today I stumbled upon a very interesting case (at least for me). I am messing around with Selenium and xPath and tried to get some elements, but got a strange behaviour:
<div class="resultcontainer">
<div class="info">
<div class="title">
<a>
some text
</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="resultcontainer">
<div class="info">
<div class="title">
<a>
some other text
</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="resultcontainer">
<div class="info">
<div class="title">
<a>
some even unrelated text
</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
This is my data.
When i run the following xPath query:
//div[#class="title"][1]/a
I get as a result ALL instead of only the first one. But if I query:
//div[#class="resultcontainer"][1]/div[#class="info"]/div[#class="title"]/a
I get only the first , not all.
Is there some divine reason behind that?
Best regards,
bisko
I think you want
(//div[#class="title"])[1]/a
This:
//div[#class="title"][1]/a
selects all (<a> elements that are children of) <div> elements that have a #class of 'title', that are the first children of their parents (in this context). Which means: it selects all of them.
The working XPath selects all <div> elements that have a #class of 'title' - and of those it takes the first one.
The predicates (the expressions in square brackets []) are applied to each element that matched the preceding location step (i.e. "//div") individually. To apply a predicate to a filtered set of nodes, you need to make the grouping clear with parentheses.
Consequently, this:
//div[1][#class="title"]/a
would select all <div> elements, take the first one, and then filter it down futher by checking the #class value. Also not what you want. ;-)
Related
<div class="bli-category">
<div class="row ng-scope" ng-repeat="placementtrack by $index">
<div class="col-sm-12">
<div class="col-sm-1 bli-category-checkbox">
<input class="bli-check-box ng-valid" type="checkbox" ng-click="addPlacement" ng-checked="checkedPlacementIndex" ng-model="selectedPlacement">
</div>
<div class="col-sm-8 bli-category-content">
<div class="ng-binding" ng-bind="placement.placementName">page_details</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
I need to select the checkbox in class='bli-check-box ng-valid' for the text in class='ng-binding'
When I try to get the xpath like
//input[#class='bli-check-box ng-valid']
it selects all the 4-5 checkboxes
To select the checkbox in class='bli-check-box ng-valid' with respect to the text in class='ng-binding' i.e. page_details you can use the following xpath :
//div[#class='bli-category']//div[#class='ng-binding' and contains(.,'page_details')]//preceding::input[#class='bli-check-box ng-valid']
Note : As the element is an Angular element you have to induce wait for the element to be clickable before attempting to click.
//div[text='page_detials' and class='ng-binding']/../preceding-sibling::div//input[class='bli-check-box ng-valid']
The above xpath starts with finding the node which has the custom text that you know. It then traverses to its parent and then its previous sibling which in your case houses your required input node. So after traversing to the div you select its child which is your required input node.
I have noticed that using xpath axes methods sometimes return wrong nodes. I have two examples:
url: "http://demo.guru99.com/v1/"
<tr>
<td align="center">
<img src="../images/1.gif">
<img src="../images/3.gif">
<img src="../images/2.gif">
</td>
</tr>
I can select three img elements by axes methods "//td//child::img". However when I use "//td//following-sibling::img", it can still return the second and third img elements. As far as I know, child and sibling are two different thing, so why this happens?
url: http://demo.guru99.com/selenium/guru99home/
<div class="rt-grid-12 rt-alpha rt-omega" id="rt-feature">
<div class="rt-grid-6 ">
<div class="rt-block">
<h3>
Desktop, mobile, and tablet access</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
Free android App</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Download any tutorial for free</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Watch video tutorials from anywhere </p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
<img alt="" src="images/app_google_play(1).png"></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="rt-grid-5 ">
<div class="rt-block">
<img src="images/logo_respnsivsite.png"><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Here, if I use "//div[#id='rt-feature' and (#class='rt-grid-12 rt-alpha rt-omega')]//following-sibling::div", those div elements which should be child elements are still be counted as siblings
Use "//div[#id='rt-feature' and (#class='rt-grid-12 rt-alpha rt-omega')]//parent::div", the self element and its child div elements are all counted as parent.
This cause me a lot of confusion, please help me.
Suggesting that the XPath parser returns the wrong nodes, rather than that you don't understand why it is returning what it does, is starting from the wrong mindset. Unless you know the XPath parser is unreliable, start with the assumption that it is right and your expectations are wrong. Then go to the spec and study the semantics of the expression you have written.
You will find that
//td//following-sibling::img
is an abbreviation for
/descendant-or-self::node()/td/descendant-or-self::node()/following-sibling::img
so you have asked for all the following siblings of all the descendants of all the td nodes, which is exactly what you are getting.
I've come across people who habitually write "//" in place of "/" as a sort of magic fairy dust without having the faintest idea what it means. Don't do it: read the spec.
Given the following html, how to get a list of tuple (TIME, COMMENT, OOXX) by XPath? I think I need to make use of XPath Axes but not sure how to use that. Furthermore, the OOXX seems not to belong to any tags!
<div class="contents">
<p></p>
<div class="meta">TIME</div>OOXX
<div class="comment">COMMENT</div>
<p></p>
<div class="meta">TIME</div>OOXX
<div class="comment">COMMENT</div>
<p></p>
<div class="meta">TIME</div>OOXX
<div class="comment">COMMENT</div>
<p></p>
<div class="meta">TIME</div>OOXX
<div class="comment">COMMENT</div>
<p></p>
</div>
How you'll want to deal with multiple such tuples in the input XML will depend on your requirements and the facilities of the context of the XPath evaluation.
However, here's how to get the first TIME:
/div/div[#class="meta"][1]/text()
Here's how to get the first COMMENT:
/div/div[#class="comment"][1]/text()
And here's how to get the first OOXX:
/div/div[#class="meta"][1]/following-sibling::text()[1]
I am trying to get the error message off of a page from a site. The list contains several possible errors so i can't check by id; but I do know that the one with display:list-item is the one I want. This is my rule but doesn't seem to work, what is wrong with it? What I want returned is the error text in the element.
//*[#id='errors']/ul/li[contains(#style,'display:list-item')]
Example dom elements:
<div id="errors" class="some class" style="display: block;">
<div class="some other class"></div>
<div class="some other class 2">
<span class="displayError">Please correct the errors listed in red below:</span>
<ul>
<li style="display:none;" id="invalidId">Enter a valid id</li>
<li style="display:list-item;" id="genericError">Something bad happened</li>
<li style="display:none;" id="somethingBlah" ............ </li>
....
</ul>
</div>
The correct XPath should be:
//*[#id='errors']//ul/li[contains(#style,'display:list-item')]
After //*[#id='errors'] you need an extra /, because <ul> is not directly beneath it. Using // again scans all underlying elements for <ul>.
If you are capable to not use // it would be better and faster and less consuming.
Given following markup
<div>
<a>Username1</a>
</div>
<div>
<button>Unblock</button>
</div>
<div>
<a>Username2</a>
</div>
<div>
<button>Unblock</button>
</div>
<div>
<a>Username3</a>
</div>
<div>
<button>Unblock</button>
</div>
How do I select button element which is a cousin of a element with text Username2?
I can select the a element with //a[contains(., 'Username2')], so I thought that //a[contains(., 'Username2')]/following-sibling::/div/button would select the correct button, but that does not work. I think that it's not even valid XPATH.
You were close:
//a[contains(., 'Username2')]/../following-sibling::div[1]/button
To navigate to the cousin you first have to go to the parent (..) and then to its sibling.
Note that the following-sibling:: axis selects all following siblings, not only the first one. This means you must use [1] if you just want the first.
This would also work:
//a[. = 'Username2']/../following-sibling::div[1]/button
So would this:
//div[a = 'Username2']/following-sibling::div[1]/button