How to get attributes values of element in Selenium using getAttribute Method

Using getAttribute, we can extract the value of attribute of an element in Selenium WebDriver. Extracting values of attribute of element can be helpful in a number of ways. Some of the important use of getattribute method are as follows: 

• Name of all the links or button or an object type in the Page.

• Validating if object with particular property exists in the Page.

• Extracting the href value for a button/link.

• Extracting values of element of a particular class or Id. For e.g: If error message are displayed on the page with the same class. We can get all the error messages displayed getting text attribute for all element with the common class name.

Below code explains use of getattribute in Selenium Webdriver for the above purpose.

 package testproject;  
 import java.io.File;  
 import java.util.List;  
 import org.openqa.selenium.By;  
 import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;  
 import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;  
 import org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerDriver;  
 public class testingC {  
      static WebDriver driver;  
      public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {  
           // Connect to the Internet driver server and create an instance of Internet explorer driver.       
           File file = new File("D:\\selenium\\IEDriverServer.exe");  
           System.setProperty("webdriver.ie.driver", file.getAbsolutePath());       
           try{  
                driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();  
       driver.manage().window().maximize();  
           }  
           catch(Exception e)  
           {  
                driver=new InternetExplorerDriver();  
           }  
           driver.navigate().to("https://google.com");  
           //function to get names of all the links in the Page  
           getALLNameforObject("link");  
           // function to validate a particular object with particular text appears in the Page  
           ValidateObjectExists("link", "About");       
           //   
      }  
      public static void getALLNameforObject(String strObject)  
       {  
           if(strObject.toLowerCase().trim().contentEquals("link"))  
           {  
                strObject = "a";  
           }  
           if(strObject.toLowerCase().trim().contentEquals("button"))  
           {  
                strObject = "button";  
           }  
           List<WebElement> elemLink = driver.findElements(By.tagName(strObject));  
           int intLinksinPage = elemLink.size();  
           System.out.println(intLinksinPage);  
           for (int i = 0;i<intLinksinPage;i++)  
           {  
                System.out.println("The name of the link " + (i+1) +" in the page is :- " + elemLink.get(i).getAttribute("text"));  
           }  
      }  
      public static void ValidateObjectExists(String strObject, String ObjName)  
       {  
           if(strObject.toLowerCase().trim().contentEquals("link"))  
           {  
                strObject = "a";  
           }  
           if(strObject.toLowerCase().trim().contentEquals("button"))  
           {  
                strObject = "button";  
           }  
           List<WebElement> elemLink = driver.findElements(By.tagName(strObject));  
           int intLinksinPage = elemLink.size();  
           System.out.println(intLinksinPage);  
           for (int i = 0;i<intLinksinPage;i++)  
           {  
                if(elemLink.get(i).getAttribute("text").contentEquals(ObjName))  
                {  
                     System.out.println("Link exists in Page with text " + elemLink.get(i).getAttribute("text"));  
                }  
           }  
      }  
 }  

Highlighting an element using JavaScriptexecutor: Selenium Code Solution

Problem Statement: How to highlight an element in Selenium Webdriver?

Solution : We can highlight an element in Selenium WebDriver by creating a custom method to highlight an element using JavaScriptexecutor.

What is JavaScriptexecutor?

JavaScriptexecutor class provides mechanism to execute Javascript through selenium driver. JavaScript executor provides two methods to execute javascript in the code:

a.) executeAsyncScript - Execute an asynchronous code of JavaScript
b.) executeScript - Executes a code of JavaScript.

Parameters for the two methods are the Script to be executed and arguments for the script.

Below package needs to be imported to use JavascriptExecutor:

import org.openqa.selenium.JavascriptExecutor;

Below code explains how to use JavaScriptExecutor to highlight an element in Selenium WebDriver using Java.

 import java.io.File;  
 import org.openqa.selenium.By;  
 import org.openqa.selenium.JavascriptExecutor;  
 import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;  
 import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;  
 import org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerDriver;  
 public class testingC {  
      static WebDriver driver;  
      public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {  
           // Connect to the Internet driver server and create an instance of Internet explorer driver.       
           File file = new File("D:\\selenium\\IEDriverServer.exe");  
           System.setProperty("webdriver.ie.driver", file.getAbsolutePath());       
           try{  
                driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();  
                //added new line to maximise browser on launch  
       driver.manage().window().maximize();  
           }  
           catch(Exception e)  
           {  
                driver=new InternetExplorerDriver();  
           }  
           //Navigate to the webpage and identify the element to be highigted  
           driver.navigate().to("https://qaautomationqtp.blogspot.com");  
           WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.linkText("Play"));  
           //highlight the element  
            methodhighlightElement(element);  
         element.click();            
      }  
      public static void methodhighlightElement(WebElement element) throws InterruptedException   
       {  
         JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;  
         js.executeScript("arguments[0].setAttribute('style','border: solid 8px blue')", element);   
         Thread.sleep(2000);  
         js.executeScript("arguments[0].setAttribute('style', arguments[1]);", element, "");  
      }  
 }  

Difference between Actions and Functions in QTP/UFT 11.5

Comparison between Action and functions in QTP/ UFT 11.5 is explained in this article. We discuss on how action and functions are similar and difference between two in UFT 11.5/ QTP

Parameter	Action	Functions
Feature Type	Action is a feature provided by QTP/UFT	Function is a feature of VBScript
Return Value	We can pass as well as return multiple values using input and output parameters	A function returns a single value although values of multiple variable can be passed using public variable with global scope
Assets	An Action has local repositories, datatable, Active screen etc  associated with it	Function cannot have local repositories, datatable  and other QTP features associated with it
	Multiple function can be created in an action	Multiple Actions cannot be created in a function.
Size and Performance	Size of the test increases with increase in number of actions as there is data table, OR associated with each of the test.	Performance of using function is better compared to action and consumes less size.
Actions	An Action is associated with a single test	Function library can be associated with multiple tests and can be loaded at runtime.
Maximum Allowed	There can be maximum 120 actions in a test and If any test has 120 actions in it, it will definitely not a good test script	There is no limit of number of function used in a test.
Maintenance Cost	Maintenance cost is higher in case of Action, as we need to open each test to make change at action. While multiple function library being vbs files can be updated easily.
Similarity between the Two	The purpose of using Actions or function is to provide modularity to the test scripts and should be used to create structured tests.
Extension	Extension of action script is .mts while function library can have extension as .vbs, .qfl.