Webdriver: Locate typefield via placeholder text then text via sendkey("test text") into the typefield

Question

I have been trying to send a text to a text field that has the changing element id=PolarisTextField83 each time a log into a page (PolarisTextField## keeps changing its value like id=PolarisTextField45) as I have found that the id element is dynamic and the only static and unique part of the HTML is the placeholder example text which is placeholder="e.g. Shirts".

Therefore, I wonder if there is a way of locating placeholder="e.g. Shirts" then sending text to its respective type field (PolarisTextField##)?

I have tried to use

driver.findElementsByTagName("e.g. Shirts").sendKeys("test text");

but came to the understanding that I cannot follow .sendKeys() after findElementsByTagName.

I am new to both java and selenium and would appreciate any help and/or guidance!!

Answer 1

You can find the element by placeholder value using XPath

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@placeholder='e.g. Shirts']")).sendKeys("test text");

Answer 2

Try below xpath to deal with dynamic web element.

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 30);
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[starts-with(@id,'PolarisTextField')]")).sendKeys("Test");

Answer 3

To send a character sequence within the element you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

• Using css_selector, id and placeholder attributes:

  driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("[id^='PolarisTextField'][placeholder$='Shirts']")).sendKeys("test text");
  

• Using xpath, id and placeholder attributes:

  driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[starts-with(@id, 'Shirts') and contains(@placeholder, 'Shirts')]")).sendKeys("test text");
  

Ideally, to send a character sequence within the element you have to induce WebDriverWait for the elementToBeClickable() and you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

• cssSelector:

  new WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.cssSelector("[id^='PolarisTextField'][placeholder$='Shirts']"))).sendKeys("test text");
  

• xpath:

  new WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath("//*[starts-with(@id, 'Shirts') and contains(@placeholder, 'Shirts')]"))).sendKeys("test text");