In this tutorial, we will learn how to access forms and its elements using Webdriver
Accessing Form Elements
Input Box
Input boxes refer to either of these two types:
- Text Fields- text boxes that accept typed values and show them as they are.
- Password Fields- text boxes that accept typed values but mask them as a series of special characters (commonly dots and asterisks) to avoid sensitive values to be displayed.
.png "Accessing Forms using Selenium WebDriver")
Entering Values in Input Boxes
The sendKeys() method is used to enter values into input boxes.
.png "Accessing Forms using Selenium WebDriver")
Deleting Values in Input Boxes
The clear() method is used to delete the text in an input box. This method does not need any parameter. The code snippet below will clear out the text "tutorial" in the User Name text box.
.png "Accessing Forms using Selenium WebDriver")
Radio Button
Toggling a radio button on is done using the click() method.
.png "Accessing Forms using Selenium WebDriver")
Check Box
Toggling a check box on/off is also done using the click() method.
The code below will click on Facebook's "Keep me logged in" check box twice and then output the result as TRUE when it is toggled on, and FALSE if it is toggled off.
.png "Accessing Forms using Selenium WebDriver")
.png "Accessing Forms using Selenium WebDriver")
Links
Links also are accessed by using the click() method.
Consider the below link found in Mercury Tours' homepage.
.png "Accessing Forms using Selenium WebDriver")
You can access this link using linkText() or partialLinkText() together with click(). Either of the two lines below will be able to access the "Register here" link shown above.
.png "Accessing Forms using Selenium WebDriver")
.png "Accessing Forms using Selenium WebDriver")
Submitting a Form
The submit() method is used to submit a form. This is an alternative to clicking the form's submit button.
You can use submit() on any element within the form, not just on the submit button itself.
.png "Accessing Forms using Selenium WebDriver")
When submit() is used, WebDriver will look up the DOM to know which form the element belongs to, and then trigger its submit function.
Here is the complete code
package newPackage;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.ExpectedConditions;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.WebDriverWait;
public class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// declaration and instantiation of objects/variables
WebDriver driver ;
System.setProperty("webdriver.firefox.marionette","C:\\geckodriver.exe");
driver = new FirefoxDriver();
//Create explicit wait.
WebDriverWait myWait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 10);
String baseUrl = "http://newtours.demoaut.com/";
driver.get(baseUrl);
//wait until text box load.
myWait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.name("userName")));
// Enter value into textbox
driver.findElement(By.name("userName")).sendKeys ("tutorial");
// Delete value from textbox
driver.findElement(By.name("userName")).clear();
// Access Links
driver.findElement(By.linkText("Register here")).click();
driver.findElement(By.partialLinkText("SIGN-ON")).click();
// Enter value into textbox and SUBMIT
driver.findElement(By.name("userName")).sendKeys ("tutorial");
driver.findElement(By.name("password")).sendKeys ("tutorial");
driver.findElement(By.name("password")).submit();
// Select Radio Button
driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("input[value=Business]")).click();
//Select CheckBox
String baseURL = "http://demo.guru99.com/sele...";
driver.get(baseURL);
//Create an Explicit wait.
WebDriverWait myWait2 = new WebDriverWait(driver, 10);
myWait2.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.id("persist_box")));
WebElement chkFBPersist = driver.findElement(By.id("persist_box"));
for (int i=0; i<2; i++) {
chkFBPersist.click ();
System.out.println(chkFBPersist.isSelected());
}
driver.quit();
System.exit(0);
}
}Summary
- The table below summarizes the commands to access each type of element discussed above.
| Element | Command | Description |
| Input Box | sendKeys() | used to enter values onto text boxes |
| clear() | used to clear text boxes of its current value | |
| Check Box, Radio Button, | click() | used to toggle the element on/off |
| Links | click() | used to click on the link and wait for page load to complete before proceeding to the next command. |
| Submit Button | submit() |
- WebDriver allows selection of more than one option in a multiple SELECT element.
- You can use the submit() method on any element within the form. WebDriver will automatically trigger the submit function of the form where that element belongs to.
