选择没有特定id，class，xpath等的元素

Question

I am currently working on writing the test automation for a web application that loads as an SWF file for our end-users, but a fully functioning Javascript version exists for the sole purpose of automation.

I have means to navigate through the application with keyboard shortcuts, but when it comes to executing click commands, I have no luck at all. Upon inspecting with Firebug/Firepath, the only value that I could find was an xpath (no id exists, no class, no anything really).

The next issue is the xpath itself. It is:

1. Really brittle.

    .//*[@id='flow']/div[1]/div/div[7]/div/div[3]/div[4]/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div[3]/div[1]/img 

2. This appears to be the xpath to the image that represents the button, not the button itself.

Executing .click() commands on the above type of xpath will do nothing until you manually hover your mouse over the button (regardless of moveToElement commands), where it will "click" the image but no functionality will run.

So I'm wondering after digging around in the actual JavaScript looking for identifiers, is there any way to select an element through any other properties? Or is there any way I can better "identify" a function? Perhaps find the xpath to the button that the image represents?

Using JUnit and Java, if that helps.

Thanks

Answer 1

Apparently, my comments answered the OP's question, so here goes, for reference sake:

If you need "the button itself" , as you wrote in your question, use Inspect Element from the browser to find out what the actual element is you need and then simply remove from the right-hand side of your XPath expression enough axis steps until the part that remains selects the ancestor element that is the actual button element.

Now you should be able to send it a click event.

I'm afraid there won't be much we can do about the XPath statement to be "brittle", simply because you do not have an identifier to go on. That means that if the structure of the page changes, you will have to change the XPath (unless some of the ancestor elements have some notable identifiers).