How do I get an parent HTML Tag with Selenium WebDriver using Java

Question

I have a Test which search for <span class="legend">. On a previous level I have a fieldset which contains several values. Here is my problem. I don't get the locator for this fieldset.

First of all I get a list with all class=legend objects:

List<WebElement> groupList = driver.findElements(By.className("legend"));

This works perfectly, I have a list with several Webelements.

Now I want to iterate this list and save every value from the fieldset of the previous level only. The problem is that Selenium does not find the id of the fieldset.

I tried tempGroupElement.getAttribute("id") to get the id but it does not work.

Any idea?

can't post the HTML part, don't know why. Hope it's enough information. — Ed H, Aug 30 '12 at 08:38

score 49 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 30 '12 at 10:09

49

I have a method for this in C#.

public static IWebElement GetParent(IWebElement e)
{
   return e.FindElement(By.XPath(".."));
}

Hope it helps :)

answered Aug 30 '12 at 10:09

Tedesco

880
6
10

Nope it doesn't work. The Xpath is wrong. I tried similar xpaths but they doesn't work too. Thanks for your answer – Ed H Aug 30 '12 at 10:29
What about By.XPath("//.."))? – Arran Aug 30 '12 at 11:05
I found an other way to solve that problem. The values i need and the legend i need are in one fieldset with `class=info`. So now i can iterate over this WebElement List and get all my values. Thanks for any suggestions! :) – Ed H Aug 30 '12 at 12:19
5

Worked a CHARM for me. Thanks Tadesco. - PS: Python Chrome Driver. – holografix May 01 '13 at 01:45
1

Worked great in node.js / webdriverjs / chrome :) – aikeru Feb 16 '14 at 06:00
which works? ("..") or ("//..")? – Dave Lawrence Jan 04 '16 at 15:23
1

As an extension method: `public static IWebElement GetParent(this IWebElement e)` – BurnsBA Aug 09 '17 at 13:51

score 14 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 19 '15 at 15:20

14

You can use WebElement.findElement(By.xpath("parent::*"))

I tried, it works in selenium.

edited Feb 19 '15 at 15:20

amurra

15,221
4
70
87

answered Jan 04 '13 at 09:11

abuuu

367
3
14

1

This is my preferred way of doing it. With the right Xpath locator, you can travel up and down the DOM until you get to what you are looking for. It's very useful in situations where you want to find a child element with a parent that contains some text (for example). – djangofan Feb 19 '15 at 15:41
Isnt XPath not supported by Safari? – Martin Kersten May 13 '16 at 10:33

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 04 '15 at 16:59

6

This will create an extension on top of IWebElement that will let you call GetParent directly on the child IWebElement

public static class MyExtensions
{
    public static IWebElement GetParent(this IWebElement node)
    {
        return node.FindElement(By.XPath(".."));
    }
}

Example usage...

IWebElement node = WebDriver.FindElement('..');
IWebElement parent = node.GetParent();

answered Dec 04 '15 at 16:59

TWilly

4,863
3
43
73

Is there something that simple for siblings? – Ywapom Jun 18 '18 at 17:39
`FindElement` will throw `NoSuchElementException` if it doesn't find any. IMO it's safer to use `FindElements(By.XPath("..")).SingleOrDefault()` That way it will return null if nothing is found. Really wish Selenium support some method like `FindElementIfAny` because sometimes I really don't want an exception thrown. – Nam Le Jul 09 '21 at 02:38

How do I get an parent HTML Tag with Selenium WebDriver using Java

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