XPath Locator Guide

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XPath ● CSS ● DOM ● Selenium

Rosetta Stone and Cookbook

Sprinkled with Selenium usage tips, this is both a general-purpose set of recipes for each technology as well as a cross-reference to map from one to another.
The validation suite for this reference chart (http://bit.ly/gTd5oc) provides example usage for each recipe supported by Selenium (the majority of them).

Tag

XPath (1.0 – 2.0)

CSS (CSS1 – 3)

DOM

Selenium

Whole web page
Whole web page body
All text nodes of web page
Element  by absolute reference
Element  by relative reference
Second  element anywhere on page
Image element
Element  with attribute A
Element  with attribute A containing text 't' exactly
Element  with attribute A containing text 't'
Element  whose attribute A begins with 't'
Element  whose attribute A ends with 't'

xpath=/html
xpath=/html/body
//text() ⌦
xpath=/html/body/.../.../.../E
//E
xpath=(//E)[2]
//img
//E[@A]
//E[@A='t']
//E[contains(@A,'t')]
//E[starts-with(@A, 't')]
//E[ends-with(@A, 't')] ⌦ ◄OR►
//E[substring(@A, string-length(@A) - string-length('t')+1)='t']
//E[contains(concat('⦿', @A, '⦿'), '⦿w⦿')
//E*matches(@A, ‘r’)+ ⌦
//E1[@id=I1] | //E2[@id=I2]
//E1[@id=I1 or @id=I2]
//E/@A ⌦ {Se: //E@A }

css=html
css=body
NA
css=body>…>…>…>E
css=E
NA
css=img
css=E[A]
css=E[A='t'] 
css=E[A*='t'] 
css=E[A^='t'] 
css=E[A$='t'] 

document.documentElement
document.body
NA
document.body.childNodes[i]...childNodes[j]
document.gEBTN('E')[0]
document.gEBTN('E')[1]
document.images[0]
dom=for each (e in document.gEBTN('E')) if (e.A) e
NA
NA
NA
NA

NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA

css=E[A~='w'] 

NA
NA
NA
NA
NA

//*/@A ⌦ {Se: //*@A }
//E[@A2='t']/@A1 ⌦ {Se: //E[@A2='t']@A1 }
//E[contains(@A,'t')]/@A ⌦ {Se: //E[contains(@A,'t')]@A }
//E[@id='I']
//*[@id='I']
//E[@name='N']
//*[@name='N']
//*[@id='X' or @name='X']
//*[@name='N'][v+1]
//*[@name='N'][@value='v']
//E[@lang='L' or starts-with(@lang, concat('L', '-'))]
NA
//*[contains(concat('⦿', @class, '⦿'), '⦿C⦿')]
//E[contains(concat('⦿', @class, '⦿'), '⦿C⦿')]
//*[.='t']
//E[contains(text(),'t')]
//a
//a[.='t']
//a[contains(text(),'t')]
//a[@href='url']
//a[.='t']/@href
//E/*[1]
//E[1]
//E/*[last()]
//E[last()]
//E[2] ◄OR► //E/following-sibling::E
//*[2][name()='E']
//E[last()-1]
//*[last()-1][name()='E']
//E1/[E2 and not( *[not(self::E2)])]
//E/..
//*[@id='I']/ . . ./. . ./. . ./E
//*[@id='I']//E
//E[count(*)=0]
//E[count(*)=1]
//E[count(preceding-sibling::*)+count(following-sibling::*)=0]
//E[count(../E) = 1]
//E[position() mod N = M + 1]
//E2/following-sibling::E1
//E2/following-sibling::*[1][name()='E1']
//E2/following-sibling::*[2][name()='E1']
//E/following-sibling::*
//E2/preceding-sibling::E1
//E2/preceding-sibling::*[1][name()='E1']
//E2/preceding-sibling::*[2][name()='E1']
//E/preceding-sibling::*[1]
//*[@id='TestTable']//tr[3]//td[2]
{Se: //*[@id='TestTable'].2.1 }
//td[preceding-sibling::td='t']
//td[preceding-sibling::td[contains(.,'t')]]
//E[@disabled]
//*[not(@disabled)]
//*[@checked]
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA

NA {Se: css=*@A }
NA {Se: css=E[A2='t']@A1 }
NA {Se: css=E[A*='t']@A }
css=E#I
css=#I
css=E[name=N]
css=[name=N]
NA
css=[name=N]:nth-child(v+1)
css=[name=N][value='v’]
css=E[lang|=L]
css=E:lang(L)
css=.C
css=E.C
NA
css=E:contains('t') 
css=a
NA
css=a:contains('t') 
css=a[href='url']
NA
css=E > *:first-child { Se: css=E > * }
css=E:first-of-type ⌦ { Se: css=E }

NA
NA
NA
NA
document.gEBTN('E')[0].getAttribute('A') ⌦
{Se: document.gEBTN('E')[0]@A }
NA
NA
NA
NA
document.gEBI('I')
NA
document.getElementsByName('N')[0]
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
document.getElementsByClassName('C')[0]
NA
NA
NA
document.links[0]
NA
NA
NA
NA
document.gEBTN('E')[0].firstChild
document.getEBTN('E')[0]
document.gEBTN('E')[0].lastChild
document.gEBTN(E)[document.gEBTN(E).length-1]
document.getEBTN('E')[1]
NA
document.gEBTN(E)[document.gEBTN(E).length-2]
NA
NA
document.gEBTN('E')[0].parentNode
document.gEBI('I')…gEBTN('E')[0]
document.gEBI('I').gEBTN('E')[0]
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
document.gEBTN('E')[0].nextSibling
NA
NA
NA
document.gEBTN('E2')[0].previousSibling
document.gEBI('TestTable').gEBTN('tr')[2].gEBTN('td')[1]
{Se: document.gEBI('TestTable').2.1 }
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA

Element  with attribute A containing word 'w'
Element  with attribute A matching regex ‘r’
Element  with id I1 or element  with id I2
Element  with id I1 or id I2
Attribute A of element 

Attribute
Id
&
Name
Lang
&
Class
Text
&
Link

Parent
&
Child

Sibling

Table Cell

Dynamic

Attribute A of any element
Attribute A1 of element  where attribute A2 is 't' exactly
Attribute A of element  where A contains 't'
Element  with id I
Element with id I
Element  with name N
Element with name N
Element with id X or, failing that, a name X
Element with name N & specified 0-based index ‘v’
Element with name N & specified value ‘v’
Element  is explicitly in language L or subcode
Element  is in language L or subcode (possibly inherited)
Element with a class C
Element  with a class C
Element containing text 't' exactly
Element  containing text 't'
Link element
 containing text 't' exactly
 containing text 't'
 with target link 'url'
Link URL labeled with text 't' exactly
First child of element 
First  child
Last child of element E
Last  child
Second  child
Second child that is an  element
Second-to-last  child
Second-to-last child that is an  element
Element  with only  children
Parent of element 
Descendant  of element with id I using specific path
Descendant  of element with id I using unspecified path
Element  with no children
Element  with an only child
Element  that is an only child
Element  with no  siblings
Every Nth element starting with the (M+1)th
Element  following some sibling 
Element  immediately following sibling 
Element  following sibling  with one intermediary
Sibling element immediately following 
Element  preceding some sibling 
Element  immediately preceding sibling 
Element  preceding sibling  with one intermediary
Sibling element immediately preceding 
Cell by row and column (e.g. 3rd row, 2nd column)
Cell immediately following cell containing 't' exactly
Cell immediately following cell containing 't'
User interface element  that is disabled
User interface element that is enabled
Checkbox (or radio button) that is checked
Element being designated by a pointing device
Element has keyboard input focus
Unvisited link
Visited link
Active element

NA
css=E1#I1,E2#I2
css=E1#I1,E1#I2
NA {Se: css=E@A }

css=E *:last-child
css=E:last-of-type ⌦
css=E:nth-of-type(2) ⌦
css=E:nth-child(2)
css=E:nth-last-of-type(2) ⌦
css=E:nth-last-child(2) ⌦

NA
NA
css=#I > . . . > . . . > . . . > E
css=#I E
css=E:empty

NA
css=E:only-child
css=E:only-of-type ⌦
css=E:nth-child(Nn + M)
css=E2 ~ E1

css=E2 + E1
css=E2 + * + E1
css=E + *
NA
NA
NA
NA
css=#TestTable tr:nth-child(3) td:nth-child(2)

{Se: css=#TestTable.2.1 }
NA
css=td:contains('t') ~ td 
css=E:disabled
css=*:enabled
css=*:checked

css=E:hover ⌦
css=E:focus ⌦
css=E:link ⌦
css=E:visited ⌦
css=E:active ⌦

NA
NA
NA
NA
id=I
NA
name=N
X ◄OR► identifier=X
name=N index=v
name=N value=v
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
link=t
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA

XPath
CSS
DOM
Selenium
{Se: . . . } Selenium-only

variation
⌦ Not supported by
Selenium
⦿
Space character
expression CSS3 or XPath 2.0
DOM abbreviations:
gEBI getElementById
gEBTN getElementsByTagName

Copyright © 2011 Michael Sorens
2011.04.05 ● Version 1.0.2

Download the latest version from
Simple-Talk http://bit.ly/gTd5oc.
Indexing (all): XPath and CSS use 1-based
indexing; DOM and Selenium’s table syntax
use 0-based indexing.

General Notes

General

Recipe

Prefixes (all): xpath= required unless
expression starts with // ● dom= required
unless expression starts with “document.” ●
css= always required ● identifier= never
required.
Cardinality (Selenium): XPath and CSS may
specify a node set or a single node; DOM must
specify a single node. When a node set is
specified, Selenium returns just the first node.
Content (XPath): Generally should use
normalize-space() when operating on display
text.

 DOM has limited capability with a simple
‘document…’ expression; however,
arbitrary JavaScript code may be used as
shown in this example.



Footnotes

Category

LEGEND

CSS does not support qualifying elements
with the style attribute, as in
div[style*='border-width'].

 Selenium uses a special syntax for returning
attributes; normal XPath, CSS, and DOM
syntax will fail.

 CSS: The CSS2 contains function is not in
CSS3; however, Selenium supports the
superset of CSS1, 2, and 3.

DOM: firstChild, lastChild, nextSibling, and
previousSibling are problematic with mixed
content; they will point to empty text
nodes rather than desired elements
depending on whitespace in web page
source.



File Type                       : PDF
File Type Extension             : pdf
MIME Type                       : application/pdf
PDF Version                     : 1.5
Linearized                      : No
Page Count                      : 1
Language                        : en-US
Tagged PDF                      : Yes
Author                          : Michael Sorens
Creator                         : Microsoft® Word 2010
Create Date                     : 2011:04:05 09:04:06-07:00
Modify Date                     : 2011:04:05 09:04:06-07:00
Producer                        : Microsoft® Word 2010