error: isElementPresent on a css queried element

[ajoslin]

Here is the very simplest use case - this gives an error:

  it('test', function() {
    browser.get('http://localhost:8080/test/e2e/e2e-test.html');
    expect(protractor.getInstance().isElementPresent(element(by.css('.foobar')))).toBe(false);
  });

I'm getting the error Unsupported locator strategy: click. Here's the stacktrace: http://d.pr/i/uasB

Thanks :)

[ajoslin]

Using protractor 0.18.1 on Mac OS X

[juliemr]

You're getting bitten by ElementFinder versus WebElement. (I want to update the docs to make this clearer). isElementPresent expects the param to be a WebElement. element() returns an ElementFinder. You need to do:

  it('test', function() {
    browser.get('http://localhost:8080/test/e2e/e2e-test.html');
    expect(protractor.getInstance().isElementPresent(element(by.css('.foobar')).find())).toBe(false);
  });

OR just use the ElementFinder API:

expect(element(by.css('.foobar')).isPresent()).toBe(false);

[markveerman]

I ended up here because I was getting the same error, "Unsupported locator strategy: click", and for the same reason but with a slight wrinkle. I also needed a WebElement in order to call click(). Inserting the find() didn't work initially until I realized I had done the following:

# wrong - broken example
element($('.back')).find().then(...);

I had inadvertently added an extra element, around the shortcut for 'element(by.css', which translated is:

# wrong - broken example
element(element(by.css('.back'))).find().then(...);

This error results in the exact same error as if you tried to call click() on an ElementFinder.
Anyway, here's the working code. This seems like an easy mistake to make and it's kinda hard to spot when you're up late writing tests.

var clickBack = function(promise) {
  $('.back').find().then(
    function(result) {
      result.click().then(sleep).then(promise);
    }
  );
};