How to locate an element which is visible only by mouse hover in selenium webdriver

Question

I want to find an element which is visible by mouse hover and I need to click on it and it then opens a text field. When I give the XPath for the element in fire-path, it detects 6 instances of the element. I need the first element. I'm using Java and when I try to run the script it gives me error about unable to locate the element

Answer 1

By definition locators should be unique, if your locator returns 6 matches it means it's not unique. If you want to use hover, you can either use Actions class in selenium to achieve this, or use JavaScript Executor to do a hover( Not recommended though) Alternatively you could change your locators to use css selector(Highly recommended) , class names etc

Answer 2

use getattribute function in the webdriver with the Xpath then you will get that specific instance of the element

  Boolean b= driver.findbyelement(by.xpath("")).getattribute('transparent');

Check b is true or false if it true then you are select the correct instance

Or you can use the css as well

driver.findbyelement(by.xpath("")).getattribute('background-color');

Answer 3

The xpath is a good idea but if you keep getting an error, try to use a JavascriptExecutor to click on the element.

WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.xpath("(//(i[@title='Rename' and ng-click='editCampaignName($index)'])[1]"));

        //in order to click a non visible element
        JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor)driver;
        js.executeScript("arguments[0].click();", element);

Answer 4

Xpath offers a way to select the Nth matching element of your expression by giving:

//expression[n]

Although this is going to select all the Nth children elements of matching nodes to your expression. So, it will return many results in your case also.

But there is a solution. In order to achieve a global selection of the Nth matching element you need to wrap your expression in parantheses:

(//expression)[n]

So, in your case it would be (note the wrapping parantheses):

(//i[@title='Rename' and ng-click='editCampaignName($index)'])[1]

Let us know if it worked for you.

Credits: https://stackoverflow.com/a/18580255/3652270

Answer 5

I think u can use Actions if u are trying to find an element in a tooltip.For example

Actions tooltip = new Actions(driver);
tooltip.moveToElement(driver.findElement(By.xpath("The xpath that u want to move your mouse there")).build.perform();
//After this, U can then try to get the element in that tooltip

Answer 6

Find the xpath of the element from browser

1. select the element under which this hidden element is expected to appear.
2. Right click and select Force state --> ':hover'

This will expose the element. Get its xpath.

On Selenium-webdriver use moveToElement(<parent_element>).perform() and locate the required element using the xpath previously found