Xpath

Note:
- xpath("") --- location paths should be in double quotes
- xpath("//node[@attribute='xcvv']") --- every attribute declaration should be inside [] and value of attribute should be in single quote.

Regular Expression in Xpath??

• We can join two conditions using and

          xpath = //<tag name>[@<attribute name>='<value>'  and @value='1']

• Use Higlight, adjacent to Xpath section in inspect by Firepath window, when you click Highlight it will show the web element that xpath is refering too. That way you can validate the xpath, whether its pointing out to the proper web element. Dont forget to enter xpath in the field.
• Regular Expression in xpath:

           xpath = //<tag name>[starts-with(@<attribute name>,'<value>')]

           Following could be used:
           ends-with
           contains


12/21/2015

Source: http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath/

Here are some examples of location paths using abbreviated syntax:

• para selects the para element children of the context node
• * selects all element children of the context node
• text() selects all text node children of the context node
• @name selects the name attribute of the context node
• @* selects all the attributes of the context node
• para[1] selects the first para child of the context node
• para[last()] selects the last para child of the context node
• */para selects all para grandchildren of the context node
• /doc/chapter[5]/section[2] selects the second section of the fifth chapter of the doc
• chapter//para selects the para element descendants of the chapter element children of the context node
• //para selects all the para descendants of the document root and thus selects all para elements in the same document as the context node
• //olist/item selects all the item elements in the same document as the context node that have an olist parent
• . selects the context node
• .//para selects the para element descendants of the context node
• .. selects the parent of the context node
• ../@lang selects the lang attribute of the parent of the context node
• para[@type="warning"] selects all para children of the context node that have a type attribute with value warning
• para[@type="warning"][5] selects the fifth para child of the context node that has a type attribute with value warning
• para[5][@type="warning"] selects the fifth para child of the context node if that child has a type attribute with value warning
• chapter[title="Introduction"] selects the chapter children of the context node that have one or more title children with string-value equal to Introduction
• chapter[title] selects the chapter children of the context node that have one or more title children
• employee[@secretary and @assistant] selects all the employee children of the context node that have both a secretary attribute and an assistant attribute

The most important abbreviation is that child:: can be omitted from a location step. In effect, child is the default axis. For example, a location path div/para is short for child::div/child::para.

There is also an abbreviation for attributes: attribute:: can be abbreviated to @. For example, a location path para[@type="warning"] is short for child::para[attribute::type="warning"] and so selects para children with a type attribute with value equal towarning.

// is short for /descendant-or-self::node()/. For example, //para is short for /descendant-or-self::node()/child::para and so will select any para element in the document (even a para element that is a document element will be selected by //para since the document element node is a child of the root node); div//para is short for div/descendant-or-self::node()/child::para and so will select all para descendants of div children.

NOTE: The location path //para[1] does not mean the same as the location path /descendant::para[1]. The latter selects the first descendant para element; the former selects all descendant para elements that are the first para children of their parents.

A location step of . is short for self::node(). This is particularly useful in conjunction with //. For example, the location path .//para is short for

self::node()/descendant-or-self::node()/child::para

and so will select all para descendant elements of the context node.

Similarly, a location step of .. is short for parent::node(). For example, ../title is short for parent::node()/child::title and so will select the title children of the parent of the context node.

More examples are covered in the following website

http://hedleyproctor.com/2011/05/tutorial-writing-xpath-selectors-for-selenium-tests/

There are a number of ways to write and test an XPath expression:

1. Using the Selenium IDE itself – it has a “test” option.
2. Using Firebug and a separate XPath tester.
3. Using Firebug and the FirePath tester, which is a separate add-on but integrates with Firebug.

Other websites:

http://zvon.org/comp/r/ref-XPath_1.html


3/2/2016:

Ways of Validating Xpath:

xpath could be validated or written on own to find web objects in web pages. And process of writing and finding xpath is possible in many ways, for an example in

My Experience:

Chrome 
- One could write the xpath by following below process

F12->ctrl+F-> Enter xpath in the field opened.

- To generate xpath, you could go to element, right click on it -> Inspect -> Go to the inspect code and Right click -> Copy the xpath.

You could use this process, when ever you are working on finding element in a web page.

FireFox:

Firebug and Firepath  are the two addins that would help you to validate your xpath.

Source:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22571267/how-to-verify-an-xpath-expression-in-chrome-developers-tool-or-firefoxs-firebug

1. Chrome

This can be achieved by three different approaches (see my blog article here for more details):

• Search in Elements panel
• Execute $x() and $$() in Console panel, as shown in Lawrence's answer
• Third party extensions (not necessary)

Here is how you search XPath in Elements panel:

1. Press F12 to open Chrome Developer Tool
2. In "Elements" panel, press Ctrl+F
3. In the search box, type in XPath or CSS Selector, if elements are found, they will be highlighted in yellow.

2. Firefox

1. Install Firebug
2. Install Firepath
3. Press F12 to open Firebug
4. Switch to FirePath panel
5. In dropdown, select XPathor CSS
6. Type in to locate

3. Chrome and Firefox

You can open a Console in Chrome, and check the XPath by typing $x("your_xpath_here"). This will return an array of matched values. If it is empty, you know there is no match on the page.