每次调用变量时如何调用方法

Question

So I have a variable that uses a method. Something like this:

By locator = By.id("something-"+getDynamicId());

Usually the id changes numbers like this: something-1 to something-2 (not those exact numbers, always different). I have a way of getting the number it changes to by calling the getDynamicId() method. The problem is, when I start my test the id is set at the start and whenever I click on a specific button, the id changes but my variable does not. Is it possible for the locator variable to call getDynamicId() everytime locator is called? Maybe everytime I click on the specific button the locator reloads?

I have looked up ClassLoaders but I do not know how to use it nor do I know if it can even do what I want.

Answer 1

Instead of doing that, i've gotten around dynamic ID's by using CSS.

driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("element[id^='something']"));

This means "find an <element> tag, that has an id attribute that starts with "something"

If there are multiple elements that match this, then you need to increase your specificity. You can do this by selecting some parent.

div.some-div [id^='something']

            ^  the space here meaning "a descendent of.."

this page may help with formulating CSS selectors like this for Selenium.

Answer 2

Also, in addition to what @sircapsalot has done, you can use xpath for working with dynamic ids as below (As you said in comment, there are multiple element having ids that contains "something"):

List<WebElement> elements = driver.findElements(By.xpath("//tag[contains(@id,'something-')]"));
//Say you want to click on 4th element now then use the below code(assuming the list has more than or equal to 4 elements in it)
elements.get(3).click();

Here, it will locate all the elements with tag as "tag" and has "id" that contains the text "something-" and then click on the 4th element in the list.

---

But, if you want to retrieve the dynamic ID and use it for clicking on the specific element, you can create a new method like this :

public static void clickOnDynamicElementById(String partial_locator_id){

    //Code for getting dynamic id and then storing the retrieved dynamic ID in a string, say "dynaID";

    String locator_id_to_click = partial_locator_id + dynaID;

    driver.findElement(By.id("locator_id_to_click")).click();

}

Then, you can call this method directly in your main method as below:

  clickOnDynamicElement("something-"); //because main method is also static, it can call the method directly.