Question

I am creating a Python script with Selenium. I want to run a specific test that checks the default text of a textbox when the page loads up. Below is my code…….

try: 
                    self.assertEqual("Search by template name or category..", sel.get_text("//table[@id='pluginToolbarButton_forms']/tbody/tr[2]/td[2]/em"))
                    logging.info('      PASS:  text box text is correct')
                except Exception:
                    logging.exception('     FAIL: text box text is incorrect')

Here is my error……

            self.assertEqual("Search by template name or category..", sel.get_text("//table[@id='pluginToolbarButton_forms']/tbody/tr[2]/td[2]/em"))
  File "C:\Python27\lib\unittest\case.py", line 509, in assertEqual
    assertion_func(first, second, msg=msg)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\unittest\case.py", line 502, in _baseAssertEqual
    raise self.failureException(msg)
AssertionError: 'Search by template name or category..' != u'Submitter Requests'

Am I using the wrong function?

Answer 1

Your AssertionError states that the assertion you tried (that’s the self.assertEqual(...) in your first code example) failed:

AssertionError: 'Search by template name or category..' != u'Submitter Requests'

This assertion explains that the string 'Search by template name or category' is different from 'Submitter Requests', which is correct … the strings are, in fact, different.

I would check your second parameter to self.assertEqual and make sure that you’re selecting the right feature.