Not able to locate input element using Selenium WebDriver

Question

I am new to Selenium. In a specific scenario I am not able to catch an input element. below is the code:

<ul class = "form1">
    <li class="firstName">
        <input placeholdervalue="First name" tabindex="1" placeholder="First name" class="text" placeholdevalue="First name" data-input-rule="name" data-value-rule="required" maxlength="20" type="text">
    </li>
</ul>

I want to locate input element. I tried locating it using locator By.ClassName , By.CssSelector("input[class='text placeholder']") and also tried:

wait.Until(ExpectedConditions.ElementIsVisible(By.CssSelector("input[className='text' and placeholdevalue='First name'"))).SendKeys("Vipul");

but input element is not getting selected. Please let me know the right way to select input element.

Answer 1

I would use a dot notation to match the classes of ul , li and input elements:

By.CssSelector("ul.form1 li.firstName input.text")

If the element still cannot be found, then there could two most commonly met reasons:

• it is inside an iframe and you need to switch to it
• you need to wait for the element to appear

I'll expand these items in case you would still have problems finding the element.

Answer 2

Thanks for the reply.

It worked with this,

driver.Manage().Timeouts().ImplicitlyWait(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(20));
wait.Until(ExpectedConditions.ElementIsVisible(By.CssSelector("ul.form1 li.firstName input.text"))).SendKeys("Vipul"); 

Is this the right way of using wait?

Also, can anybody point out to resources which explain working with frames using selenium webdriver?

-Amit