Unable to find an element in Browser of the Android emulator using Appium and C#

Question

I want to automate mobile web site testing on Android emulator using c# and Appium. There is a simple test scenario I want to automate for the start:
1. Start Browser
2. Find an element
3. Clear it
4. Send keys

I've got a problem with the second step. Every time MSTest tries to execute FindElementById line in the code below, I get the error: "An element could not be located on the page using the given search parameters."

[TestClass]
public class UnitTest1
{
    private DesiredCapabilities _capabilities;
    private AndroidDriver _driver;

    public void InitializeDriver()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Connecting to Appium server");
        _capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();

        _capabilities.SetCapability("deviceName", "test_02");
        _capabilities.SetCapability(CapabilityType.BrowserName, "Chrome");
        _capabilities.SetCapability(CapabilityType.Version, "5.0.1");
        _capabilities.SetCapability(CapabilityType.Platform, "Android");

        //Application path and configurations
        _driver = new AndroidDriver(new Uri("http://127.0.0.1:4723/wd/hub"), _capabilities);
    }

    [TestMethod]
    public void TestMethod1()
    {
        InitializeDriver();

        var element = _driver.FindElementById("com.android.browser:id/url");
        element.Clear();
        element.SendKeys(@"http://stackoverflow.com/");
    }
}

Input string for the method I've got from UIAutomator that is shown below.

I tried several combinations for the FindElementById input method:
"com.android.browser:id/url"
"id/url"
"url"
but no luck.

My environment:
Windows 8.1
Appium 1.3.4.1
ChromeDriver 2.14.313457
Android Device Monitor 24.0.2

Alex · Answer 1 · 2015-03-02T14:51:34.750

0

Update ! The following approach is not for web testing:

Could you try to find the element using xpath?

@FindBy(xpath="//android.widget.EditText[contains(@resource-id, 'url')]")

So in your case you can try the following:

var element = _driver.findElementByXPath("//android.widget.EditText[contains(@resource-id, 'url')]");

Update: in case of testing web apps (not native) you should use web page locators instead of Android classes.

edited Mar 02 '15 at 14:51

answered Mar 02 '15 at 11:29

Alex

362
1
5
14

Thank you for a quick answer, but it doesn't fix the problem. What language do you use? Is it Java? Is my code correct, i mean is it the same way you do in your language? I think maybe there is something wrong with intermediate libraries, such as Appium or ChromeDriver. I think it would be better to add those info. – Paul Mar 02 '15 at 11:41
I use Java, but had the same issue with using `findElementById` approach, so for now I use only `findElementByXPath`. Also try to use some timeout or "wait for" approach – Alex Mar 02 '15 at 11:48
Can you give me an example of "wait for" approach, please? Is it a setting in Appium or just block of code? – Paul Mar 02 '15 at 11:59
The examples are listed here in the answers: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28799420/how-to-wait-to-activity-using-appium-on-begin-and-during-test-itself They are in Java, but I think they will be helpfull anyway. – Alex Mar 03 '15 at 07:38
Thanks a lot, Jean-Pierre! Those links are very helpful! – Paul Mar 03 '15 at 11:20

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 02 '15 at 14:27

0

Try these 2 statements:

var element = _driver.FindElement(By.Id("com.android.browser:id/url");
driver.findElementsByXPath("//*[@class='com.android.browser' and @index='1']");

answered Mar 02 '15 at 14:27

Gaurav

1,332
11
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score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 02 '15 at 14:42

0

Sorry for misleading !!! In case of testing web apps in browser the elements should be located as usual elements on the web page ( not as some classes like android.widget.EditText and android.widget.Button). So try for example the following and you will see some result:

    var element = _driver
            .findElementByXPath("//input[@id='lst-ib']");

To get locators you should run the browser on your desktop, open the page and use some tools/extensions like Firebug in Firefox or Firebug Lite in Chrome browser.

answered Mar 02 '15 at 14:42

Alex

362
1
5
14

Thanks, it worked! What do you use to find locators id? Is it Chrome Developer Tools? – Paul Mar 02 '15 at 17:01
Can you recommend any tutorials on how to automate web apps? – Paul Mar 02 '15 at 17:05
in Chrome I use the following extensions: **Firebug Lite** to find locators and **xPath Viewer** to test my xpath expressions. But if you use Firefox, I would recommend to use Firebug and also the following:FirePath, Firediff, Firefinder – Alex Mar 02 '15 at 17:13
You can learn Selenium in this site: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/selenium/ and there some good Selenium and Appium courses on Udemy.com (both free and paid courses) – Alex Mar 02 '15 at 17:17
To learm xpath I would recommend http://www.zvon.org/xxl/XPathTutorial/General/examples.html and http://www.w3schools.com/xpath/default.asp – Alex Mar 02 '15 at 17:25

Unable to find an element in Browser of the Android emulator using Appium and C#

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