Скачать или смотреть XPath Solutions for Handling br Tags in Selenium Tests

Learn how to effectively use `XPath` to find values in HTML tables containing unclosed `br` tags using `Selenium`. This blog explains common pitfalls and useful solutions.
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/76058989/ asked by the user 'samantha' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/13147602/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/76060064/ provided by the user 'Conal Tuohy' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/7372462/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: Xpath using contains after an unclosed br tag

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/l...
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
Handling XPath Queries in Selenium with Unclosed br Tags

When working with HTML and Selenium, one common issue testers face is retrieving text values from table cells that contain unclosed <br> tags or other HTML elements. This can lead to confusion, especially when using XPath to search for specific text strings. In this guide, we’ll walk through a specific scenario and provide solutions to effectively work with this type of HTML markup.

Problem Overview

Consider the following HTML markup for a table cell:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In this scenario, you're trying to find the text '456' using the following XPath expression:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Unfortunately, this query returns no match. The underlying issue stems from how XPath interprets nodes and their text content.

Why This Happens

The td element contains three child nodes:

A text node with the value 123

An empty <br> element

Another text node with the value 456

The contains() function only evaluates the first text node (123) when you use the text() function directly. Consequently, attempts to search for '456' do not yield results, as it is not the first text node in document order. Let’s explore effective solutions to this problem.

Solutions

1. Using the Entire String of the td Element

If you don’t need to differentiate how the text is structured within the td, you can call contains() on the entire node’s string value instead. The following XPath will work:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This XPath checks the entire string value of the td, which includes all text nodes regardless of the presence of child elements like <br>.

2. Targeting Direct Text Child Nodes

If you want to ensure that you're only matching text nodes that are direct children of the td, you can structure the XPath as follows:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This expression means you are looking specifically for a td that has a text node child containing the string '456'. However, this will exclude cases where '456' might be nested inside an additional element like a <span>.

Conclusion

Navigating XPath queries can sometimes be tricky, especially when dealing with unclosed tags or when different types of nodes are present in a single element. By adapting your approach to include the complete string of a node or using more specific targeting of text nodes, you can successfully locate the content you need in your Selenium tests. Remember, understanding the structure of your HTML and the behavior of XPath is crucial for effective automation testing.

Now that you are equipped with these solutions, you can confidently apply them to your test cases and resolve similar issues in the future. Happy testing!