select each element using Selenium.

Despite copying the xPath from Firebug and receiving a value such as:

//*[@id="ext-gen1302"]

The subsequent page load displays a different ID format like:

//*[@id="ext-gen1595"]

In this case, all elements on the page follow this particular ID structure, rendering the CSS ID unusable for locating the element.

I am aiming to retrieve the xPath based on its position in the DOM; however, Firebug exclusively provides the ID xPath since it's unique to that specific instance of the page.

/html/body/div[4]/div[3]/div[4]/div/div/div/span[2]/span

Is there a way to instruct Firebug (or another tool that works swiftly) to generate a distinctive selector that remains effective even when the ext-gen ID undergoes changes?

extjs xpath selenium webdriver selenium-webdriver

Answer 1

Answer №1

When it comes to ExtJS UI automation testing, there are a few key tips that can help you navigate the process more effectively. While these tips may not directly address your specific question in the title, they are valuable insights for anyone working with ExtJS.

Tip 1: Avoid using complex and unreadable XPaths like

/div[4]/div[3]/div[4]/div/div/div/span[2]/span

. These can easily break if there are any changes to the DOM structure, leading to costly maintenance down the road.

Tip 2: Make use of auto-generated partial ids and class names that have meaning within the context of your ExtJS elements. For instance, utilizing identifiers like

By.cssSelector(".x-grid-view .x-grid-table")

can simplify locating specific components within your application.

Tip 3: Incorporate meaningful class names into your ExtJS source code by leveraging features like cls and tdCls. This allows for easier identification of elements during automation tests, such as using cls:'testing-btn-cancel' and selecting it with

By.cssSelector(".testing-btn-cancel")

.

Tip 3: Finally, if you lack direct access to the ExtJS source code, it may be beneficial to communicate with your manager about involving a developer in the automation process. Selenium UI automation is ideally suited for individuals who have the ability to make modifications to the source code rather than relying solely on testers without coding knowledge.

Answer 2

When it comes to ExtJS UI automation testing, there are a few key tips that can help you navigate the process more effectively. While these tips may not directly address your specific question in the title, they are valuable insights for anyone working with ExtJS.

Tip 1: Avoid using complex and unreadable XPaths like

/div[4]/div[3]/div[4]/div/div/div/span[2]/span

. These can easily break if there are any changes to the DOM structure, leading to costly maintenance down the road.

Tip 2: Make use of auto-generated partial ids and class names that have meaning within the context of your ExtJS elements. For instance, utilizing identifiers like

By.cssSelector(".x-grid-view .x-grid-table")

can simplify locating specific components within your application.

Tip 3: Incorporate meaningful class names into your ExtJS source code by leveraging features like cls and tdCls. This allows for easier identification of elements during automation tests, such as using cls:'testing-btn-cancel' and selecting it with

By.cssSelector(".testing-btn-cancel")

.

Tip 3: Finally, if you lack direct access to the ExtJS source code, it may be beneficial to communicate with your manager about involving a developer in the automation process. Selenium UI automation is ideally suited for individuals who have the ability to make modifications to the source code rather than relying solely on testers without coding knowledge.

Answer 3

Answer №2

To tackle this situation, my suggestion would be to utilize CSS by employing the following code snippet:

By.cssSelector("span[id^='ext-gen'])

The essence of the above instruction is to "choose a span element with an id that commences with ext-gen". (If further clarification is necessary, feel free to respond, and I'll endeavor to assist you).

Alternatively, if XPath is preferred, refer to this solution: Xpath for selecting html id including random number

Answer 4

To tackle this situation, my suggestion would be to utilize CSS by employing the following code snippet:

By.cssSelector("span[id^='ext-gen'])

The essence of the above instruction is to "choose a span element with an id that commences with ext-gen". (If further clarification is necessary, feel free to respond, and I'll endeavor to assist you).

Alternatively, if XPath is preferred, refer to this solution: Xpath for selecting html id including random number

Answer 5

Answer №3

In some scenarios where it may not be preferred, the option to navigate through elements and create xpath ids is available.

import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;

public class XPATHDriverWrapper {
Map xpathIDToWebElementMap = new LinkedHashMap();
Map webElementToXPATHIDMap = new LinkedHashMap();
public XPATHDriverWrapper(WebDriver driver){
    WebElement htmlElement = driver.findElement(By.xpath("/html"));
    iterateThroughChildren(htmlElement, "/html");
}

private void iterateThroughChildren(WebElement parentElement, String parentXPATH) {
    Map siblingCountMap = new LinkedHashMap();

    List childrenElements = parentElement.findElements(By.xpath(parentXPATH+"/*"));
    for(int i=0;i<childrenElements.size(); i++) {
        WebElement childElement = childrenElements.get(i);
        String childTag = childElement.getTagName();
        String childXPATH = constructXPATH(parentXPATH, siblingCountMap, childTag);
        xpathIDToWebElementMap.put(childXPATH, childElement);
        webElementToXPATHIDMap.put(childElement, childXPATH);
        iterateThroughChildren(childElement, childXPATH);
//          System.out.println("childXPATH:"+childXPATH);
    }
}

public WebElement findWebElementFromXPATHID(String xpathID) {
    return xpathIDToWebElementMap.get(xpathID);
}

public String findXPATHIDFromWebElement(WebElement webElement) {
    return webElementToXPATHIDMap.get(webElement);
}

private String constructXPATH(String parentXPATH,
        Map siblingCountMap, String childTag) {
    Integer count = siblingCountMap.get(childTag);
    if(count == null) {
        count = 1;
    } else {
        count = count + 1;
    }
    siblingCountMap.put(childTag, count);
    String childXPATH = parentXPATH + "/" + childTag + "[" + count + "]";
    return childXPATH;
}
}

A different approach to creating ids from Document can be found at:

Answer 6

In some scenarios where it may not be preferred, the option to navigate through elements and create xpath ids is available.

import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;

public class XPATHDriverWrapper {
Map xpathIDToWebElementMap = new LinkedHashMap();
Map webElementToXPATHIDMap = new LinkedHashMap();
public XPATHDriverWrapper(WebDriver driver){
    WebElement htmlElement = driver.findElement(By.xpath("/html"));
    iterateThroughChildren(htmlElement, "/html");
}

private void iterateThroughChildren(WebElement parentElement, String parentXPATH) {
    Map siblingCountMap = new LinkedHashMap();

    List childrenElements = parentElement.findElements(By.xpath(parentXPATH+"/*"));
    for(int i=0;i<childrenElements.size(); i++) {
        WebElement childElement = childrenElements.get(i);
        String childTag = childElement.getTagName();
        String childXPATH = constructXPATH(parentXPATH, siblingCountMap, childTag);
        xpathIDToWebElementMap.put(childXPATH, childElement);
        webElementToXPATHIDMap.put(childElement, childXPATH);
        iterateThroughChildren(childElement, childXPATH);
//          System.out.println("childXPATH:"+childXPATH);
    }
}

public WebElement findWebElementFromXPATHID(String xpathID) {
    return xpathIDToWebElementMap.get(xpathID);
}

public String findXPATHIDFromWebElement(WebElement webElement) {
    return webElementToXPATHIDMap.get(webElement);
}

private String constructXPATH(String parentXPATH,
        Map siblingCountMap, String childTag) {
    Integer count = siblingCountMap.get(childTag);
    if(count == null) {
        count = 1;
    } else {
        count = count + 1;
    }
    siblingCountMap.put(childTag, count);
    String childXPATH = parentXPATH + "/" + childTag + "[" + count + "]";
    return childXPATH;
}
}

A different approach to creating ids from Document can be found at:

Tips on locating distinctive identifiers for elements on pages within ExtJS when working with Selenium?

Answer №1

Answer №2

Answer №3

Similar questions

Inspecting contents of browser using Python for web scraping

Harvest data from a website with interactive mouseover features

Python Selenium - Having trouble navigating between pages

Python Selenium consistently returns empty text values

Finding the initial channel points icon on twitch.tv/esl_csgo through Selenium and Python

Python Selenium - failing to insert dynamically generated data into the DOM

Utilizing Selenium to extract information from a data table

Selenium in Python producing unpredictable outcomes when retrieving data

The entered password string in selenium python does not match

Is there a way to parse this source text using selenium in Python?

Using Python to interact with Selenium to click buttons that share the same name and ID

Python and Selenium - Dealing with Authentication Pop-Up without the use of URL username and password parameters

Python script that iterates through multiple pages to gather a list of elements

"Which combination should I use: Headless mode on Ubuntu with Chrome and Selenium

Selenium in Python: A Guide to Clicking on Web Elements

Exciting Captcha challenges by Arkose Labs

Click on a previously saved Selenium element once the page has been reloaded

Heroku-exclusive Development Environment Encountering Problem with Chrome Version 81

Having trouble finding a webpage element (button) with the ID 'next' using Python and Selenium

Scraping social media followers using web scraping, however, the list is massive with hundreds of thousands. Selenium crashes due to memory overload