How can I write Python selenium test for PrimeFaces?

I am trying to write a Selenium test but the issue is I have learned that the page is generated with PrimeFaces, thus the element IDs randomly change from time to time. Not using IDs is not very reliable. Is there anything I can do?

1 Answer

Not having meaningful stable IDs is not a problem, as there are always alternative ways to locate elements on a page. Just to name a few options:

• partial id matches with XPath or CSS, e.g.:

   # contains driver.find_element_by_css_selector("span[id*=customer]") driver.find_element_by_xpath("//span[contains(@id, 'customer')]") # starts with driver.find_element_by_css_selector("span[id^=customer]") driver.find_element_by_xpath("//span[starts-with(@id, 'customer')]") # ends with driver.find_element_by_css_selector("span[id$=customer]") 

• classes which refer/tell some valuable information about the data types ("data-oriented locators"):

   driver.find_element_by_css_selector(".price") driver.find_element_by_class_name("price") 

• going sideways from a label:

   # <label>Price</label><span>10.00</span> driver.find_element_by_xpath("//label[.='Price']/following-sibling::span") 

• links by link text or partial link text:

   driver.find_element_by_link_text("Information") driver.find_element_by_partial_link_text("more") 

And, you can, of course, get creative and combine them. There are more:

• Locating Elements

There is also this relevant thread which goes over best practices when choosing a method to locate an element on a page:

• What makes a good selenium locator?