How to make Nightwatch use xpath by default in page object files - xpath

Question

All my page objects look something like this:
elements: {
header: {
locateStrategy: 'xpath',
selector: "//h3[text()='Welcome']"
},
loginButton: {
locateStrategy: 'xpath',
selector: "//button[text()='Login']"
},
forgotPasswordLink: {
locateStrategy: 'xpath',
selector: "//a[text()='Forgot Password?']"
},
signupButton: {
locateStrategy: 'xpath',
selector: "//button[text()='Signup']"
}
It would be way better if I could just say "use xpath everywhere" - that would all collapse mightily
The docs say that you should be able to set "use_xpath" : true in your "test settings", but I have tried that in all the places I can see in nightwatch.json, and it doesn't have any effect.
(It's not completely clear if they mean that this setting will affect declarations in page object files, in any case: the example only shows it affecting subequent assert calls in the test case).

Answer 1

You can just use a javascript function like this (depending on your favourite way to create objects):
var xSelector = function (selector) {
return {
selector: selector,
locateStrategy: 'xpath'
}
};
And then use it like so:
elements: {
xxx: xSelector('//a[text()="Bank Details"]')
createStepButton: { selector: '#menu-create-item' },
}
Hint: In the sample above the createStepButton is still using the css selector strategy. Consider also creating a cssSelector function for uniform readability of the elements section.

Answer 2

Try to set:
"use_xpath": true
in nightwatch.conf.js file, not nightwatch.json
Worked for me :)

Answer 3

Perhaps it'll help someone.
Try to set:
"use_xpath": true
in your nightwatch.json

Answer 4

To get around this you can loop over your elements and set any given locate strategy for each element, like this:
var pageObject = {
url: 'https://google.com',
elements: {
myFirstElement: {
selector: "//div[#class='my-first-el']"
},
mySecondElement: {
selector: "//div[#class='my-seconds-el']"
}
}
};
for (var el in pageObject.elements){
pageObject.elements[el]["locateStrategy"] = "xpath";
}
module.exports = pageObject;