How to click a checkbox using selenium

Question

<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1399697074576_1339" class="cbox " role="gridcell">
<input id="yui_3_16_0_1_1399697074576_1338" type="checkbox" tabindex="-1" 89513626107905="" aria-label="Message " title="Select this email">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1399697074576_1340" class="icon"></span>
</div>`

The above HTML is from firebug.

I want to click the checkbox, its ID is id="yui_3_16_0_1_1399697074576_1338" from above. I tried using by.id and by.path , however neither of them work. The following is what I tried:

By.id("yui_3_16_0_1_1399697074576_1338")
By.xpath("//input[@id='yui_3_16_0_1_1399697074576_1339'

Can someone help me on this?

Answer 1

if the id is static :

 string checkboxXPath = "//input[contains(@id, 'yui_3_16_0_1_1399697074576_1338')]"

for Dynamic Tags value:

           string checkboxXPath = "//input[contains(@type,'checkbox') and                       
          contains(@title,'Select this email')]"

IWebElement elementToClick = driver.FindElement(By.XPath(checkboxXPath));
elementToClick.Click();

Answer 2

You NEVER want to match on an ID like that. What I'd recommend, is matching on something a little more "unique".

Try:

By.cssSelector("input[type='checkbox'][title='Select this email']")

This selector above will match your <input/> perfectly. And, it's not coupled with the Yahoo UI so if you or your developers ever change software, it will account for that.

Answer 3

You have to get the element using the id and make a click. It is similar to button click

driver.findElement(By.id("yui_3_16_0_1_1399697074576_1338")).click();