In this post, we will present a way to auto-generate robust and short XPaths for the two most common HTML elements automation interacts with – buttons and input elements. We have tested this against more than 50 commonly used websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Citibank, IRCTC, etc. Why this post? The foundation for robust GUI automated checks is writing good element […]
Auto-generate XPaths using Python
JavaScript evaluate() and XPaths
I recently used a neat solution that involved JavaScript evaluate() and XPaths as part of an automated GUI check. I am good with Python and writing XPaths for locators but not so good with JavaScript. I needed to locate an element in the DOM and then change a specific attribute. The solution was simple enough that I did not have […]
Common XPath mistakes
Ever wondered if your XPath is good enough? Did your XPath break for any minor changes made in the webpage? Did your XPath return a different element? If your answer to one of those questions is yes, then this is the right post for you. Why this post? While learning to write XPaths, I made a few mistakes that were […]
Getting started with XPaths
Assuming you already know what you want to automate and that you have a good reason to automate it, then GUI automation is largely about: a) identifying a web element you want to interact with b) performing an action on the identified element c) repeat steps a),b) until you have automated the workflow that you identified. To perform step a), […]
Ways to identify UI elements in mobile apps
Problem: Many testers do not know how to identify UI elements in mobile apps. In this post, I explain about different ways to find UI elements in Android’s calculator app. I also show you examples of using Appium’s API with the different locator strategies. Why this post? Identifying UI elements is a key component of writing UI automation. Most testers […]
Appium tutorial: Execute Python tests on mobile devices
This Appium tutorial will show you how to run automated tests on a real physical device. We estimate skimming through this post will take you 10 minutes. We estimate working through this post, step by step, will take you about 90 minutes. In this post we will cover getting setup with Appium, interfacing with real devices, writing and running Appium […]
Using Firebug 2.0 to craft XPaths
Firebug has been my favorite Firefox add-on for a long time now. In the time before every browser had decent developer tools, Firebug was a revolutionary add-on that allowed many testers, like myself, tools to interact, learn and explore what web applications were doing. I recently upgraded my Firebug to version 2.0. I was pleasantly surprised to find a cool […]
The art of writing xpaths
Problem: Writing XPaths is hard and confusing when there are no unique identifiers XPath (XML Path Language) is a query language for selecting nodes from Document Object Models (DOM) like XML, HTML, etc. XPaths are frequently used with Selenium scripts to uniquely identify elements in page. This post is a descriptive tutorial on how to think about xpaths and write […]