Let the Engineers Speak—Selectors

Anyone who’s ever written web UI tests knows the pain of locating web elements. There could be hundreds of elements buried in the DOM, sometimes even under iframes and shadow roots.

How do I write good CSS selectors?

Is XPath always the wrong choice?

What about custom attributes or text?

Are there any special kinds of selectors available only in certain automation tools?

Listen in as Christian Bromann and Filip Hric answer these questions using WebdriverIO and Cypress respectively in JavaScript. They teach us not just how to locate elements but how to do so sustainably.

No matter your framework, you’ll get valuable insights into choosing a strategy and best practices for selectors, as well as some tips on what to avoid.

Key takeaways:

• Understand how common automation frameworks handle locating elements in web UI testing
• Hear best practices for working with selectors and locators, as well as warnings and red flags to look out for
• Explore some tool-specific locators and how they can help create more robust tests
• Learn factors to consider when building a strategy for selectors

• Speakers
• Christian Bromann, WebdriverIO
• Filip Hric, Cypress
• Andrew Knight, The Automation Panda, Applitools