Obtain the CSS selector string of a WebElement using Selenium WebDriver in Java

My task involves working with a WebElement and my goal is to extract the CSS selector string from it. During code debugging, I found this value stored in a variable:

[[ChromeDriver: chrome on MAC (345345345n5435345b34)] -> css selector: div[class='alert alert-danger']]

What I actually require is just the css selector string:

div[class='alert alert-danger']]

I am aware that I can split the string, but I am curious if there is a more efficient method provided by Selenium for achieving this. I have already tried using .getAttribute("class"), which gives me "alert alert-danger" but not the entire selector.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any assistance or suggestions would be highly appreciated.

javacssselenium-webdriver

Answer №1

Creating your very own customized CSS selector is possible using a snippet of JavaScript. Take a look at this example utilizing Java:

final String JS_BUILD_CSS_SELECTOR =
    "for(var e=arguments[0],n=[],i=function(e,n){if(!e||!n)return 0;f" +
    "or(var i=0,a=e.length;a>i;i++)if(-1==n.indexOf(e[i]))return 0;re" +
    "turn 1};e&&1==e.nodeType&&'HTML'!=e.nodeName;e=e.parentNode){if(" +
    "e.id){n.unshift('#'+e.id);break}for(var a=1,r=1,o=e.localName,l=" +
    "e.className&&e.className.trim().split(/[\\s,]+/g),t=e.previousSi" +
    "bling;t;t=t.previousSibling)10!=t.nodeType&&t.nodeName==e.nodeNa" +
    "me&&(i(l,t.className)&&(l=null),r=0,++a);for(var t=e.nextSibling" +
    ";t;t=t.nextSibling)t.nodeName==e.nodeName&&(i(l,t.className)&&(l" +
    "=null),r=0);n.unshift(r?o:o+(l?'.'+l.join('.'):':nth-child('+a+'" +
    ")'))}return n.join(' > ');";

WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor)driver;
driver.get("http://stackoverflow.com/questions");

// identify an element
WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector(".youarehere"));

// construct the Css selector for the specific element
String selector = (String)js.executeScript(JS_BUILD_CSS_SELECTOR, element);

// present the outcome
System.out.println("Your Customized Css selector: " + selector);

Answer №2

If you're looking to extract specific elements from a given string, one effective method is using regular expressions (regex). For example, by utilizing the regex expression "div.*", you can easily capture the entire selector from the string provided.

div.*

To handle scenarios where the element type may vary (not solely div), consider creating a reusable method that accepts the desired element as an argument. This way, you can apply the same approach for different elements such as ul.*.

For more details and testing, check out this Regex101 link.

Answer №3

Sorry, but there is no easier way to do it. Keep in mind that the selector you generate may not definitively target the specific element you're after. For more insights, check out this helpful link:
The best approach is to study how you were able to locate the element initially, as this can help in determining the appropriate selector.

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