Difference between @FindBy vs driver.findElement()?

Question

I have used both of them but not know where should I use @findBy and where I use driver.findElement()

I heard that @FindBy behaves dynamically whereas driver.findElement() behaves as static. What does this mean?

Answer 1

Both @FindBy and driver.findElement() are different approach towards achieving the same target i.e. to locate element/s through different Locator Strategies.

When using PageFactory we can use the Annotation Type FindBy. The FindBy annotations helps us to remove the boiler-plate code which we generally use in the form of findElement() and findElements() when looking for elements.

As an example:

WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.name("q"));
element.click();

becomes:

element.click();

You can find @Simon Stewart's comments on the same topic within the discussion How to use explicit waits with PageFactory fields and the PageObject pattern