Locators

Locators

• Locators are defined as static variables

• The locator object is defined as the By object of web driver element, rather than the web element itself

• This is cause we want to restrict the usage of UI interaction through the helper functions only, allowing for greater control over the quality of the tests

Syntax

• Locator objects are of type EnhnacedBy

  • EnhancedBy contains the by value of the locator, with additional info

• To create a locator object

• public static EnhancedBy PASSWORD_FIELD = Element.byCss(String locator, String name);

• locator: the locator value base on the locator type. eg

• Element.byCss("#password", "password field")

Types

• The types of locators supported are

  • css: Element.byCss(String locator, String name)

  • id: Element.byId(String locator, String name)

  • name: Element.byName(String locator, String name)

  • xpath: Element.byXpath(String locator, String name)

  • class: Element.byClass(String locator, String name)

  • accessibility id: byAccessibility(String locator, String name)

Multiple Locators

• Additional locators can be added through chaining to the locator

• The case where it would be necessary to define multiple locators, is when dealing with hybrid apps where the final locator can vary for different builds

• Syntax:

• Element.byCss("[placeholder='John Doe2']", "username field")
         .byCss("[placeholder='John Doe']");

• The first locator item will be evaluated f

  • byCss("[placeholder='John Doe2']"

• Then, if not found, the second locator will be evaluated

  • .byCss("[placeholder='John Doe']")

Dynamic Locators

• Dynamic locators allow for the locator to be dynamically modified based on context

• eg.

• 	// dynamic element
  		public static EnhancedBy question(String question) {
  			return Element.byAccessibility(question, question + " field");
  		}

• In this example, the question can be dynamically set

• We don't need to defined a new locator for each question