appium/docs/finding-elements.md

Finding and interacting with elements

Appium supports a subset of the WebDriver locator strategies:

• find by "tag name" (i.e., ui component type)
• find by "name" (i.e., the text, label, or developer-generated ID a.k.a 'accessibilityIdentifier' of an element)
• find by "xpath" (i.e., an abstract representation of a path to an element, with certain constraints)

###Tag name mapping

You can use the direct UIAutomation component type name for the tag name, or use the simplified mapping (used in some examples below) found here:

https://github.com/appium/appium/blob/master/app/uiauto/lib/mechanic.js#L29

Issues

There's a known issue with table cell elements becoming invalidated before there's time to interact with them. We're working on a fix

Examples

Find all the UIAButtons on the screen

WD.js:

driver.elementsByTagName('button', function(err, buttons) {
  // tap all the buttons
  var tapNextButton = function() {
    var button = buttons.shift();
    if (typeof button !== "undefined") {
      button.click(function(err) {
        tapNextButton();
      })
    } else {
      driver.quit();
    }
  }
  tapNextButton();
});

Ruby:

buttons = @driver.find_elements :tag_name, :button
buttons.each { |b| b.click }

Python:

[button.click() for button in driver.find_elements_by_tag_name('button')]

Find the element with the text (or accessibilityIdentifier) "Go"

WD.js:

driver.elementByName('Go', function(err, el) {
  el.tap(function(err) {
    driver.quit();
  });
});

Ruby:

@driver.find_element(:name, 'Go').click

Python:

driver.find_element_by_name('Go').click()

Find the nav bar text element where the text begins with "Hi, "

WD.js:

driver.elementByXpath('//navigationBar/text[contains(@value, "Hi, ")]', function(err, el) {
  el.text(function(err, text) {
    console.log(text);
    driver.quit();
  });
});

Ruby:

@driver.find_element :xpath, '//navigationBar/text[contains(@value, "Hi, ")]'

Find an element by tagName

Java:

driver.findElement(By.tagName("button")).sendKeys("Hi");

WebELement element = findElement(By.tagName("button"));
element.sendKeys("Hi");

List<WebElement> elems = findElements(By.tagName("button"));
elems.get(0).sendKeys("Hi");

Python:

driver.find_elements_by_tag_name('tableCell')[5].click()

FindAndAct

If you want, you can find and act on an element in a single command (iOS-only). For example, you can find and click on an element in one call to Appium, using a special mobile: findAndAct command.

Python:

args = {'strategy': 'tag_name', 'selector': 'button', 'action': 'tap'}
driver.execute_script("mobile: findAndAct", args)

Pull to refresh using a swipe gesture

Python:

js_snippet = "mobile: swipe"
args = {'startX':0.5, 'startY':0.2, 'startX':0.5, 'startY':0.95, 'tapCount':1, 'duration':10}
driver.execute_script(js_snippet, args)

Note: driver.execute_script() is explained in Automating Mobile Gestures: Alternative access method)