Switch Commands

Switch Commands

We often find situations where we might have to switch our focus/webdriver control to another window, popup, message box or frame. The reason we might have to do this is because of the way WebDriver has been designed. In short suffice to say that there is almost a separate DOM associated with each of the types mentioned above. And since Selenium WebDriver has been designed to handle only one DOM at a time with the reference handle we create, we will have to switch the references to be able to do operations. Lets see some examples below

Pre-requisites:

  1. You have completed the section “Set up Env” and have your environment ready with JDK, maven and Eclipse (+plugins)
  2. You have read and understood HTML DOM
  3. You were able to comprehend “Find Element Strategies” post
  4. You downloaded the project code base for class5 under – https://github.com/machzqcq/CucumberJVMExamples and imported into Eclipse and the structure should look as below

class5_project_structure

If you import in Intellij [which I would recommend over Eclipse IDE], it should look as below

class5_intellij_project_structure

Switch to a new Window

Here we are switching to a window by using the handle reference

1
2
3
4
5
6
String handle= driver.getWindowHandle();
Set<String> handles = driver.getWindowHandles();
System.out.println(“Number of window handles now–“+handles.size());for (String handle1 : driver.getWindowHandles()) {
driver.switchTo().window(handle1);
System.out.println(“current window:” +handle1 +“has title:” +driver.getTitle());
}

Switch to a new Tab

A browser tab is pretty much another window. So we handle it the same way as we did for window

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
String handle= driver.getWindowHandle();
System.out.println(“Parent Window”+handle);
List<WebElement> allButtons = driver.findElements(By.tagName(“button”));
allButtons.get(2).click();
Set<String> handles = driver.getWindowHandles();
System.out.println(“Number of window handles now–“+handles.size());
for (String handle1 : driver.getWindowHandles()) {
driver.switchTo().window(handle1);
System.out.println(“current window:” +handle1 +“has title:” +driver.getTitle());
}

Switch to JavaScript Alert

A Javascript alert is a pop up that comes up by firing a javascript alert [Remember that this is a different alert from the alert that vb script can generate as that is not spawned from browser]. Generally a selenium javascript alert object has accept, dismiss methods that correspond to OK and CANCEL

1
2
3
4
5
driver.findElement(By.id(“alert”)).click();
Alert my_alert = driver.switchTo().alert();
System.out.println(my_alert.getText());
System.out.println(driver.getWindowHandles());
my_alert.accept();

Switch to Frame

A frame generally represents a HTML document. So frames contain another DOM inside a parent DOM. Hence to interact with the elements within a frame, we will need to switch to that frame. We can switch back to parentFrame anytime with a method as shown below.

1
2
3
4
5
driver.switchTo().frame(“bomb”);
WebElement frameBody = driver.findElement(By.tagName(“body”));
System.out.println(frameBody.getText());
driver.switchTo().parentFrame();
System.out.println(driver.findElement(By.linkText(“Full Index”)).getText());

Cucumber Scenario

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
# is the focus of this training module. Cucumber gherkin has to focus on business acceptance criteria not get as technical as below
Feature: Switch commands in Selenium webdriver
Scenario: Switch to new window
When I open seleniumframework practiceform
And I open a new window
Then I switch to the new window
Scenario: Switch to new tab
When I open seleniumframework practiceform
And I open a new tab
Then I switch to the new tab
Scenario: Switch to Javascript alert
When I open seleniumframework practiceform
And I click alert button
Then I switch to alert and accept
Scenario: Switch to frame
When I open yourhtmlsource website
And I switch to frame with name bomb
Then I print the text and switch back to parent

step_definitions/SwitchCommands.java

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
package step_definitions;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.Alert;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import cucumber.api.java.en.And;
import cucumber.api.java.en.Then;
import cucumber.api.java.en.When;
public class SwitchCommands {
public WebDriver driver;
public SwitchCommands()
{
driver = Hooks.driver;
}
@When(“^I open seleniumframework practiceform$”)
public void i_open_seleniumframework_practiceform() throws Throwable {
driver.get(“http://www.seleniumframework.com/Practiceform/”);
}
@And(“^I open a new window$”)
public void i_open_a_new_window() throws Throwable {
// Store and Print the name of the First window on the console
String handle= driver.getWindowHandle();
System.out.println(“Parent Window”+handle);
// Click on the Button “New Browser Window”
driver.findElement(By.id(“button1”)).click();
Thread.sleep(5000);
// Store and Print the name of all the windows open
Set<String> handles = driver.getWindowHandles();
System.out.println(“Number of window handles now–“+handles.size());
}
@Then(“^I switch to the new window$”)
public void i_switch_to_the_new_window() throws Throwable {
// Pass a window handle to the other window
for (String handle1 : driver.getWindowHandles()) {
driver.switchTo().window(handle1);
System.out.println(“current window:” +handle1 +“has title:” +driver.getTitle());
}
driver.close();
}
@And(“^I open a new tab$”)
public void i_open_a_new_tab() throws Throwable {
// Store and Print the name of the First window on the console
String handle= driver.getWindowHandle();
System.out.println(“Parent Window”+handle);
// Click on the Button “New Browser Tab”
List<WebElement> allButtons = driver.findElements(By.tagName(“button”));
allButtons.get(2).click();
Thread.sleep(5000);
// Store and Print the name of all the windows open
Set<String> handles = driver.getWindowHandles();
System.out.println(“Number of window handles now–“+handles.size());
}
@Then(“^I switch to the new tab$”)
public void i_switch_to_the_new_tab() throws Throwable {
// Pass a window handle to the other window
for (String handle1 : driver.getWindowHandles()) {
driver.switchTo().window(handle1);
System.out.println(“current window:” +handle1 +“has title:” +driver.getTitle());
}
driver.close();
}
@When(“^I click alert button$”)
public void i_click_alert_button() throws Throwable {
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
driver.manage().window().maximize();
driver.findElement(By.id(“alert”)).click();
}
@Then(“^I switch to alert and accept$”)
public void i_switch_to_alert_and_accept() throws Throwable {
Alert my_alert = driver.switchTo().alert();
System.out.println(my_alert.getText());
//Just to print driver handles and show that alert is NOT a window
System.out.println(driver.getWindowHandles());
Thread.sleep(5000);
my_alert.accept();
}
@When(“^I open yourhtmlsource website$”)
public void i_open_yourhtmlsource_website() throws Throwable {
driver.get(“http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/frames/inlineframes.html”);
}
@When(“^I switch to frame with name bomb$”)
public void i_switch_to_frame_with_name_bomb() throws Throwable {
driver.switchTo().frame(“bomb”);
WebElement frameBody = driver.findElement(By.tagName(“body”));
System.out.println(frameBody.getText());
}
@Then(“^I print the text and switch back to parent$”)
public void i_print_the_text_and_switch_back_to_parent() throws Throwable {
// try printing without switching to parentframe. Results in NoSuchElement Exception
//System.out.println(driver.findElementByLinkText(“Full Index”).getText());
driver.switchTo().parentFrame();
System.out.println(driver.findElement(By.linkText(“Full Index”)).getText());
}
}

Execution Output

Intellij ouput (How to execute is explained in previous post)

class5_intellij_output

Eclipse output

class5_eclipse_output

Command line output

class5_cmd_output

CI Server output

class5_ci_output

class5_ci_output1

Certy Resume @ All Rights Reserved 2017