Object Identification in Selenium Using XPath

Object identification in Selenium test automation is important. Here, we cover why — and how to do it. 

Why Object Identification in Selenium Is Important

Object identification in Selenium is important. 

It helps you handle a dynamic list of object id changes, based on the number of rows. It also provides better validation options for the list of objects in one screen. It helps you find elements where the relative XPath is different across devices. And, finally, it helps you get dynamic data from the screen. 

Now that you know why object identification is important, let's cover how to do it. 

How-To: Object Identification in Selenium

Here's how to identify objects in Selenium. Your first step is to get an object list. In Selenium, you can get list of objects with specific property. Then you can manipulate it in the code.

Let's use the following as our working example:

I would like to get the cars category list and number of car in each category.

1. Find the Common Property

In this example, all the items has the same class property : ui-link-inherit. 

2. Use findElements Command

In the code, use findElements command with XPath “contains” option with the specific property.

List<WebElement> objList  = webDriver.findElements(By.xpath("(//div[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes" overflow="visible"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"][@id=\"Content-\"])/ul/li/following::*[contains(@class,\"ui-link-inherit\")]"));

3. Loop Over the WebElement List

Loop over the WebElement list to work with the objects.

4. Set an Anchor to the List

In this example I need to set an anchor to the list as part of my XPath because the page contains other object with the same class property which I want to exclude.

Part 1: The first part is setting the anchor for the elements I looking for:

//div[@id=\"Content-\"])/ul/li/following::

Part 2: the second part is getting all the objects with the calss ui-link-inherit

*[contains(@class,\"ui-link-inherit\")

There's a code example in GitHub.

Throughout this blog, I've used XPath as an example. There are options for Selenium locators, too, besides XPath. Here's a quick list of locators that can help you identify elements.:

1. ID
2. ClassName
3. Name
4. Link Text
5. Partial Link Text
6. TagName
7. CSS Selector

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