I am new to Selenium, using Java(Eclipse), I am having issues figuring out the xpath when using firebug

Question

When I use firebug I get back this as the xpath it gives me back this /html/body/div[5]/div[2]/div/div[7]/div/div[4]/div/div[2]/div/ol/li/div/h3/a

I am unclear how to use this in Selenium Webdriver to click on a link.

Thanks!

Answer 1

This is well covered in the documentation.

http://docs.seleniumhq.org/docs/03_webdriver.jsp#selenium-webdriver-api-commands-and-operations

However, because its a very simple answer, you'd simply do something like:

driver.findElement(By.xpath("div[5]/div[2]/div/div[7]/div/div[4]/div/div[2]/div/ol/li/div/h3/a"));

(Assuming driver is a valid WebDriver instance and I've omitted the html/body section - it isn't needed).

Answer 2

始终尝试简化xpath，尝试将firebug与该xpath一起使用，以查看它是否唯一，如果不是，则需要更具体一些。

"//h3/a"

Answer 3

Don't use xpath unnecessarily. It would make some problem in future. If there is no other way to locate that element as @Nora told try to simplify the xpath.

In your case you can use By.linkText,By.partialLinkText.

driver.findElement(By.linkText("linkName")).click();

driver.findElement(By.partialLinkText("partialTextOfLink")).click();

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[text()='LinkText']")).click(); //simplified xpath

You can use any of the above if there is no other attribute(id, name ..etc) available for that anchor tag.