Asserting a checkbox is not checked by default in WebDriver with Junit

Question

I'm using WebDriver with Junit 4.11 and I want to assert that a checkbox is not selected by default, and to do that I'm unsure which method to choose.

The following is from the DOM before the checkbox is selected:

<input type="checkbox" id="c234" name="instantAd" value="true" class="t-checkbox-A">

Then, once the checkbox becomes selected a 'checked' is added, like so:

<input type="checkbox" id="c234" name="instantAd" value="true" checked="" class="t-checkbox-A">

I have tried the following:

WebElement checkBox = chrome.findElement(By.cssSelector("input.t-checkbox-A[name=\"instantAd\"]"));

    new WebDriverWait(chrome, 5).until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.cssSelector("input.t-checkbox-A[name=\"instantAd\"]")));

    Assert.assertEquals("null",checkBox.getAttribute("checked"));

    checkBox.click();

    Assert.assertEquals("true",checkBox.getAttribute("checked"));

The first assertion fails. Perhaps this is because the 'checked' attribute isn't visible in the DOM yet, at a guess.

The stacktrace is displaying:

java.lang.AssertionError: expected: java.lang.String but was: null

I've searched many different posts but none offer me the answer Im looking for, and when checking http://junit.sourceforge.net/javadoc/org/junit/Assert.html for info and guidance (as being new to test automation, Im finding it difficult to work out what I need in my constructor.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Answer 1

From the stacktrace it looks to me like the issue is assertEquals can't compare two different types, in this case a string and a null. I would suggest removing the quotes from "null" as that's what's causing it to be cast as a string.

Alternatively you could switch the assert to

Assert.assertNull(checkBox.getAttribute("checked"));

Also, in Selenium checkboxes are considered selected, you could also try asserting on that being false

Assert.assertFalse(checkBox.isSelected());

Answer 2

You can create a small method to wrap around the getAttribute call
(Java-ish)

Bool isChecked(Webelement checkbox)
{
    if checkBox.getAttribute("checked") != Null:
        return True
    return False
}

OR
(python)

def isChecked(checkbox):
    return True if checkbox.getAttribute("checked") else False

And then you can use the Assert in almost the similar way that you are using

Assert.assertEquals(True,isChecked(checkbox))