XPath as a locator coming in recorded script

[bawarim]

Is this an issue specifically with Appium Inspector?

• I have verified that my issue does not occur with Appium, and should be investigated as an Appium Inspector issue

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Current Behavior

When recording operation using appium inspector recorder then only XPath is coming as a locator strategy.

Expected Behavior

There should be an option of having different locator to be configured while recording. And same should be generated in recorded script.

Operating System

Windows

Appium Inspector Version

2023.12.2

Appium Version

No response

Further Information

No response

[eglitise]

This depends entirely on the suggested locators generated for your element. If the Inspector only generates XPath - that is what the Recorder will use. If the element has a unique ID and the Inspector suggests that, then the Recorder will pick that:

[bawarim]

The elements has unique IDs available, but still it uses the XPath.

Note: I am running it for hybrid application.

[eglitise]

Assuming this is an Android hybrid app, this makes sense, as the id locator strategy is not part of the W3C spec. Chrome runs in W3C mode by default, so it will only work with the available W3C strategies, of which the only one here is xpath.
However, you can disable Chrome's W3C mode, and the recorder will then be able to use other strategies. You can do this by starting the Inspector session with the "appium:chromeOptions": {"w3c": false} capability.
Check the UiAutomator2 web context capabilities for more info.

[bawarim]

Thank you! "appium:chromeOptions": {"w3c": false} is working.