In this article, we will be learning how to handle the simple drop-down or list box using Selenium WebDriver.
What is DropDown or List
Box?
It is a component on GUI, from where users can
select one or more values from the set of values presented in a list that is
always visible.
How to handle Listbox
using Selenium WebDriver?
In SELENIUM, we handle Listbox using Select class
and findElements() method.
● Select class is present in
org.openqa.SELENIUM.support.ui package.
● Select class has a parameterized constructor
which accepts an argument of WebElement object (List box element).
● Following are the available methods of
Select class
➔ selectByIndex()
➔ selectByValue()
➔ selectByVisibleText()
➔ deSelectByIndex()
➔ deSelectByValue()
➔ deSelectByVisibleText()
➔ isMultiple()
➔ getOptions()
➔ getAllSelectedOptions()
➔ getFirstSelectedOption()
➔ deSelectAll()
The list box can be handled in 2 ways.
1. By using findElements() method.
2. By using SELECT class. We can use select
class only and only if the list box is develop using select
tagname<>.
The SELECT class has multiple non-static
methods, in order to call them; we need to create an object of the select
class. When we create an object of Select class, we pass the reference of the
list box on which we want to perform actions as an argument to the select class
constructor. Using this reference variable, we call methods like,
getOptions() - this method returns the address of all the options present in
the list box in the form of a list of webelement.
getAllSelectedOptions() - this method returns the address of all the selected options
from the list box in the form of a list of webelement.
If none of the elements are selected in the
list box, it returns an empty list object.
getFirstSelectedOption() - this method returns the address of the first selected option
in the list box.
If none of the elements are selected in the
list box, it throws NoSuchElementException, because this method
internally calls findElement method.
In order to select an option in the list box,
we have 3 methods like,
selectByIndex() - this method is used to select an option in the list box by
using the index. The index of an element in the list box starts from 0
(zero).
If the specified index doesn't match
with any element in the list box, it throws NoSuchElementException.
selectByValue() -- this method is used to select an option in the list box by
using the value attribute.
If the specified value doesn't match with any element in the list box, it throws NoSuchElementException.
selectByVisibleText() -- this method is used to select an option in the list box by
using the text of the element.
If the specified text doesn't match with any
element text in the list box, it throws NoSuchElementException.
Below is the code for handling this list box
How to handle
Multi-Select List box?
If the list box is of type multi-select, using
which we can select multiple options simultaneously.
we can also deselect any option in the list
box which is already selected by using few methods like,
deselectByIndex(),
deselectByValue(),
deselectByVisibleText() and
deselectAll().
If the list box is not of type multi-select,
and if we try to call any of the deselect methods, we get an exception called UNSUPPORTEDOPERATIONEXCEPTION.
To check whether the list box is a single
select or multi-select, we can use isMultiple() method. This method returns
true if the list box is a multi-select list box and if it is a single select
list box, it returns false.
Below is the HTML snapshot of the Multi-list box
Below is the code for handling this Multi-list box
