Xpath ID is changing how to set up dynamically

Product Forums Katalon Studio
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1

Hey Everyone,

I apologise I know this has been covered in other posts but I must admit im struggling to understand a little bit. I have a number of xpath Ids that are changing only slightly and the remainder of the ID should be able to identify the field. I have included some examples below. Im wondering is it possible to just wildcard a part of the Xpath ID so it matches on the remainder?

//[@id=“id-a837e4a7-01b8-4f82-a475-be9abd67e667-297-name-name.fieldControl-text-box-text”]
//[@id=“id-a837e4a7-01b8-4f82-a475-be9abd67e667-1-name-name.fieldControl-text-box-text”]
//*[@id=“id-a837e4a7-01b8-4f82-a475-be9abd67e667-299-name-name.fieldControl-text-box-text”]

I have bolded the component of the Xpath that changes the remainder stays the same and should find a unique match. Is there a simple way to do this?

2

Use XPath builtin-functions starts-with and ends-with

//*[starts-with(@id,"id-a837e4a7-01b8-4f82-a475-be9abd67e667-"][ends-with(@id,"-name-name.fieldControl-text-box-text"]
3

Hey,

Sorry to be a pain, when I put this into xpath helper I get [INVALID XPATH EXPRESSION]. Would this be expected?

Katalon object spy also doesnt recognise this command.

Thanks

4

I think the double quotation character is problematic. The editor of this site silently translates a double quotation character " into something else “ and ”. Quite annoying.

Do not copy the posted text and paste it as XPath, which will be evaluated to be invalid.

Please type ", then it should work.

5

Hey,

Thanks for your help with this.

I can get the starts-with expression working by adding in a missing closing bracket ) and not including the ends-with.

//*[starts-with(@id,“id-a837e4a7-01b8-4f82-a475-be9abd67e667-”)]

however the ends-with doesn’t work at all even if I don’t include the starts with. I tried writing this way as well and it didn’t like that either.

//input[starts-with(@id,“id-a837e4a7-01b8-4f82-a475-be9abd67e667-”) and ends-with(@id,“name-name.fieldControl-text-box”)]

maybe its not supported in the version of xpath i’m using?

6

Ah, I was wrong.
The ends-with function is only available in XPath 2.0.
Browsers supports only XPath 1.0.
Therefore we can not use ends-with function in Katalon Studio.

You can write an alternative expression using substring and string-length function:

//*[starts-with(@id,"id-a837e4a7-01b8-4f82-a475-be9abd67e667-"][substring(@id, string-length(@id) - string-length('-name-name.fieldControl-text-box-text') +1) = '-name-name.fieldControl-text-box-text']
2 Likes
7

Hey Mate,

That did the trick thank you. I can use this for my other fields to! legend thanks :smiley:

I made a couple tweaks for anyone else reading this.

//*[starts-with(@id,'id-a837e4a7-01b8-4f82-a475-be9abd67e667-')][substring(@id, string-length(@id) - string-length('-name-name.fieldControl-text-box-text') +1) = '-name-name.fieldControl-text-box-text']
8

Please use the code formatting feature next time.

This will avoid confusion caused by silent translation of a double quotation character " into something else “ and ”

9

The folloing expression is too long; therefore error-prone and difficult to maintain.

//*[starts-with(@id,'id-a837e4a7-01b8-4f82-a475-be9abd67e667-')][substring(@id, string-length(@id) - string-length('-name-name.fieldControl-text-box-text') +1) = '-name-name.fieldControl-text-box-text']

You would want to parameterize the expression like this:

//*[starts-with(@id,'${PREFIX}')][substring(@id, string-length(@id) - string-length('${POSTFIX}') +1) = '${POSTFIX}']

The following post would tell you how to make a parameterised Test Object in Katalon Studio

1 Like
10

Hey,

I did this to fix any of the quote issues you talked about. I also added a closing bracket again and this identified the field correctly.

Would you prefer I update to " again?

Thanks

11

Up to you. If your test runs as you want, that’s fine.