The xpath property "text()" does not seem to be functioning as expected with a textnode in the code provided for Selenium

Question

The xpath property "text()" does not seem to be functioning as expected with a textnode in the code provided for Selenium

Snippet of HTML Code:

<div class="content">
  <div id="tab">
    <div class="row">
      <div class="col-sm-12">
        <div>
          <div>
            <div>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p><span>01</span></p>
              <p class="className"><span id="">parent</span>
                Child 
              </p>
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

The challenge is to locate "child" within the HTML content, separate from "parent":

//*[@id="tab"]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]/p.span

While locating "parent" works fine with the above query, isolating "child" proves challenging. Attempts have been made using various methods without success:

//*[@id="tab"]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]/p/text()
//*[@id="tab"]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]/p/text()[contains(.,'child')]

Interestingly, these queries yield results in online editors but return an "element absent on the page" error in a Java IDE.

Any insights or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

javascript java selenium selenium-webdriver webdriver

Answer 1

Answer №1

Even though both the elements labeled as parent and child exist within the same <p> tag with a class attribute named className, it's important to note that the element containing the text "parent" is considered a descendant <span> node, while the one containing the text "child" is a descendant text node. Consequently, while Selenium can identify the element with the text "parent" using XPath v1.0, it may struggle to locate the text node associated with the text "child". Nevertheless, extracting the text from "child" is still feasible.

As such, my inquiry was along the lines of "What specific actions are you planning to take with this text? Are you simply looking to extract it?"

To successfully extract the text from "child", consider employing the following method:

WebElement myElement = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[@id='tab']//p[@class='className']"));
String myText = (String)((JavaScriptExecutor)driver).executeScript("return arguments[0].lastChild.textContent;", myElement);

Answer 2

Even though both the elements labeled as parent and child exist within the same <p> tag with a class attribute named className, it's important to note that the element containing the text "parent" is considered a descendant <span> node, while the one containing the text "child" is a descendant text node. Consequently, while Selenium can identify the element with the text "parent" using XPath v1.0, it may struggle to locate the text node associated with the text "child". Nevertheless, extracting the text from "child" is still feasible.

As such, my inquiry was along the lines of "What specific actions are you planning to take with this text? Are you simply looking to extract it?"

To successfully extract the text from "child", consider employing the following method:

WebElement myElement = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[@id='tab']//p[@class='className']"));
String myText = (String)((JavaScriptExecutor)driver).executeScript("return arguments[0].lastChild.textContent;", myElement);

Answer 3

Answer №2

When using xpath in Selenium, it's important to note that the text() function requires a TextNode to be returned. However, Selenium can only return an Element Node.

For instance, when you expect to find an Element Node with the tag name span at

//*[@id="tab"]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]/p[2]/span

, Selenium may face limitations in providing this specific node.

Galen Framework integrates with Selenium for selecting elements on a web page and interacting with them during testing.

While browsers like DevTools may support

//*[@id="tab"]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]/p[2]/text()

, Selenium does not offer direct support for returning text nodes through its find methods.

To work around this limitation, you can instruct Selenium to locate and return the p Element Node as shown below:

<p class="className"><span id="">parent</span>
    child
</p>

In Java, you can utilize the HTML DOM API to access specific nodes within an element, like retrieving the text value of a child node from a parent element.

((JavaScriptExecutor) driver).executeScript(
      "return arguments[0].childNodes[2].nodeValue;",
      driver.findElement(By.xpath(
          "//*[@id='tab']/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]/p[2]"
      ))
)
// arguments[0] refers to the p ElementNode
// childNodes[2] points to the 3rd child node (TextNode 'child') of the p element
// While you can directly interact with the text node using HTML DOM api,
// Selenium doesn't provide native support to return text nodes for further usage within Galen.

Answer 4

When using xpath in Selenium, it's important to note that the text() function requires a TextNode to be returned. However, Selenium can only return an Element Node.

For instance, when you expect to find an Element Node with the tag name span at

//*[@id="tab"]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]/p[2]/span

, Selenium may face limitations in providing this specific node.

Galen Framework integrates with Selenium for selecting elements on a web page and interacting with them during testing.

While browsers like DevTools may support

//*[@id="tab"]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]/p[2]/text()

, Selenium does not offer direct support for returning text nodes through its find methods.

To work around this limitation, you can instruct Selenium to locate and return the p Element Node as shown below:

<p class="className"><span id="">parent</span>
    child
</p>

In Java, you can utilize the HTML DOM API to access specific nodes within an element, like retrieving the text value of a child node from a parent element.

((JavaScriptExecutor) driver).executeScript(
      "return arguments[0].childNodes[2].nodeValue;",
      driver.findElement(By.xpath(
          "//*[@id='tab']/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]/p[2]"
      ))
)
// arguments[0] refers to the p ElementNode
// childNodes[2] points to the 3rd child node (TextNode 'child') of the p element
// While you can directly interact with the text node using HTML DOM api,
// Selenium doesn't provide native support to return text nodes for further usage within Galen.

Answer 5

Answer №3

In my experience

"//p[contains(text(), 'uploaded')]"

is effective when using Selenium 3. However, as previously pointed out by yong, Selenium is limited to working with elements. In this case, you can utilize

element.getText();
element.getAttribute("textContent");

to retrieve the text contained within the paragraph.

Answer 6

In my experience

"//p[contains(text(), 'uploaded')]"

is effective when using Selenium 3. However, as previously pointed out by yong, Selenium is limited to working with elements. In this case, you can utilize

element.getText();
element.getAttribute("textContent");

to retrieve the text contained within the paragraph.

The xpath property "text()" does not seem to be functioning as expected with a textnode in the code provided for Selenium

Answer №1

Answer №2

Answer №3

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