A Useful Guide for XPath

[jonahss]

@bootstraponline pointed me to this useful article, for working with XPath expressions: http://blog.scrapinghub.com/2014/07/17/xpath-tips-from-the-web-scraping-trenches/

[JessicaSachs]

We should also be louder about telling people working with iOS to switch to ui-automation instead of XPath

[jonahss]

I think xpath is much better these days, though I know @bootstraponline is still pessimistic.

We all agree that AccessibilityId's are the best way to go though. And think, it makes your app more accessible to the handicapped!!

[bootstraponline]

xpath is way better than it use to be. uiselectors/predicates have less bugs and are faster although more work to write. ids remain the best selector.

[JessicaSachs]

I'd love an explanation about ids.

[bootstraponline]

It's on my list to document better. Here's a brief overview:

Android
- contentDescription - used for uiautomator to locate elements
- resourceId - set in xml
- strings.xml - set via strings.xml

iOS
- accessibility identifier/label/hint - similar to contentDescription on android
- Localizable.strings - similar to strings.xml on android

If you have a localization workflow using a tool such as twine in addition to standardized content descriptions/accessibility identifiers then it's easy to write cross platform tests.

[jc]

Hi Jessica, is there a way to disable using XPath when using the Appium Inspector to record steps? It seems it defaults to using the XPath instead of the name or label. This means I have to manually enter the name or label. Thanks in advance!

[rompic]

this should really be stressed more in the docs. just switched from xpaths and, as you say, its way faster and more reliable.