Generate the Xpath for the mentioned href element to use with Selenium Webdriver

I need help creating the Xpath for a specific href element using Selenium webdriver with only IE browser. The HTML code I am working with is as follows: I am looking to find the Xpath for: . Can someone assist in generating the correct Xpath expression for this link that needs to be clicked on in IE?

 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML Transitional//EN"><META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">

    <html>
    <body>
      <form name="runevent1" action="/epace/epace-cgi/eglcgids.exe?sessionid=" method="post" btnSubmit="javascript:preSumbit()" EParams="http://vaim1-apt-120/epace/epace-cgi/eglcgids.exe?sessionid=&Action=runevent1&EventType=&EventInst=#" EParamOptions="http://vaim1-apt-120/epace/epace-cgi/eglcgids.exe?sessionid=&Action=runevent1&EventType=&EventInst=#">
        <table width="100%" align="center" border="0">
          <tbody>
            <tr class="topMenu">
              <td align="right">
                <span id="idSpanActionLinks">
                  <a href="javascript:OnEventQueue();">
                    <font class="topMenu">Event Queue</font>
                  </a>
                </span>
              </td>
            </tr>
          </tbody>
        </table>
      </form>
    </body>
  </html>
javascriptselenium

Answer №1

To choose your elements, utilize the algorithms below.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

element[attribute(^|*|$|~)='attribute value']

Xpath

//element[(@attribute|contains|starts-with|ends-with(@attribute, 'value'))='value'

The Xpath algorithm may be a bit messy and not entirely accurate, unlike the CSS method which is correct.

When looking to match ANY property, including href, use this algorithm.

Ask yourself these questions:

  1. what element am I selecting?
  2. which attribute am I selecting?
  3. is the attribute unique?

In your situation, #1 is an <a>. #2 is href. For #3, it's likely not unique as there could be multiple similar href attributes; IDs are usually unique. Consider checking the parent element and using its ID instead.

In CSS: span#idSpanActionLinks > a works effectively (*# is a css shortcut for id, see here)

In Xpath: 

//span[@id='idSpaceActionLinks']/a

EDIT

Based on your comment about matching href, here are the alternatives:

CSS

a[href*='OnEventQueue']

Xpath

//a[contains(@href, 'OnEventQueue')]

Both approaches will yield results.

Note that in both cases, the statements mean, in plain English:

locate an <a> element with an attribute href that contains the text OnEventQueue

Answer №2

The XPath is versatile and not limited to one unique path. Depending on the level of precision required, different paths can be utilized.

For instance:

//[@id="idSpanActionLinks"]/a

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