Question

How do I parse for just the text portions of these blocks of code? I am using Selenium client drivers in java.

<li id="NOT_PUT_PREF_STORE" style="">
<span id="STORE_AVAIL" class="BodyLBoldGrey StockStat">Out of stock</span> <span id="InYourLocal">in your local</span> <span id="storeRollover_2"><span id="STORE_CITY" class="BodyLBoldLtgry VIBSStore1">West Hills</span></span> store<span id="notSelectOptionSOI">.</span>
</li>

or

<li id="NOT_PUT_PREF_STORE" style="">
<span id="STORE_AVAIL" class="BodyLLtgry StockStat">Not carried</span> <span class="BodyLLtgry" id="InYourLocal">in your local</span> <span id="storeRollover_2"><span id="STORE_CITY" class="BodyLBoldLtgry VIBSStore1">West Hills</span></span> store<span id="notSelectOptionSOI">.</span>
</li>

or

<li id="NOT_PUT_PREF_STORE" style="">
<span id="STORE_AVAIL" class="BodyMBold StockStatGreen">In stock</span> <span id="InYourLocal">in your local</span> <span id="storeRollover_2"><span id="STORE_CITY" class="BodyLBoldLtgry VIBSStore1">West Hills</span></span> store<span id="notSelectOptionSOI">.</span>
</li>

I am trying to parse for the text portion in each of these variations in the webelement (ie: Not carried, In stock, Out of stock). I am a very new user to selenium and html parsing so this is really hard for me to get functional.

I was thinking that it would be something like

WebElement driver = new FirefoxDriver(profile);
driver.get(Url);
System.out.println(driver.getElement(By.id("STORE_AVAIL").getText());

Not sure how I would do it with cssSelector but people tell me that is faster.
Would this work?

driver.getElement(By.xpath("//li[@id='NOT_PUT_PREF_STORE']./span[@id='STORE_AVAIL']").getText()

Answer 1

When I try to find elements on the page I always build my locators by:

1. id = driver.getElement(By.id("STORE_AVAIL").getText());
2. css selector = driver.getElement(By.css("span#STORE_AVAIL").getText());
3. xpath = driver.getElement(By.xpath("//span[@id='STORE_AVAIL']").getText());

The id seems to be the fastest and easiest, both for webdriver and for me. id should be unique on the page.

CSS take a little more investigative work on my part, but webdriver handles it just fine.

Lastly, xpath is sometimes unavoidable (unless you buy the devs a beer and ask nicely to change to application so you can locate it faster – after all, you are testing for them anyway). Locating by xpath with IE is terribly slow and writing complex xpaths is a drag.

Xpath is also fragile, one small change to the dom can render your xpath unusable. Then you get to debug/rewrite your xpath (it is as fun as it sounds).

My suggestion is to use Firebug and FirePath addons for Firefox to help you craft your locators.