How to identify the web-element for a Text Box using Selenium for the dynamically changing ID

Question

I have a input text box having id property and the HTML for it as shown below

username:<input type="text" id="1234"><br> 

Id property is dynamically changing. when the page loads next time.

Username:<input type="text" id="5678"><br> 

and the value continuously changing.

how to write the XPath for the above scenario.

Here we have only one ID property no other properties are available. I know we can use contains,starts-with or write absolute XPath helps in other cases.

Please help me on this.

Answer 1

How I handle dynamic IDs:

1. Inspect the element using Chrome's DevTools
2. Edit the element and remove the id="..." attribute
3. Right-click the element
4. Select "Copy" > "Copy selector" (or you could do XPath if you really want)

You now have a selector that doesn't use the ID attribute, but most likely it's DOM position. Something like "body > div:nth-child(1) > input" instead of "#1234".

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2020 UPDATE: I don't do this anymore and do what Bill said which is //*[contains(text(),'Username')]/input. That translates to:

• // anywhere in the DOM
• * any tagName
• [contains(text(),'Username')] where the text value contains 'Username'
• /input the following <input>

Answer 2

You can try this:

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[text()='Username']"));

Answer 3

In such case I talk to a developer to introduce a fixed way to locate an element, e.g., by name attribute:

Username: <input type="text" id="5678" name="username"><br> 

Answer 4

Xpath provide following-sibling functionality with text :

Solution :

First we identify text element and then find following sibling.

Try this xpath :

//*[contains(.,'Username')]//following-sibling::input

Note : Here change initial * with parent of your input element like div or form.