Xpath solution for the duplicate field names in the same page

Question

There are three Save buttons in the webpage which has dynamic ID. Guide me how to define the best xpath, currently I have applied the full xpath starting html node.

First Save Button HTML code

<button id="j_idt131" name="j_idt131" class="ui-button ui-widget ui-state-default ui-corner-all ui-button-text-only button" onclick="PrimeFaces.ab({source:'j_idt131',update:'csqa_form',oncomplete:function(xhr,status,args){if (args &amp;&amp; !args.validationFailed) qaChangeDialog.show();}});return false;" type="submit" role="button" aria-disabled="false"><span class="ui-button-text ui-c">Save</span></button>

Second Save Button HTML code

<button id="j_idt104" name="j_idt104" class="ui-button ui-widget ui-state-default ui-corner-all ui-button-text-only button" onclick="PrimeFaces.ab({source:'j_idt104',update:'cemail_form',oncomplete:function(xhr,status,args){if (args &amp;&amp; !args.validationFailed) emailChangeDialog.show();}});return false;" type="submit" role="button" aria-disabled="false"><span class="ui-button-text ui-c">Save</span></button>

Third Save Button HTML code

<button id="j_idt82" name="j_idt82" class="ui-button ui-widget ui-state-default ui-corner-all ui-button-text-only button" onclick="PrimeFaces.ab({source:'j_idt82',update:'cpwd_form',oncomplete:function(xhr,status,args){if (args &amp;&amp; !args.validationFailed) pwdChangeDialog.show();}});return false;" type="submit" role="button" aria-disabled="false"><span class="ui-button-text ui-c">Save</span></button>

enter image description here

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 22 '14 at 10:21

1

Since you know the order of the buttons, you could try this xpath,

//button[contains(@id,"j_idt")][1]
//button[contains(@id,"j_idt")][2] 
//button[contains(@id,"j_idt")][3]

answered Jul 22 '14 at 10:21

Vignesh Paramasivam

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1

But according to W3C it starts with [1]. Correct me if im wrong. – Vignesh Paramasivam Jul 22 '14 at 10:35
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@Vignesh you are correct. XPath is one of the funny languages that have 1-based arrays rather than 0-based arrays (which is common in a lot of other languages) – Arran Jul 22 '14 at 10:38
@Vignesh when i applied the same concept for anchor tags it does not work. //a[contains(text(), 'Pending New Business')][1] – Thirumalai Jul 22 '14 at 12:25
@Thirumalai try //a[contains(., 'Pending New Business')][1] – Vignesh Paramasivam Jul 22 '14 at 12:35
@Thirumalai also look at this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14570857/retrieve-an-xpath-text-contains-using-text explained better – Vignesh Paramasivam Jul 22 '14 at 12:36
@vignesh the logic works partially, most of the times it gets failed to recognize. – Thirumalai Jul 22 '14 at 13:38
@Thirumalai what do you mean 'partially'. I think i answered your question, but i dont know why you unaccepted the answer after a day – Vignesh Paramasivam Jul 23 '14 at 05:30
@Vignesh the script is not clicking the button. so I am expecting different answer to resolve it. – Thirumalai Jul 23 '14 at 05:57
@Thirumalai Are you able to find the element using the xpath? – Vignesh Paramasivam Jul 23 '14 at 06:59
@Vignesh No, failed to recognise the webelement – Thirumalai Jul 23 '14 at 08:42
@Thirumalai Check whether it is in different frame. Can you show me the code, what you've tried – Vignesh Paramasivam Jul 23 '14 at 08:45
@Vignesh I used relative path to resolve this issue for the time being. 1 Save) //*[@id="csqa_form"]/table/tbody/tr[7]/td[2]/button/span 2 Save) //*[@id="cemail_form"]/table/tbody/tr[4]/td[2]/table/tbody/tr/td/button/span 3 Save) //*[@id="cpwd_form"]/table/tbody/tr[4]/td[2]/table/tbody/tr/td/button/span – Thirumalai Jul 23 '14 at 09:32

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 22 '14 at 10:37

0

HI can you please provide the full page markup maybe through a pastie link I reckon you can use AxisName by selection //label[.='Answert3']/following::button[.='Save']

answered Jul 22 '14 at 10:37

Zach

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Xpath solution for the duplicate field names in the same page

2 Answers2