Locator Strategies in Selenium Python

One of the most frequent tasks in web automation and testing is finding objects on a webpage. There are several ways to locate components with Selenium WebDriver, a potent tool for programmatically managing a web browser. The many locator strategies in Selenium Python will be covered in this post, with examples to help you along the way.

Introduction

The first step in using Selenium WebDriver to interact with a web element on a webpage, such as clicking a button or typing text into a textbox, is to locate the element. Eight alternative locators, or methods, are supported by selenium for locating an element or set of elements. These consist of

• find_element_by_id

• find_element_by_name

• find_element_by_class_name

• find_element_by_tag_name

• find_element_by_link_text

• find_element_by_partial_link_text

• find_element_by_css_selector

• find_element_by_xpath

Let's examine these locator strategies more closely.

Locator Strategies in Selenium Python

Example 1: Find_element_by_id

The first element with the given id is found using the find_element_by_id method. This approach is favoured because each webpage's id characteristics are distinct.

from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get('https://www.example.com')

element = driver.find_element_by_id('element_id')

Selenium WebDriver looks for the element with the id "element_id" in this example.

Example 2: Find_element_by_name

The first element with the supplied name property is found by the find_element_by_name function. Given that form elements frequently use the name attribute, this is helpful for them.

from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get('https://www.example.com')

element = driver.find_element_by_name('element_name')

'element_name' is the element that Selenium WebDriver is looking for in this instance.

Example 3: Find_element_by_class_name

This method finds the first element that belongs to the given class. The first element it finds will be returned if multiple elements share the same class name.

from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get('https://www.example.com')

element = driver.find_element_by_class_name('element_class_name')

Selenium WebDriver looks for the first element in this case with the class 'element_class_name'.

Example 4: Find_element_by_tag_name

The first element matching the given HTML tag name is found using the find_element_by_tag_name method. When trying to gather data from a particular tag, this tactic can be useful.

from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get('https://www.example.com')

element = driver.find_element_by_tag_name('tag_name')

Selenium WebDriver looks for the first element in this example that has the tag 'tag_name'.

Example 5: Find_element_by_css_selector

The first element that matches a CSS selector is found using this approach. The extensive element matching capabilities of CSS selectors allow for the combining of element characteristics.

from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get('https://www.example.com')

element = driver.find_element_by_css_selector('tag#id.class')

In this illustration, Selenium WebDriver looks for the first element that meets the CSS selector 'tag#id.class'.

Conclusion

To locate components on a webpage, Selenium offers a complete and adaptable collection of locator techniques. The right method must be selected depending on the distinctive qualities of the site parts. To find a particularly elusive ingredient, you might occasionally need to combine several approaches. With these abilities, you're prepared to explore the world of online automation and testing with Python's Selenium WebDriver.