Defines an object that runs Selenium commands.

Element Locators

Element Locators tell Selenium which HTML element a command refers to. The format of a locator is:

locatorType=argument

We support the following strategies for locating elements:

identifier=id

Select the element with the specified @id attribute. If no match is found, select the first element whose @name attribute is id. (This is normally the default; see below.)

id=id

Select the element with the specified @id attribute.

name=name

Select the first element with the specified @name attribute.

username

name=username

The name may optionally be followed by one or more element-filters, separated from the name by whitespace. If the filterType is not specified, value is assumed.

name=flavour value=chocolate

dom=javascriptExpression

Find an element using JavaScript traversal of the HTML Document Object Model. DOM locators must begin with "document.".

dom=document.forms['myForm'].myDropdown

dom=document.images[56]

xpath=xpathExpression

Locate an element using an XPath expression.

xpath=//img[@alt='The image alt text']

xpath=//table[@id='table1']//tr[4]/td[2]

link=textPattern

Select the link (anchor) element which contains text matching the specified pattern.

link=The link text

Without an explicit locator prefix, Selenium uses the following default strategies:

dom, for locators starting with "document."
xpath, for locators starting with "//"
identifier, otherwise

Element Filters

Element filters can be used with a locator to refine a list of candidate elements. They are currently used only in the 'name' element-locator.

Filters look much like locators, ie.

filterType=argument

Supported element-filters are:

value=valuePattern

Matches elements based on their values. This is particularly useful for refining a list of similarly-named toggle-buttons.

index=index

Selects a single element based on its position in the list (offset from zero).

String-match Patterns

Various Pattern syntaxes are available for matching string values:

glob:pattern

Match a string against a "glob" (aka "wildmat") pattern. "Glob" is a kind of limited regular-expression syntax typically used in command-line shells. In a glob pattern, "*" represents any sequence of characters, and "?" represents any single character. Glob patterns match against the entire string.

regexp:regexp

Match a string using a regular-expression. The full power of JavaScript regular-expressions is available.

exact:string

Match a string exactly, verbatim, without any of that fancy wildcard stuff.

If no pattern prefix is specified, Selenium assumes that it's a "glob" pattern.

an element locator Clicks on a link, button, checkbox or radio button. If the click action causes a new page to load (like a link usually does), call waitForPageToLoad. an element locator the event name, e.g. "focus" or "blur" Explicitly simulate an event, to trigger the corresponding "onevent" handler. an element locator the numeric keycode of the key to be pressed, normally the ASCII value of that key. Simulates a user pressing and releasing a key. an element locator the numeric keycode of the key to be pressed, normally the ASCII value of that key. Simulates a user pressing a key (without releasing it yet). an element locator the numeric keycode of the key to be released, normally the ASCII value of that key. Simulates a user releasing a key. an element locator Simulates a user hovering a mouse over the specified element. an element locator Simulates a user pressing the mouse button (without releasing it yet) on the specified element. an element locator the value to type Sets the value of an input field, as though you typed it in.

Can also be used to set the value of combo boxes, check boxes, etc. In these cases, value should be the value of the option selected, not the visible text.

an element locator Check a toggle-button (checkbox/radio) an element locator Uncheck a toggle-button (checkbox/radio) an element locator identifying a drop-down menu an option locator (a label by default) Select an option from a drop-down using an option locator.

Option locators provide different ways of specifying options of an HTML Select element (e.g. for selecting a specific option, or for asserting that the selected option satisfies a specification). There are several forms of Select Option Locator.

label=labelPattern

matches options based on their labels, i.e. the visible text. (This is the default.)

label=regexp:^[Oo]ther

value=valuePattern

matches options based on their values.

value=other

id=id

matches options based on their ids.

id=option1

index=index

matches an option based on its index (offset from zero).

index=2

If no option locator prefix is provided, the default behaviour is to match on label.

an element locator identifying a multi-select box an option locator (a label by default) Add a selection to the set of selected options in a multi-select element using an option locator. @see #doSelect for details of option locators an element locator identifying a multi-select box an option locator (a label by default) Remove a selection from the set of selected options in a multi-select element using an option locator. @see #doSelect for details of option locators an element locator for the form you want to submit Submit the specified form. This is particularly useful for forms without submit buttons, e.g. single-input "Search" forms. the URL to open; may be relative or absolute Opens an URL in the test frame. This accepts both relative and absolute URLs. The "open" command waits for the page to load before proceeding, ie. the "AndWait" suffix is implicit. Note: The URL must be on the same domain as the runner HTML due to security restrictions in the browser (Same Origin Policy). If you need to open an URL on another domain, use the Selenium Server to start a new browser session on that domain. the JavaScript window ID of the window to select Selects a popup window; once a popup window has been selected, all commands go to that window. To select the main window again, use "null" as the target. the JavaScript window ID of the window that will appear a timeout in milliseconds, after which the action will return with an error Waits for a popup window to appear and load up. By default, Selenium's overridden window.confirm() function will return true, as if the user had manually clicked OK. After running this command, the next call to confirm() will return false, as if the user had clicked Cancel. the answer to give in response to the prompt pop-up Instructs Selenium to return the specified answer string in response to the next JavaScript prompt [window.prompt()]. Simulates the user clicking the "back" button on their browser. Simulates the user clicking the "Refresh" button on their browser. Simulates the user clicking the "close" button in the titlebar of a popup window or tab. true if there is an alert Has an alert occurred?

This function never throws an exception

true if there is a pending prompt Has a prompt occurred?

This function never throws an exception

true if there is a pending confirmation Has confirm() been called?

This function never throws an exception

The message of the most recent JavaScript alert Retrieves the message of a JavaScript alert generated during the previous action, or fail if there were no alerts.

Getting an alert has the same effect as manually clicking OK. If an alert is generated but you do not get/verify it, the next Selenium action will fail.

NOTE: under Selenium, JavaScript alerts will NOT pop up a visible alert dialog.

NOTE: Selenium does NOT support JavaScript alerts that are generated in a page's onload() event handler. In this case a visible dialog WILL be generated and Selenium will hang until someone manually clicks OK.

the message of the most recent JavaScript confirmation dialog Retrieves the message of a JavaScript confirmation dialog generated during the previous action.

By default, the confirm function will return true, having the same effect as manually clicking OK. This can be changed by prior execution of the chooseCancelOnNextConfirmation command. If an confirmation is generated but you do not get/verify it, the next Selenium action will fail.

NOTE: under Selenium, JavaScript confirmations will NOT pop up a visible dialog.

NOTE: Selenium does NOT support JavaScript confirmations that are generated in a page's onload() event handler. In this case a visible dialog WILL be generated and Selenium will hang until you manually click OK.

the message of the most recent JavaScript question prompt Retrieves the message of a JavaScript question prompt dialog generated during the previous action.

Successful handling of the prompt requires prior execution of the answerOnNextPrompt command. If a prompt is generated but you do not get/verify it, the next Selenium action will fail.

NOTE: under Selenium, JavaScript prompts will NOT pop up a visible dialog.

NOTE: Selenium does NOT support JavaScript prompts that are generated in a page's onload() event handler. In this case a visible dialog WILL be generated and Selenium will hang until someone manually clicks OK.

the absolute URL of the current page Gets the absolute URL of the current page. true if the location matches, false otherwise the location to match Verify the location of the current page ends with the expected location. If an URL querystring is provided, this is checked as well. the title of the current page Gets the title of the current page. the entire text of the page Gets the entire text of the page. the element value, or "on/off" for checkbox/radio elements an element locator Gets the (whitespace-trimmed) value of an input field (or anything else with a value parameter). For checkbox/radio elements, the value will be "on" or "off" depending on whether the element is checked or not. the text of the element an element locator Gets the text of an element. This works for any element that contains text. This command uses either the textContent (Mozilla-like browsers) or the innerText (IE-like browsers) of the element, which is the rendered text shown to the user. the results of evaluating the snippet the JavaScript snippet to run Gets the result of evaluating the specified JavaScript snippet. The snippet may have multiple lines, but only the result of the last line will be returned.

Note that, by default, the snippet will run in the context of the "selenium" object itself, so this will refer to the Selenium object, and window will refer to the top-level runner test window, not the window of your application.

If you need a reference to the window of your application, you can refer to this.browserbot.getCurrentWindow() and if you need to use a locator to refer to a single element in your application page, you can use this.page().findElement("foo") where "foo" is your locator.

either "true" or "false" depending on whether the checkbox is checked an element locator pointing to a checkbox or radio button Gets whether a toggle-button (checkbox/radio) is checked. Fails if the specified element doesn't exist or isn't a toggle-button. the text from the specified cell a cell address, e.g. "foo.1.4" Gets the text from a cell of a table. The cellAddress syntax tableLocator.row.column, where row and column start at 0. true if the selected option matches the locator, false otherwise an element locator an option locator, typically just an option label (e.g. "John Smith") Verifies that the selected option of a drop-down satisfies the optionSpecifier.

See the select command for more information about option locators.

an array of all option labels in the specified select drop-down an element locator Gets all option labels for selected options in the specified select or multi-select element. an array of all option labels in the specified select drop-down an element locator Gets all option labels in the specified select drop-down. the value of the specified attribute an element locator followed by an Gets the value of an element attribute. true if the pattern matches the text, false otherwise a pattern to match with the text of the page Verifies that the specified text pattern appears somewhere on the rendered page shown to the user. true if the element is present, false otherwise an element locator Verifies that the specified element is somewhere on the page. true if the specified element is visible, false otherwise an element locator Determines if the specified element is visible. An element can be rendered invisible by setting the CSS "visibility" property to "hidden", or the "display" property to "none", either for the element itself or one if its ancestors. This method will fail if the element is not present. true if the input element is editable, false otherwise an element locator Determines whether the specified input element is editable, ie hasn't been disabled. This method will fail if the specified element isn't an input element. the IDs of all buttons on the page Returns the IDs of all buttons on the page.

If a given button has no ID, it will appear as "" in this array.

the IDs of all links on the page Returns the IDs of all links on the page.

If a given link has no ID, it will appear as "" in this array.

the IDs of all field on the page Returns the IDs of all input fields on the page.

If a given field has no ID, it will appear as "" in this array.

the entire HTML source Returns the entire HTML source between the opening and closing "html" tags. the message to be sent to the browser one of "debug", "info", "warn", "error", sets the threshold for browser-side logging Writes a message to the status bar and adds a note to the browser-side log.

If logLevelThreshold is specified, set the threshold for logging to that level (debug, info, warn, error).

(Note that the browser-side logs will not be sent back to the server, and are invisible to the Client Driver.)

the value passed in the value to return Returns the specified expression.

This is useful because of JavaScript preprocessing. It is used to generate commands like assertExpression and storeExpression.

the JavaScript snippet to run a timeout in milliseconds, after which this command will return with an error Runs the specified JavaScript snippet repeatedly until it evaluates to "true". The snippet may have multiple lines, but only the result of the last line will be considered.

Note that, by default, the snippet will be run in the runner's test window, not in the window of your application. To get the window of your application, you can use the JavaScript snippet selenium.browserbot.getCurrentWindow(), and then run your JavaScript in there

a timeout in milliseconds, after which the action will return with an error Specifies the amount of time that Selenium will wait for actions to complete.

Actions that require waiting include "open" and the "waitFor*" actions.

The default timeout is 30 seconds. a timeout in milliseconds, after which this command will return with an error Waits for a new page to load.

You can use this command instead of the "AndWait" suffixes, "clickAndWait", "selectAndWait", "typeAndWait" etc. (which are only available in the JS API).

Selenium constantly keeps track of new pages loading, and sets a "newPageLoaded" flag when it first notices a page load. Running any other Selenium command after turns the flag to false. Hence, if you want to wait for a page to load, you must wait immediately after a Selenium command that caused a page-load.