Java Class Name Locator in Selenium

The CSS Locator in Selenium is one of the most important aspects of writing a script. If you cannot locate an element by using any CSS locator in Selenium, then being proficient at Selenium automation will be a tough task. Selenium provides multiple ways of locating an element.

I have written a complete guide to help illustrate the practical demonstration of CSS locator in Selenium.

In this Selenium Java tutorial, I will be referencing on Class name locator in Selenium to demonstrate how to locate an element on a webpage via class name.

Getting Started With Class Name Locator in Selenium With Example

Next, in this Selenium Java tutorial, we will consider the scenario of Airbnb, where we intend to locate the ‘Where’ field in the search form of Airbnb homepage via class name. Below is a screenshot of Airbnb page where we inspect the ‘Where’ field in the form.
image:

In-order to use Class name locator in Selenium, we need to use the below syntax:
findElement(By.className("_up0kwni "))

Now, let’s look into the code for finding elements by Class name in locators:

import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
public class ClassNameLocator {
    public static void main(String[] args) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub                  
  System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", ".\\ChromeDriver\\chromedriver.exe");         
  WebDriver driver=new ChromeDriver();         
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(20, TimeUnit.SECONDS);                  
  driver.manage().window().maximize();                  //Opening the air bnb home page         
  driver.get("https://www.airbnb.co.in/");                  //Locating location field for the search  form via class name         
  driver.findElement(By.className("_up0kwni")).sendKeys("Goa", Keys.ENTER);           
  //Locating check-in field for the search  form via class name         
  driver.findElement(By.className("_14fdu48d")).click();  
  //Locating the date 12th June for check-in field         
  driver.findElement(By.className("_1wh4xpp1")).click(); 
  //closing the driver         
  driver.quit();                                      
}     
}

Pretty simple, isn’t it? In the upcoming session of this Java Selenium tutorial, we will learn how to handle a common exception for class name locator in Selenium.

One of the Most Common Exceptions for Class Name Locator in Selenium

Another interesting fact and a popular error you may come across while using Class name locator in Selenium would be something like:

I am sure you have come across this error. Let's try to incorporate this scenario in the following code snippet for the Facebook sign-up page. Below is the DOM structure for facebook ‘first name’ field with class name attribute highlighted below:

Check out the Referenced code snippet where we try to access the first name field using the class name locator in Selenium:

import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
public class ClassNameLocator {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException { // TODO Auto-generated method stub                  
  System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", ".\\ChromeDriver\\chromedriver.exe");         
  WebDriver driver=new ChromeDriver();         
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(20, TimeUnit.SECONDS);                  
  driver.manage().window().maximize();                  //Opening the air bnb home page         
  driver.get("https://www.facebook.com/");                  //Locating by firstname via class name         
  driver.findElement(By.className("inputtext _58mg _5dba _2ph-")).sendKeys("Sadhvi");                                   
  //closing the driver         driver.quit();                         }   }

Referenced Console error below:

How to handle this error? Well, Selenium considers this as a compound class, which means more than one classes marked through spaces. So, any class name with spaces in it will be considered two or three or more classes.

In this case, this class name marked as ‘inputtext _58mg _5dba _2ph-‘ contains three spaces thereby making it three different classes. Hence, Selenium mentions the error stating it cannot find multiple classes together. In this case, you can opt to locate element by CSS selector in Selenium or by XPath in Selenium using the class name attribute. The referenced code snippet below:

import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
public class ClassNameLocator {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException { // TODO Auto-generated method stub                  
  System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", ".\\ChromeDriver\\chromedriver.exe");         
  WebDriver driver=new ChromeDriver();         
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(20, TimeUnit.SECONDS);                  
  driver.manage().window().maximize();                  //Opening the facebook home page         
  driver.get("https://www.facebook.com/");                  //Locating by firstname via class name         
  driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[@class='inputtext _58mg _5dba _2ph-']")).sendKeys("Sadhvi");                                   
  //closing the driver         driver.quit();                         
}   
}

How to Locate an Element When We Have Multiple Elements Sharing the Same Class Name

Now, you know when to use the class name and when you cannot use class names. But did you ever imagine the scenario when you have multiple elements sharing the same class name? How do you tackle that situation? This is, again, something you can simply achieve by using the findElements keyword. All you need to do is locate all of the elements with that class name using the findElements keyword and iterate through the required element class name via index. Having said so, I would rather suggest looking into an alternative method of locating that element rather than this, as its tendency of breaking will be pretty high and may lead to errors.

Example for Class Name Locator in Selenium for Multiple Elements With a Similar Class Name

Let’s consider the below example and how it highlights the scenario above. In this case, we are considering the LinkedIn sign-up page, where all fields share the same class name. In this case, we need to note two important things:

• If no, the index is defined; then, by default, Selenium selects the first element it encounters with that class name. In the code snippet below, it locates the first element, which is the first name:

import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
public class ClassNameLocator {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException { // TODO Auto-generated method stub                  
  System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", ".\\ChromeDriver\\chromedriver.exe");         
  WebDriver driver=new ChromeDriver();         
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(20, TimeUnit.SECONDS);                  
  driver.manage().window().maximize();                  //Opening the linkedin sign up home page         
  driver.get("https://www.linkedin.com/start/join");                  //Locating by firstname via class name         
  driver.findElement(By.className("cell-body-textinput")).sendKeys("Sadhvi"); //closing the driver         
  driver.quit();                         
}   }

Note: Take a look at the class name, which, in this case, is cell-body-textinput, since it is not marked with spaces hence it is considered as a single class.

• Locating the different elements with the same class name using index. The referenced snippet below:

import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
public class ClassNameLocator {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException { // TODO Auto-generated method stub                  

  System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", ".\\ChromeDriver\\chromedriver.exe");         
  WebDriver driver=new ChromeDriver();         
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(20, TimeUnit.SECONDS);                  
  driver.manage().window().maximize();                  //Opening the air bnb home page         
  driver.get("https://www.linkedin.com/start/join");                  //Locating by firstname via class name         
  List<webelement> signUpForm=driver.findElements(By.className("cell-body-textinput"));     
  //finding the number of elments with the same class name         int size=signUpForm.size();                  
  System.out.print(size);                  //locating the first name locator         
  signUpForm.get(0).sendKeys("Sadhvi");                  //locating the last name locator         
  signUpForm.get(1).sendKeys("Singh");             //locating the email  locator         
  signUpForm.get(2).sendKeys("sadhvisingh24@gmail.com");                  //locating the password  locator         
  signUpForm.get(3).sendKeys("password");                                   //closing the driver         
  //driver.quit();                         
}   }   
</webelement>

Console output:

Bingo, you are good to go now! This was all about class name locator in Selenium.

What Did We Learn About Class Name Locator in Selenium?

Well, that was all for today’s Selenium Java tutorial for CSS locator in Selenium. I am sure, by far, you have developed a deep understanding of how to use the Class name locator in Selenium effectively. We came across the most common error across the implementation of Class name locator in Selenium. We also learned how to overcome complicated scenarios where multiple elements are sharing a similar class name.

Adios, and happy testing!