Appium Select Element by ID

Question

I am trying to convert my SeeTest suite to Appium, but I'm having one large issue:

I can't select elements by their @id attribute. When I try to select by ID, it says "element not found". When I view the apk through uiautomateviewer, no element @ids are visible.

SeeTest requires an apk to be an "instrumented" in order to select by @id. Is there any equivalent of "instrumentation" for Appium?

use `@resource-id` if you use xpath, or `id` (not `@id`) if you use the `id` locator strategy. In the case of the xpath, though, you need to full id, with package name and `:id/` part. — njzk2, Sep 16 '16 at 18:51
@njzk2 no `@resource-id`s are visible in uiautomatorviewer either. I'm using API version 17 (Android 4.2.2) if that is relevant — Jared Loomis, Sep 16 '16 at 19:08
the resource-id is simply the id of your view in you xml layout — njzk2, Sep 16 '16 at 19:24
not sure what you expect that to do. Use the appium inspector to see the id. — njzk2, Sep 16 '16 at 19:37

JaysonP · Answer 1 · 2016-09-16T20:21:08.990

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A good rule of thumb is that if it does not appear in the Appium inspector, do no use it. What you could do is something along the lines of:

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//<UIElementType[contains(@<identifier>, '<identifier value>')]>");

Where identifier can be

name or content-desc
label
text

and a few more.

Hopefully this will help with your changes.

edited Sep 16 '16 at 20:21

answered Sep 16 '16 at 19:31

JaysonP

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Well, I have a large automation framework already in place using id's (with SeeTest as the backend). I just want to make Appium behave the same as SeeTest with respect to id's – Jared Loomis Sep 16 '16 at 19:36
name does not work on android. neither does label. Your best bets are resource-id, content-desc, and text. – njzk2 Sep 16 '16 at 19:37
I do not have access to my appium code currently but is it possible to find it in the same manner I stated above but using `contains(@resource-id, 'com.package.path.id')` Otherwise I don't know if there is a way to find in a similar way. Can you possible show me an example of how your SeeTest works. I am unfamiliar with it. – JaysonP Sep 16 '16 at 19:41
Like `njzk` stated name will not work, on Android it is known as content-desc however if you are trying to find the attibute `content-desc` you need to use `element.getAttribute("name");` where element is of type AndroidElement – JaysonP Sep 16 '16 at 20:24

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 14 '17 at 12:48

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public void athenaclick(String element) {
    WebElement webElement = driver.findElement(By.id(element));
    webElement.click();
    System.out.println("Click element: "+element);
}

In seetest when you instrument you get extra properties which might not be available when in appium eg: text colour as seetest is a paid tool and appium is a open source.

edited Feb 14 '17 at 12:48

Maximilian Ast

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answered Feb 14 '17 at 11:25

akhilesh gulati

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score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 15 '17 at 16:56

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Turns out this was because Appium only supports selection by id with Android API level 18+. I was on 17, so I switched to the Selendroid Appium backend.

answered Feb 15 '17 at 16:56

Jared Loomis

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Appium Select Element by ID

3 Answers3