Watir : Methods supported by Element
This page last changed on Aug 08, 2007 by bret.
Methods Supported by Element
The HTML Elements that are currently supported include:
| button | <input> tags with type=button, submit, image or reset |
| radio | <input> tags with the type=radio; known as radio buttons |
| check_box | <input> tags with type=checkbox |
| text_field | <input> tags with the type=text (single-line), type=textarea (multi-line), and type=password |
| hidden | <input> tags with type=hidden |
| select_list | <select> tags, known as drop-downs or drop-down lists |
| label | <label> tags (including "for" attribute) |
| span | <span> tags |
| div | <div> tags |
| p | <p> (paragraph) tags |
| link | <a> (anchor) tags |
| table | <table> tags, including row and cell methods for accessing nested elements |
| image | <img> tags |
| form | <form> tags |
| frame | frames, including both the <frame> elements and the corresponding pages |
| map | <map> tags |
| area | <area> tags |
| li | <li> tags |
| h1 - h6 | <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6> tags |
The ways ("How"s) that are available to identify an html object depend upon the object type, but include:
| :id | Used to find an element that has an "id=" attribute. Since each id should be unique, according to the XHTML specification, this is recommended as the most reliable method to find an object. * |
| :name | Used to find an element that has a "name=" attribute. This is useful for older versions of HTML, but "name" is deprecated in XHTML. * |
| :value | Used to find a text field with a given default value, or a button with a given caption, or a text field |
| :text | Used for links, spans, divs and other element that contain text. |
| :index | Used to find the nth element of the specified type on a page. For example, button(:index, 2) finds the second button. Current versions of WATIR use 1-based indexing, but future versions will use 0-based indexing. |
| :class | Used for an element that has a "class=" attribute. |
| :title | Used for an element that has a "title=" attribute. |
| :xpath | Finds the item using xpath query. |
| :method | Used only for forms, the method attribute of a form is either GET or POST. |
| :action | Used only for form elements, specifies the URL where the form is to be submitted. |
| :href | Used to identify a link by its "href=" attribute. |
| :src | Used to identify an image by its URL. |
* :id and :name are the quickest of these to process, and so should be used when possible to speed up scripts.
Supported Methods by Element
| :id | :name | :value | :text | :caption | :index | :class | :xpath | :title | :method | :action | :href | :src | :for | multiple attribute support? | |
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| button |  |
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| radio | |
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| check_box | |
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| text_field | |
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| hidden | |
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| select_list | |
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| label | |
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| span | |
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| div | |
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| p | |
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| link | |
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| table | |
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| image | |
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| form | |
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| frame | |
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| map | |
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| area | |
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| li | |
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| h1 - h6 | |
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Questions:
- Are there any missing element types, or element types that shouldn't be included? (What about the following methods: tableCell? file_field? ps? pre?)
- Any missing (or extraneous) attributes?
- Any inaccuracies? (I assume that currently there are many.)
- Should this be folded into, or linked to from, the User Guide?
- Can someone add descriptions for :method and :action, above?
- Other suggestions?
