Selenium IDE Locating Strategies: Effectively Locating Web Elements Using the Name Locator

Learn how to use the name locator in Selenium IDE to identify and interact with web elements. This tutorial explains its functionality, demonstrates its application in a practical login test case, and highlights both its advantages and limitations for reliable web automation.

Selenium IDE Locating Strategies: Using the Name Locator

In Selenium IDE, locators identify web elements for automation. The name locator targets elements based on their HTML name attribute. This is a simple and effective locator strategy when elements have unique names. However, reliance solely on name locators can be problematic if names are not consistently assigned across elements. The `name` attribute is used to uniquely identify the HTML element.

Using Name Locator in Selenium IDE

Let's build a simple login test to illustrate the name locator:

  1. Open Selenium IDE: Launch your browser and open Selenium IDE.
  2. Open the Target URL: Add a command to open the Rediffmail login page:
    3. Open Rediffmail Login Page
    
Command: open
Target: https://mail.rediff.com/cgi-bin/login.cgi
  3. Locate Elements using Inspect: Right-click on each element (username field, password field, submit button) and choose "Inspect" (or "Inspect Element") to find the HTML for that element and its name attribute.
  4. Add Commands: Add Selenium commands to interact with the elements, using the name attribute as the target:
    5. Selenium IDE Commands
    
Command: click
Target: name=login
Value: 

Command: type
Target: name=login
Value: your_username

Command: click
Target: name=passwd

Command: type
Target: name=passwd
Value: your_password

Command: click
Target: name=proceed
  5. Run the Test: Click "Run" to execute the test.

Important Considerations When Using Name Locators

  • Uniqueness: Ensure each element has a unique name attribute.
  • Maintainability: If the name attribute changes on the page, the tests using this locator will break.
  • Fragility: Name locators are relatively fragile; changes in the website's HTML structure can render the tests ineffective.
  • Alternatives: For more robust tests, consider using more stable locators like XPath or CSS selectors.