From 494ae1546c12d5bde7cfb85b11d84ede99235740 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Pavel Feldman Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2021 20:00:37 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] docs: update selectors doc to be more like a guide --- docs/src/selectors.md | 569 +++++++++++++++++++----------------------- 1 file changed, 250 insertions(+), 319 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/src/selectors.md b/docs/src/selectors.md index 68f5a792517e8..96d9b97c1dc3a 100644 --- a/docs/src/selectors.md +++ b/docs/src/selectors.md @@ -3,142 +3,292 @@ id: selectors title: "Element selectors" --- -Selectors query elements on the web page for interactions, like [`method: Page.click`], and to obtain `ElementHandle` through [`method: Page.$`]. Built-in selectors auto-pierce [shadow DOM](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Web_Components/Using_shadow_DOM). +Selectors are strings that point to the elements in the page. They are used to perform actions on those +elements by means of methods such as [`method: Page.click`], [`method: Page.fill`] and alike. All those +methods accept [`param: selector`] as their first argument. -## Working with selectors +## Basic text selectors -Selector describes an element in the page. It can be used to obtain `ElementHandle` (see [`method: Page.$`] for example) or shortcut element operations to avoid intermediate handle (see [`method: Page.click`] for example). +Text selectors locate elements that contain text nodes with the passed text. -Selector has the following format: `engine=body [>> engine=body]*`. Here `engine` is one of the supported [selector engines](./selectors.md) (e.g. `css` or `xpath`), and `body` is a selector body in the format of the particular engine. When multiple `engine=body` clauses are present (separated by `>>`), next one is queried relative to the previous one's result. +```js +await page.click('text=Log in'); +``` + +```python async +await page.click("text=Log in") +``` + +```python sync +page.click("text=Log in") +``` + +By default, the match is case-insensitive, it ignores leading/trailing whitespace and searches for +a substring. This means `text= Login` matches ``. + +Text body can be escaped with single or double quotes for precise matching, insisting on exact match, +including specified whitespace and case. This means `text="Login "` will only match +`` with exactly one space after "Login". Quoted text follows the usual escaping +rules, e.g. use `\"` to escape double quote in a double-quoted string: `text="foo\"bar"`. + +Text body can also be a JavaScript-like regex wrapped in `/` symbols. This means `text=/^\\s*Login$/i` +will match `` with any number of spaces before "Login" and no spaces after. -Playwright supports various selector engines: - * [Text] selectors, for example `text="Log in"` - * [CSS] selectors, including the following extensions: - - [Shadow piercing](#shadow-piercing) by default and [`:light`](#css-extension-light) pseudo-class - - [`:visible`](#css-extension-visible) pseudo-class - - [`:text`](#css-extension-text) pseudo-class - - [`:has`](#css-extension-has) and [`:is`](#css-extension-is) pseudo-classes - - [Position selectors](#css-extension-position), for example `button:right-of(article)` - * [XPath] selectors, for example `xpath=//html/body/div` - * [id selectors][id], for example `id=sign-in` - * [Custom selector engines](./extensibility.md) +Input elements of the type `button` and `submit` are rendered with their value as text, and text +engine finds them. For example, `text=Login` matches ``. -For convenience, selectors in the wrong format are heuristically converted to the right format: -- selector starting with `//` or `..` is assumed to be `xpath=selector`; -- selector starting and ending with a quote (either `"` or `'`) is assumed to be `text=selector`; -- otherwise selector is assumed to be `css=selector`. +Selector string starting and ending with a quote (either `"` or `'`) is assumed to be a text selector. +For example, Playwright converts `'"Login"'` to `'text="Login"'` internally. + +## Basic CSS selectors + +Playwright augments standard CSS selectors in two ways: +* `css` engine pierces open shadow DOM by default. +* Playwright adds a few custom pseudo-classes like `:visible`. ```js -// queries 'div' css selector -const handle = await page.$('css=div'); +await page.click('button'); +``` + +```python async +await page.click("button") +``` + +```python sync +page.click("button") +``` -// queries '//html/body/div' xpath selector -const handle = await page.$('xpath=//html/body/div'); +## Selecting visible elements + +The `:visible` pseudo-class in CSS selectors matches the elements that are +[visible](./actionability.md#visible). For example, `input` matches all the inputs on the page, while +`input:visible` matches only visible inputs. This is useful to distinguish elements that are very +similar but differ in visibility. + +:::note +It's usually better to follow the [best practices](#best-practices) and find a more reliable way to +uniquely identify the element. +::: + +Consider a page with two buttons, first invisible and second visible. + +```html + + +``` + +* This will find the first button, because it is the first one in DOM order. Then it will wait for the button to become visible before clicking, or timeout while waiting: + + ```js + await page.click('button'); + ``` + + ```python async + await page.click("button") + ``` + + ```python sync + page.click("button") + ``` -// queries '"foo"' text selector -const handle = await page.$('text="foo"'); +* This will find a second button, because it is visible, and then click it. -// queries 'span' css selector inside the result of '//html/body/div' xpath selector -const handle = await page.$('xpath=//html/body/div >> css=span'); + ```js + await page.click('button:visible'); + ``` + ```python async + await page.click("button:visible") + ``` + ```python sync + page.click("button:visible") + ``` -// converted to 'css=div' -const handle = await page.$('div'); +Use `:visible` with caution, because it has two major drawbacks: +* When elements change their visibility dynamically, `:visible` will give unpredictable results based on the timing. +* `:visible` forces a layout and may lead to querying being slow, especially when used with `page.waitForSelector(selector[, options])` method. -// converted to 'xpath=//html/body/div' -const handle = await page.$('//html/body/div'); +## Selecting elements that contain other elements -// converted to 'text="foo"' -const handle = await page.$('"foo"'); +The `:has()` pseudo-class is an [experimental CSS pseudo-class](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:has). It returns an element if any of the selectors passed as parameters +relative to the :scope of the given element match at least one element. -// queries '../span' xpath selector starting with the result of 'div' css selector -const handle = await page.$('div >> ../span'); +Following snippet returns text content of an `
` element that has a `
` inside. -// queries 'span' css selector inside the div handle -const handle = await divHandle.$('css=span'); +```js +await page.textContent('article:has(div.promo)'); ``` ```python async -# queries 'div' css selector -handle = await page.query_selector('css=div') +await page.textContent("article:has(div.promo)") +``` -# queries '//html/body/div' xpath selector -handle = await page.query_selector('xpath=//html/body/div') +```python sync +page.textContent("article:has(div.promo)") +``` -# queries '"foo"' text selector -handle = await page.query_selector('text="foo"') +## Selecting elements matching one of the conditions -# queries 'span' css selector inside the result of '//html/body/div' xpath selector -handle = await page.query_selector('xpath=//html/body/div >> css=span') +The `:is()` pseudo-class is an [experimental CSS pseudo-class](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:is). +It is a function that takes a selector list as its argument, and selects any element that +can be selected by one of the selectors in that list. This is useful for writing large +selectors in a more compact form. -# converted to 'css=div' -handle = await page.query_selector('div') +```js +// Clicks a - -``` - -* This will find the first button, because it is the first one in DOM order. Then it will wait for the button to become visible before clicking, or timeout while waiting: - - ```js - await page.click('button'); - ``` - ```python async - await page.click("button") - ``` - ```python sync - page.click("button") - ``` - -* This will find a second button, because it is visible, and then click it. - - ```js - await page.click('button:visible'); - ``` - ```python async - await page.click("button:visible") - ``` - ```python sync - page.click("button:visible") - ``` - -Use `:visible` with caution, because it has two major drawbacks: -* When elements change their visibility dynamically, `:visible` will give upredictable results based on the timing. -* `:visible` forces a layout and may lead to querying being slow, especially when used with `page.waitForSelector(selector[, options])` method. - -### CSS extension: text - -The `:text` pseudo-class matches elements that have a text node child with specific text. It is similar to the [text] engine. There are a few variations that support different arguments: - -* `:text("substring")` - Matches when element's text contains "substring" somewhere. Matching is case-insensitive. Matching also normalizes whitespace, for example it turns multiple spaces into one, trusn line breaks into spaces and ignores leading and trailing whitespace. -* `:text-is("string")` - Matches when element's text equals the "string". Matching is case-insensitive and normalizes whitespace. -* `button:text("Sign in")` - Text selector may be combined with regular CSS. -* `:text-matches("[+-]?\\d+")` - Matches text against a regular expression. Note that special characters like back-slash `\`, quotes `"`, square brackets `[]` and more should be escaped. Learn more about [regular expressions](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/RegExp). -* `:text-matches("value", "i")` - Matches text against a regular expression with specified flags. - -```js -// Click a button with text "Sign in". -await page.click('button:text("Sign in")'); -``` - -```python async -# Click a button with text "Sign in". -await page.click('button:text("Sign in")') -``` - -```python sync -# Click a button with text "Sign in". -page.click('button:text("Sign in")') -``` - -### CSS extension: has - -The `:has()` pseudo-class is an [experimental CSS pseudo-class](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:has) that is supported by Playwright. - -```js -// Returns text content of an
element that has a
inside. -await page.textContent('article:has(div.promo)'); -``` - -```python async -# Returns text content of an
element that has a
inside. -await page.textContent("article:has(div.promo)") -``` - -```python sync -# Returns text content of an
element that has a
inside. -page.textContent("article:has(div.promo)") -``` - -### CSS extension: is - -The `:is()` pseudo-class is an [experimental CSS pseudo-class](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:is) that is supported by Playwright. - -```js -// Clicks a `. -- Text body can be escaped with single or double quotes for precise matching, insisting on exact match, including specified whitespace and case. This means `text="Login "` will only match `` with exactly one space after "Login". Quoted text follows the usual escaping rules, e.g. use `\"` to escape double quote in a double-quoted string: `text="foo\"bar"`. -- Text body can also be a JavaScript-like regex wrapped in `/` symbols. This means `text=/^\\s*Login$/i` will match `` with any number of spaces before "Login" and no spaces after. -- Input elements of the type `button` and `submit` are rendered with their value as text, and text engine finds them. For example, `text=Login` matches ``. - -Malformed selector starting and ending with a quote (either `"` or `'`) is assumed to be a text selector. For example, Playwright converts `page.click('"Login"')` to `page.click('text="Login"')`. - -`text` engine open pierces shadow roots similarly to `css`, while `text:light` does not. Text engine first searches for elements in the light dom in the iteration order, and then recursively inside open shadow roots in the iteration order. It does not search inside closed shadow roots or iframes. - -### id, data-testid, data-test-id, data-test selector engines - -Attribute engines are selecting based on the corresponding attribute value. For example: `data-test-id=foo` is equivalent to `css=[data-test-id="foo"]`, and `id:light=foo` is equivalent to `css:light=[id="foo"]`. - -[css]: #css-selector-engine -[text]: #text-selector-engine -[xpath]: #xpath-selector-engine -[id]: #id-data-testid-data-test-id-data-test-selector-engines +[text]: #basic-text-selectors +[css]: #basic-css-selectors +[xpath]: #xpath-selectors +[id]: #id-data-testid-data-test-id-data-test-selectors