Find element using iOSClassChain locator strategy

[himankarbn]

Need help... So far we have been using XCUITest for our automation. We recently started with Appium Ruby and would like to use class_chain locator type strategy but we are having some trouble with it. Here is a the sample tree of our login screen

In XCTest to get the Password text field we use table.cells.containing(.staticText, identifier:"Password").children(matching: .secureTextField).element

Is there a better/shorter way to find the password field using class_chain ?
find_elements(:class_chain, 'XCUIElementTypeWindow/XCUIElementTypeOther/XCUIElementTypeOther/XCUIElementTypeOther/XCUIElementTypeTable/XCUIElementTypeCell[3]/XCUIElementTypeStaticText')[0]

[KazuCocoa]

@himankarbn

You can probably find it with find_element(:class_chain, "**/XCUIElementTypeStaticText]") if you'd like to search it with shorter way. You can see the query variation on using class chain section in here

---

BTW, you can also find the element with texts, textfields[0] or tags(::Appium::Ios::XCUIElementTypeSecureTextField)[0]. They work with ios_predicate strategy, though.

[mykola-mokhnach]

table.cells.containing(.staticText, identifier:"Password").children(matching: .secureTextField).element will look like

**/XCUIElementTypeTable/XCUIElementTypeCell[`name CONTAINS 'Password'`]/XCUIElementTypeSecureTextField

in class chain notation. Also, make sure you use the recent Appium beta release, otherwise the locator won't work.

[himankarbn]

@KazuCocoa : appreciated a lot for the quick response.
I tried this before as well and
find_element(:class_chain, "**/XCUIElementTypeStaticText]") throws error

Selenium::WebDriver::Error::NoSuchElementError: An element could not be located on the page using the given search parameters.
from /usr/local/var/rbenv/versions/2.3.3/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/selenium-webdriver-3.5.1/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/response.rb:69:in `assert_ok'``` 

Currently we are using `textfields` but wanted to know more about `class_chain` and other such locators similar to XCtest.

[mykola-mokhnach]

Read https://github.com/facebook/WebDriverAgent/wiki/Queries for more details about class chain locators

[KazuCocoa]

oops, ] is the waste mark in my previous comment...

[himankarbn]

Yeah I tried without ]

[himankarbn]

current appium version is 1.6.5

Selenium::WebDriver::Error::NoSuchElementError: An element could not be located on the page using the given search parameters.
from /usr/local/var/rbenv/versions/2.3.3/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/selenium-webdriver-3.5.1/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/response.rb:69:in `assert_ok'```

[himankarbn]

@mykola-mokhnach : I used your above query and got the same error. Not sure what I am missing.
find_element(:class_chain, "**/XCUIElementTypeTable/XCUIElementTypeCell[`name CONTAINS 'Password'`]/XCUIElementTypeSecureTextField")

P.S All the examples I have seen for class_chain are mostly for java_client.

[KazuCocoa]

hm...

• What about tags('XCUIElementTypeSecureTextField')?
  • The tag methods get elements by class name with predicate.
  • If we get the elements with predicate, class chain failed to find the element or query was wrong, I guess.

If can't get any elements, could you get elements with page/get_source command?
The commands prints available elements on the screen. If the element doesn't exist in the printed lines, Appium server probably couldn't get the element.

[mykola-mokhnach]

@himankarbn
Please read my comment above one more time:

Also, make sure you use the recent Appium beta release, otherwise the locator won't work.

1.6.5 is not the recent beta

[himankarbn]

@KazuCocoa : I can find the element with tags('XCUIElementTypeSecureTextField')

 pry(main)>tags('XCUIElementTypeSecureTextField')
[
    [0] #<Selenium::WebDriver::Element:0xa0762b64cda014c id="BA5FF2B9-7DAD-4359-AD4A-DA44C5437ACD">
]

And this is what it prints from get_source

@mykola-mokhnach : updated to the latest beta 1.7.0-betaversion and still getting the same error.

[mykola-mokhnach]

please attach appium server log then. It should contain more detailed description of the error (if your locator, for example, has some syntactical errors).

[mykola-mokhnach]

For the tree above the locator should look like

**/XCUIElementTypeTable/XCUIElementTypeCell/XCUIElementTypeSecureTextField

[himankarbn]

@mykola-mokhnach : found the main issue. So I was starting the server from appium Desktop which was running v1.6.5.

Staring the server from terminal resolved the issue. Able to find elements using class_chain
find_element(:class_chain, "**/XCUIElementTypeTable/XCUIElementTypeCell/XCUIElementTypeSecureTextField")

Thanks a lot to both.