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In the previous article, I have explained the Two types of XPath Expressions and Relative XPath Expression is one type.
In this article, I am going to give a good number of examples to practice Relative XPath Expression in detail from scratch.
Pre-requisites: HTML Basics explained in the previous articles are required for understanding this article. HTLM Basics – click here to start learning.
Also, go through the below five links before going through this article:
- Hierarchy of HTML Source Code
- Installing ChroPath Add-on in Chrome Browser
- Using ChroPath Add-on in Chrome Browser
- Practice Absolute XPath Expressions in detail here
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Absolute XPath Expressions
Let’s get started.
Selenium Locators – Practice Relative XPath Expressions in detail here
Follow the below steps to practice Relative XPath Expressions in detail from scratch:
1) As we already know Relative XPath Expressions means Direct/Shortcut XPath Expressions which directly locate the UI elements using their tags in the Web Pages.
2) All Relative XPath Expressions start with a double slash i.e. //
3) In order to understand the Relative XPath Expressions better, we need to first learn Absolute XPath Expressions (Refer Practice Absolute XPath Expressions in detail here)
4) Absolute XPath Expressions are for making your learning of XPath Expressions easier, while Relative XPath Expressions are really used in real time projects. We should not be using the Absolute XPath Expressions in real time projects, instead, we will be using Relative XPath Expressions in Real time Projects. Refer to the Advantages and Disadvantages of Absolute XPath Expressions
5) Let’s get started. Practice along with me by following the below step.
6) Open http://compendiumdev.co.uk/selenium/basic_web_page.html in Chrome Browser, where ChroPath is already installed (Refer ChroPath installation in Chrome Browser here and usage in Chrome Browser here ) as shown below:
I have taken a very basic Web Application for demonstration as shown in the below screenshot to make your learning easy:
7) Open ‘ChroPath’ functionality as shown below in the Chrome Browser:
8) Select ‘Rel XPath’ option from the ‘Selectors’ dropdown as shown below:
9) Expand all the tags on the left side (i.e. <head> and <body> tags) as shown below:
10) Lets first locate the entire web page i.e. html tag using the Relative XPath Expression.
All Relative XPath Expressions starts with //.
And in order to locate the entire web page, we need to locate the html tag.
Hence we need to create a Relative XPath Expression ‘//html‘ to locate the html tag directly.
Now type ‘//html‘ and press ‘Enter’ key as shown below.
Observe that on pressing the ‘Enter’ keyboard key, the //html RelativeXPath Expression will be locating the entire HTML page. (i.e. xpath=1 attribute will be added in the html tag by ChroPath to state the same.)
11) The next challenge is to locate the head section of the web page i.e. head tag.
Hence we need to create a Relative XPath Expression ‘//head‘ to locate the head tag directly.
Now type ‘//head‘ and press ‘Enter’ key as shown below.
Observe that we don’t have to give the complete path in case of Relative XPath Expressions.
We are just giving the // followed by the tag name to be located i.e. head
Observe that on pressing the ‘Enter’ keyboard key, the //head RelativeXPath Expression will be locating the head section of the web page. (i.e. xpath=1 attribute will be added in the head tag by ChroPath to state the same.)
12) The next challenge is to locate the title of the web page i.e. title tag.
Hence we need to create a Relative XPath Expression ‘//title‘ to locate the title tag directly.
Now type ‘//title‘ and press ‘Enter’ key as shown below.
Observe that we don’t have to give the complete path in case of Relative XPath Expressions.
We are just giving the // followed by the tag name to be located i.e. title
Observe that on pressing the ‘Enter’ keyboard key, the //title RelativeXPath Expression will be locating the title of the web page. (i.e. xpath=1 attribute will be added in the title tag by ChroPath to state the same.)
13) The next challenge is to locate the body section of the web page i.e. body tag.
Hence we need to create a Relative XPath Expression ‘//body‘ to locate the body tag directly.
Now type ‘//body‘ and press ‘Enter’ key as shown below.
Observe that we don’t have to give the complete path in case of Relative XPath Expressions.
We are just giving the // followed by the tag name to be located i.e. body
Observe that on pressing the ‘Enter’ keyboard key, the //body RelativeXPath Expression will be locating the body section of the web page. (i.e. xpath=1 attribute will be added in the body tag by ChroPath to state the same.)
14) The next challenge is to locate all the Paragraphs on the web page i.e. p tags.
Hence we need to create a Relative XPath Expression ‘//p‘ to locate all the p tags directly.
Now type ‘//p‘ and press ‘Enter’ key as shown below.
Observe that we don’t have to give the complete path in case of Relative XPath Expressions.
We are just giving the // followed by the tag names to be located i.e. p
Observe that on pressing the ‘Enter’ keyboard key, the //p RelativeXPath Expression will be locating all the Paragraphs on the web page. (i.e. xpath=1, xpath=2 attributes will be added in the p tags by ChroPath to state the same.)
15) Let’s locate the first paragraph only by adding the index value [1] to the above Relative XPath Expression to from the Relative XPath Expression: //p[1]
16) Let’s locate the second paragraph only by adding the index value [2] to the above Relative XPath Expression to from the Relative XPath Expression: //p[2]
17) Let’s locate the paragraph having the id attribute value as ‘para1′ by adding the [@id=’para1’] to the Relative XPath Expression to from: //p[@id=’para1′]
18) Let’s locate the paragraph having the id attribute value as ‘para2′ by adding the [@id=’para2’] to the Relative XPath Expression to from: //p[@id=’para2′]
19) Let’s locate the paragraph having the class attribute value as ‘main’ by adding the [@class=’main’] to the Relative XPath Expression to from: //p[@class=’main’]
20) Let’s locate the paragraph having the class attribute value as ‘sub’ by adding the [@class=’sub’] to the Relative XPath Expression to from: //p[@class=’sub’]
21) Now let’s take two different attribute names and values to locate the p tags in the above web page.
Let’s locate all the paragraphs having the id attribute value as ‘para1’ and also class attribute value as ‘main’.
Now, to find the paragraphs having the id attribute as ‘para1’ and at the same time class attribute value as ‘main’, we need to append [@id=’para1′] [@class=’main’] to the above Relative XPath Expression to form ‘//p[@id=’para1′][@class=’main’]‘
22) Similarly, let’s locate the p tags having both id attribute value as ‘para2’ and class attribute value as ‘sub’ in the above web page.
Let’s locate all the paragraphs having the id attribute value as ‘para2’ and also class attribute value as ‘sub’.
In order to locate all the paragraphs in the above page, we have used the Absolute XPath as ‘/html/body/p‘
Now, to find the paragraphs having the id attribute as ‘para2’ and at the same time class attribute value as ‘sub’, we need to append [@id=’para2′] [@class=’sub’] to the above Absolute XPath Expression to form ‘/html/body/p[@id=’para2′][@class=’sub’]‘
Type the ‘/html/body/p[@id=’para2′][@class=’sub’]‘ in the ChroPath and press Enter to find whether it is locating the Paragraphs having the id attribute value as ‘para2’ and also the class attribute value mentioned as ‘sub’ as shown below:
23) Let’s try to locate all the p tags having id attribute value as ‘para1’ and also class attribute value as ‘sub’ using the Relative XPath Expression: //p[@id=’para1′][@class=’sub’]
As there are no p tags in the above web page having both id attribute value as ‘para1’ and class attribute value as ‘sub’, the ChroPath won’t be able to locate any p tag as shown in the below screenshot:
24) Now let’s locate all the p tags in the above web page having any of the id values as ‘para1’ or ‘para2’.
Now, to find the paragraphs having the id attribute as ‘para1’ or ‘para2’ , we need to append [@id=’para1′ or @id=’para2′] to the above Absolute XPath Expression to form //p[@id=’para1′ or @id=’para2′]
Type the //p[@id=’para1′ or @id=’para2′] in the ChroPath and press Enter to find whether it is locating the Paragraphs having the id attribute value as ‘para1’ or ‘para2’ as shown below:
Here concludes the first part of Relative XPath Expressions.
In the next article, more complex application to practically demonstrate the other set of Relative XPath Expressions examples in detail.
Next Steps:
- > To learn more about Selenium, continue to the next post (Click on Next Post link below)
- > Check complete Selenium Tutorial Contents here (Click here)
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Thanks so much Arun. It’s very clear to understand the concepts of Xpath.
Thank you, Sandeep.
Keep following for more contents to be posted.