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I need to get all elements with a class inside a wrapper div. I have done this before with php and the css selector would look something like this: 

$this->elements($this->using('css selector')->value('div.active tr[class="theRow"]'));

Now this would give me all foo elements inside the wrapper active but I dont know how to do it with Java. I want a list with all the webElements like so:

List<WebElement> list = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector(".active,.theRow"));

This however will give me all theRow elements, eaven those outside the active wrapper. any sugestions?

the code below also give all theRow elements as expected:

List<WebElement> list = driver.findElements(By.className("theRow"));

but this gives me a empty list

List<WebElement> list = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("tr[class='row-hover']"));
share|improve this question
    
Why are you not using the original locator? div.active span[class="foo"] –  Arran Aug 27 '13 at 11:06
    
because that leaves me with a empty list –  user1593846 Aug 27 '13 at 11:25
    
You will therefore need to give us some HTML that you are running this against. Your original locator is fine, it works how you intend to and is what you need to do to get what your question is talking about. Therefore it obviously doesn't match what HTML this is being run against. –  Arran Aug 27 '13 at 11:28
    
Yes well the php code is applied to the exact html as the java is and the php gives me the right result. also I edited the code a little bit in the question and here is the html pastebin.com/XanuxWy8 –  user1593846 Aug 27 '13 at 12:22

1 Answer 1

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Is there a chance the class attribute of the span contains multiple values?

If so, then you may have problems using 'class=' as it would not match elements which have two or more classes.

If so, then try this;

List<WebElement> list = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("div.active span.foo"));

When ever I access class outside of ".", I would always use "[class*='foo']" because you cannot guarantee the order in which multiple values appear in the class attribute, but would always use the "." notation where possible. However, whenever I use "class" in Xpath I always use "[contains(@class,'foo')] because Xpath always treats "class" as a string literal, where as CSS "." can cope with multiple values

share|improve this answer
    
well the complete class of the object is like class="theRow foo bar row 1" and if I do a By.className just searching fro the foo part is not a problem, but you are saying it is when using cssSelector? –  user1593846 Aug 27 '13 at 12:27
1  
Yes if you use "[class=foo]", it will only select elements where "class" as a string equal "foo" so would not match "class=foo bar". Using "[class*=foo]" would match because you are saying find me the element with the "class" string that contains "foo" but that would also match against elements where "class=foobar". ALternatively using ".foo" will find elements even if there are multiple values in "class" –  RobbieWareham Aug 27 '13 at 12:54
    
Experiment by installing Firebug and Firepath and open the page in Firefox. It will let you test XPath and CSS Selectors –  RobbieWareham Aug 27 '13 at 12:57
    
the little star after the class was exactly what I was looking for! thankyou :D –  user1593846 Aug 27 '13 at 13:14
    
Cool but as I said, that will match on "foobar" and "foo" classes. If you only want to match "foo" class then you should use "tr.foo" rather than "tr[class*='fooo" –  RobbieWareham Aug 27 '13 at 13:25

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