How To Locate Element By XPATH In Selenium 2/WebDriver With Example

We have learnt most of all the way of locating element in webdriver software testing tool like Locating Element By ID, Locating Element By Name, Locating Element By Class Name, Locating Element By Tag Name, Locating Element By Link Text Or Partial Link and Locating Element By CSS Selector. One another method of locating element in selenium webdriver software testing tool is By XPATH of element. It is most popular and best way to locate element in WebDriver software testing tool . However you can use other ways too to locate element from page of software web application.

You can write Xpath of any element by many different ways as described in This Post.

Above given Image shows the firebug view of First name text box. You can view THIS POST to know how to install firebug and firepath. Now let me give you few examples of how to write syntax to locate it in webdriver software testing tool using xPath in 2 different ways.

1. driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[@name='fname']"));

2. driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[contains(@name,'fname')]"));

I have used xPath to locate element in above both the syntax. We can use anyone from above to locate that specific element. Let we use it in practical example as bellow.

Copy bellow given @Test method part and replace it with the @Test method part of example given on this page.

(Note : @Test method is marked with pink color in that example).

@Test
 public void test() 
  {
   driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(15, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
   driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[@name='fname']")).sendKeys("My Name");//Locate element by cssSelector and then type the text in it.
  }

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