XPath axes are those axes that are used to search for the multiple nodes in the XML document from the current node context.
These methods are mainly used when the web element is not identified with the help of ID, name, class name, link text, CSS selector and XPath, etc. locators.
- Self
- Parent
- Child
- Ancestor
- Descendant
- Following
- Following-sibling
- Preceding
- preceding-sibling
Example:
import java.util.List;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
public class LocatorsDemo5_XPAthAxes {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver","C://Drivers//chromedriver_win32//chromedriver.exe");
WebDriver driver=new ChromeDriver();
driver.get("https://money.rediff.com/gainers/bse/daily/groupa");
driver.manage().window().maximize();
//Self - Selects the current node
String text=driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[contains(text(),'India Tourism De')]/self::a")).getText();
System.out.println(text); //India Tourism De
//Parent - Selects the parent of the current node (always One)
text=driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[contains(text(),'India Tourism De')]/parent::td")).getText();
System.out.println(text); //India Tourism De
//Child - Selects all children of the current node (One or many)
List
System.out.println("Number of child elements:"+childs.size());//5
//Ancestor - Selects all ancestors (parent, grandparent, etc.)
text=driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[contains(text(),'India Tourism De')]/ancestor::tr")).getText();
System.out.println(text);
//Descendant - Selects all descendants (children, grandchildren, etc.) of the current node
List
System.out.println("Number of descendant nodes:"+descendants.size());
//Following -Selects everything in the document after the closing tag of the current node
List
System.out.println("Number of following nodes:"+followingnodes.size());
//Following-sibling : Selects all siblings after the current node
List
System.out.println("Number of Following Siblings:"+followingsiblings.size());
//Preceding - Selects all nodes that appear before the current node in the document
List
System.out.println("Number of preceding nodes:"+precedings.size());
//preceding-sibling - Selects all siblings before the current node
List
System.out.println("Number of preceding sibling nodes:"+precedingsiblings.size());
driver.close();
}
}
Hands on:
1) Find the sign-up button from the registration form present in the Facebook application. (child)
//div[@id='reg_form_box']/child::div[10]/button
2) Locate Firstname field from SignUp button in facebook (Parent)
//button[@id='u_0_13']//parent::*/parent::*/child::div[1]/div[1]/div[2]
//button[@id='u_0_13']//ancestor::div[2]/child::div[1]/div[1]/div[2]
3) Identify the Password from Mobile number filed in facebook.(Following)
//input[@id='u_0_r']/following::input[2]
4) Locate Mobile number from newpassword field in facebook (preceding)
//input[@id='password_step_input']/preceding::input[2]
5) Locate surname from female radio button in facebook(Ancestor)
//input[@id='u_0_6']/ancestor::div[2]/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]
//input[@id='u_0_6']/ancestor::div[2]//input[@id='u_0_o']
6) Identify the search text box from the Google search button present in the Google search home page. (Parent)
//div[@class='FPdoLc tfB0Bf']//input[@name='btnK']/parent::*/parent::*/parent::*/div[1]
7) Identify the Today’s Deals link from the amazon search text box present in the amazon home page.(Following)
//input[@id='twotabsearchtextbox']/following::a[contains(text(),'Best Sellers')]
8) Identify the Hello, Signin from the amazon search text box present in the amazon home page. (Following)
//input[@id='twotabsearchtextbox']/following::span[contains(text(),'Hello, Sign in')]
9) Identify Mobiles link which is part of Menu bar - Amazon (Descendant)
//div[@id='nav-xshop']/descendant::a[1]
//div[@id='nav-xshop']/descendant::a[contains(text(),'Mobiles')]
