Selenium IDE testing all links

Question

I'm trying to use Selenium IDE to test a web app. On one page, there are several links which trigger modal windows. I'd like to test ALL the links on the page to ensure that ALL cause modals to pop up.

Each link has a class "modal" so I thought I could just change the target value in IDE css=a.modal but that finds only the first link.

I've found a few solutions but they use Selenium RC with Java/Python and those can't be directly translated to the IDE.

I understand the IDE is not as powerful but I'm setting this up for a non-programmer to use and up till now, it's been really simple for them.

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 14 '12 at 06:12

i had to read up a lot and i want to thank @ohaal and @aleh for their inputs. i used their suggested links as well as some more external reading to reach the solution like so:

<tr>
<td>open</td>
<td>/logout</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>clickAndWait</td>
<td>link=Forum</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>storeXpathCount</td>
<td>//p[3]/span/a[contains(@class, 'modal')]</td>
<td>users</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>store</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>i</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>while</td>
<td>storedVars.i&lt;=storedVars.users</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>click</td>
<td>//descendant::a[contains(@class, 'modal')][${i}]</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>waitForText</td>
<td>css=h2</td>
<td>You are not logged in</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>click</td>
<td>css=#cross_button &gt; a &gt; img</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>store</td>
<td>javascript{storedVars.i++}</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>endWhile</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>

i'm not selecting any one answer as all of them contributed to the final solution.

Glad, that you solved your problem. But instead of xpath try to use ids, links, names, css where it is possible. I mean storeCssCount is more preferable than storeXpathCount. Also if all of your links have one common parent, you can use `click | css=a.modal:nth-child(${i})` — Aleh Douhi, Apr 16 '12 at 11:11
`storeCssCount is more preferable than storeXpathCount` Why is that? — Daddy32, Jan 19 '15 at 13:53

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 13 '12 at 08:10

1

Use a while loop, and this XPath expression as a locator: //a[contains(@class, 'modal')]

//a[contains(@class, 'modal')][1], //a[contains(@class, 'modal')][2] and so on should point to the links you're after.

See this link for more information on how to do while loops in Selenium IDE if you are unfamiliar with it.

answered Apr 13 '12 at 08:10

ohaal

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53

thanks for that. however, the link does not show how to use xpath to get the list of links. anything more specific would be appreciated! – hasan Apr 13 '12 at 09:12
You can "pretend" that `//a[contains(@class, 'modal')]` is the list of links (it's really just a locator/selector), `//a[contains(@class, 'modal')][1]` is the first link, `//a[contains(@class, 'modal')][2]` is the second link, and so on. – ohaal Apr 13 '12 at 09:30

Aleh Douhi · Answer 3 · 2012-04-13T12:24:35.597

Try this (you have to download this extension):

<tr>
    <td>storeCssCount</td>
    <td>css=a.modal</td>
    <td>links</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>store</td>
    <td>0</td>
    <td>i</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>label</td>
    <td>l1</td>
    <td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>getEval</td>
    <td>storedVars.i++</td>
    <td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>click</td>
    <td>//descendant::a[contains(@class, 'modal')][${i}]</td>
    <td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>gotoIf</td>
    <td>--storedVars.links</td>
    <td>l1</td>
</tr>

Insert your assertions and probably pop-ups closings before last command (gotoIf).

Selenium IDE testing all links

3 Answers3