This document provides an introduction to XPath and explains how it can be used for web automation. XPath allows querying objects in the DOM to locate elements on a webpage. It describes the syntax of XPath using examples. There are two types of XPath: absolute and relative. Absolute XPath begins with a single forward slash and specifies the full path to an element. Relative XPath begins with double forward slashes and can search for an element anywhere on the page. The document also discusses XPath functions like Contains, Starts-With, and Text that can be used to locate elements when general attributes are not sufficient.

1. XPATH:
AN INTRODUCTION

2. ● Web automation is the concept of letting software robots
perform pre-defined actions, tasks, and processes on a web
browser or web application.
What can you do with web automation?
Think of all the clicking and typing you do at your
desk every day involving websites and web-based applications.
All these actions can be automated with web automation.
Actions that can be automated include:
● Filling out forms and fields
● Scraping content from a web page
● Extracting and transferring data between applications
● Clicking buttons and element
What is Web Automation?

3. When talking about web automation, there is no way around Selenium, the
world’s most popular open-source framework for automating browsers.
Selenium is a free (open-source) automated testing framework used to validate
web applications across different browsers and platforms.
As we know, for automating any Web Applications, locating web elements is
one of the first steps. We need some unique attributes such as id, name,
className, etc. to identify the HTML elements. Sometimes, either due to
dynamic web elements or poor development practices, there are no unique
attributes associated with the Web Elements, and there comes the role
of XPath. As we know, when a web page loads in a browser, it generates
a DOM (Document Object Model) structure. XPath is the query language that
queries objects in the DOM.

4. XML Path or commonly known as XPath, is a query language
for XML documents.
XPath is used to find the location of any element on a
webpage using HTML DOM structure.
In automation, there may be times when elements cannot be
found with general locators like ID, name, class, etc. And this is
when XPath is used to locate those elements on the webpage.
WHAT IS XPATH

5. /bookstore/book[2]/author

7. SYNTAX OF XPATH
XPath=//tagname[@attribute='value']
• // : to select the current node.
• tag name: tag name of a specific node.
• @: to select the attribute.
• attribute: it is the attribute name of the node.
• value: it is the value of the node.

8. TYPES OF XPATH
There are two types of XPath:
• Absolute XPath
• Relative Xpath
Absolute Xpath
Absolute XPath is the direct way to find the element. But the disadvantage of the
absolute XPath is that if there are any changes made in the path of the element then
that XPath fails.
The key characteristic of XPath is that it begins with the single forward slash(/), which
means you can select the element from the root node.
EXAMPLE:
html/body/table/tr/td[1]/div/div/div/span/span/p/input

9. Relative Xpath
For Relative XPath, the path starts from the middle of the HTML DOM
structure. Unlike Absolute XPath, Relative XPath starts with the double
forward slash (//), which means it can search the element anywhere
on the webpage.
You can start from the middle of the HTML DOM structure with no
need to write a long XPath.
The element you are selecting should be stable and should be less
prone to changes.

11. XPATH FUNCTIONS
There may be times that while locating a particular web element using general
attributes, there are elements that have similar properties, like the same name or
the same class name. This is when the simple XPath strategies are not efficient and
the need for XPath Functions arises.
XPath Contains() function
XPath Text() function
XPath Starts-with() function

12. XPath Contains() function
The XPath Contains() is a function used to create an XPath expression. It is
used if part of the value of any attribute changes dynamically. The function
can navigate to the web element with the partial text present.
In the below XPath expression, the partial value 'Name' is used.
The complete value of 'id' is 'FirstName' but using only the partial value
'Name.’
XPath=//*[contains(@id,'Name’)
In the above expression, we have taken the 'id' as an attribute and 'Name'
as a partial value

13. The Starts-With Function
The Starts-With function finds the element whose attribute value changes on
refresh or any operation on the webpage. In this expression, match the starting
text of the attribute used to find the element whose attribute changes
dynamically. You can also find the element whose attribute value is static (does
not change).
For example, suppose the ID of a particular element changes dynamically like:
Id=" message12"
Id=" message345"
Id=" message8769"
And so on. But the initial text is the same.
XPath=//input[starts-with(@class,'form')]

14. Using Text()
In this expression, with the text function, we find the element
with the exact text match as shown below. In this case, we find
the element with the text “orders.“
XPath=//*[text()=‘orders']

15. IMPORTANCE
In simple terms, XPath is our savior when it comes to locating elements.
IDs, names are the best locating strategies to capture elements as they
are less prone to changes. In Selenium automation, if the elements are
not found by the general locators like id, class, name, etc. then XPath is
used to find an element on the web page.

16. THANK
YOU