Mastering Python Selenium Web Scraping: A detailed guide to perform Web Scraping

Python Selenium Web Scraping: How-To Guide With Examples

Test plans and test strategies are key parts of a solid software quality assurance (QA) system. While they often work together and support each other, they actually have different goals. 



So, what’s the difference?



A lot of people get confused here since there’s some overlap in how they’re used. This blog will break down the differences between a test strategy and a test plan. We&#8217;ll start by explaining each term and then compare their main differences.



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Test_Strategy_vs_Test_Plan_Overview">1 Test Strategy vs Test Plan: Overview</a><ul><li><a href="#What_is_a_Test_Plan">1.1 What is a Test Plan?</a></li><li><a href="#What_is_a_Test_Strategy">1.2 What is a Test Strategy?</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Test_Strategy_VS_Test_Plan_Key_Differences">2 Test Strategy VS Test Plan: Key Differences</a></li><li><a href="#Wrapping_Up">3 Wrapping Up</a></li><li><a href="#Frequently_Asked_Questions">4 Frequently Asked Questions</a><ul><li><a href="#What_is_the_major_difference_between_a_test_strategy_and_a_test_plan">4.1 What is the major difference between a test strategy and a test plan?</a></li><li><a href="#How_do_you_write_a_test_plan_and_test_strategy">4.2 How do you write a test plan and test strategy?</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="test-strategy-vs-test-plan-overview">Test Strategy vs Test Plan: Overview</h2>



<h3 id="h-what-is-a-test-plan">What is a Test Plan?</h3>



The <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/test-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">test plan</a> (sometimes termed a QA test plan) may be considered the instruction manual or guide for an organization’s testing effort. It lists all the activities in a QA project in one place, creating a schedule, identifying the scope of the project, defining roles and responsibilities, highlighting risks, entry and exit criteria, testing objectives, and so on.



Generally, the test plan is designed based on software requirements. Ideally, test plans should feature the risks foreseen in the <a href="https://www.netguru.com/blog/qa-projects" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">QA project</a> so that QA managers may prioritize the testing process by risk.



<h3 id="h-what-is-a-test-strategy">What is a Test Strategy?</h3>



Test strategy is a comprehensive document that describes the approach to performing <a href="https://testsigma.com/guides/software-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">software testing</a>. It lets the project managers, developers, and testers know of the critical issues of the process. Creating an effective test strategy is a skill one may develop with experience.



The test strategy describes how the risks must be mitigated at the <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/levels-of-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">test level</a>, what criteria are required to apply, and the type of testing that needs to be performed. The testing strategy is shared with the entire team so that everyone onboard follows a common approach and mindset to testing.



<h2 id="h-test-strategy-vs-test-plan-key-differences">Test Strategy VS Test Plan: Key Differences</h2>



The difference between a test plan and a test strategy is that a test plan documents the scope, objective, and key elements of software testing, whereas a test strategy defines the techniques and approaches to testing.



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table><tbody><tr><td>Feature</td><td>Test Plan</td><td>Test Strategy</td></tr><tr><td>Definition</td><td>A document outlining the scope and approach for testing.</td><td>A set of guidelines for testing methods and techniques.</td></tr><tr><td>Key Elements</td><td>ID, Features, Test Types, Criteria, Deliverables, Responsibilities, Schedule</td><td>Scope, Formats, Processes, Tools, Reporting, Communication</td></tr><tr><td>Execution &amp; Management</td><td>Defines who, when, and how testing will be conducted.</td><td>Defines which modules and techniques will be used for testing.</td></tr><tr><td>Specificity</td><td>Detailed specifications for test cases.</td><td>Outlines general testing approaches.</td></tr><tr><td>Updatability</td><td>Can be updated throughout the project.</td><td>Typically remains static for the project.</td></tr><tr><td>Risk Identification</td><td>Identifies potential issues and dependencies.</td><td>Serves as a long-term plan for risk assessment.</td></tr><tr><td>Document Type</td><td>Separate document.</td><td>Often a section within the test plan.</td></tr><tr><td>Definition Level</td><td>Project-specific.</td><td>Defined at an organizational level.</td></tr><tr><td>Source Document</td><td>Software Requirement Specification (SRS).</td><td>Business Requirement Specification (BRS).</td></tr><tr><td>Prepared by</td><td>Test Leads or Managers.</td><td>Project Managers or Business Analysts.</td></tr><tr><td>Development Stage</td><td>Developed after requirement sign-off.</td><td>Created before the test plan is finalized.</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<h2 id="h-wrapping-up">Wrapping Up</h2>



When it comes to segregating test strategy from test plan, many find it quite complicated to identify the key differences between the two. A test strategy is generally a static document, while a test plan, on the other hand, specifies what to test, when to test, and how to test.



As described in the blog above, these are two different aspects wherein a test plan is comprehensive and detailed compared to a test strategy. Test plans are used at project levels, whereas test strategies are generally used at the organizational levels.



<h2 id="h-frequently-asked-questions">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>



<h3 id="h-what-is-the-major-difference-between-a-test-strategy-and-a-test-plan">What is the major difference between a test strategy and a test plan?</h3>



The following is the primary distinction between a test strategy and a test plan: A test strategy is a high-level document that specifies the overall testing approach and objectives. It describes the scope, test levels, test kinds, and essential resources, with an emphasis on the overall aspects of testing. 



A test plan is a detailed document that covers the precise activities, tasks, and testing schedules. It includes a test execution plan that includes test objectives, test cases, test data, test environment, and test deliverables.



Check here &#8211; <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/software-testing-strategy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Software Testing Strategy</a>



<h3 id="h-how-do-you-write-a-test-plan-and-test-strategy">How do you write a test plan and test strategy?</h3>



A test plan defines the scope, objectives, and approach for testing. It includes details like test types, criteria, and deliverables. A test strategy outlines the techniques and methods used for testing. It covers aspects like scope, formats, processes, and tools. Both documents are crucial for effective testing.



Check here &#8211; <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/test-plan-vs-test-case/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Test Plan vs Test Case</a>

Test Strategy vs Test Plan: Key Differences

Manual Testing vs Automation Testing: Which One Should You Choose?

An application can broadly be divided into two categories: frontend and backend. Before releasing a product in the market, it&#8217;s essential to test whether both the frontend and backend of the application are working correctly. Frontend testing is the testing of the user interface visible to the user by which users interact with the application. In contrast, backend testing is about testing the actual database and server logic under the hood, which is not visible to the application users.



In this article, you will learn about fronted and backend testing and the difference between both tests. You will also learn about the various tools and techniques used in frontend and backend testing.



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Frontend_Testing_vs_Backend_Testing_8211_Overview">1 Frontend Testing vs Backend Testing &#8211; Overview</a><ul><li><a href="#What_is_Frontend_Testing">1.1 What is Frontend Testing?</a></li><li><a href="#What_is_Back-End_Testing">1.2 What is Back-End Testing?</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Frontend_Testing_vs_Backend_Testing_8211_Differences">2 Frontend Testing vs Backend Testing &#8211; Differences</a></li><li><a href="#Summary">3 Summary</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="frontend-testing-vs-backend-testing-overview">Frontend Testing vs Backend Testing &#8211; Overview</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://images.storychief.com/account_36412/frontend-vs-backend-overview_b36361426658e71ee1ef4a1c862511c1_800.jpeg" alt="Frontend and backend overview"/></figure>



<h3 id="bb0sh"><a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/front-end-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">What is Frontend Testing?</a></h3>



The frontend of an application is the visual appearance and user interface that users see and use to interact with the application&#8217;s features and functionality. In the testing life cycle, frontend testing is the process of testing the frontend side of the application to ensure there are no any glitch, functionality breaks, or significant problems present in the application.



A well-driven frontend testing makes your product bug free and ensures the user will get a great user experience.<gwmw style="display: none; background-color: transparent;">



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<div class="title-with-description ">
Create Automated Tests with Natural Language Processing and achieve 10X faster Test Automation with Testsigma.
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<a href="https://testsigma.com/signup" target="_blank" class="cta-btn-v1" rel="noopener">Try for free</a>
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<h3 id="8l004"><a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/backend-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">What is Back-End Testing?</a></h3>



Backend testing is white box testing. It ensures an application&#8217;s database and server-side functionality are working as intended. For example, testing whether a user can log in after signing in will come under the backend testing.



Check here &#8211; <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/front-end-automation-testing-tools/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Front End Testing Tools</a>



<h2 id="96tb6">Frontend Testing vs Backend Testing &#8211; Differences</h2>



The primary difference between Frontend Testing vs Backend Testing is that frontend testing checks the user interface of application whereas backend testing checks the database and server side of application.



Here’s a table depicting key differences between frontend testing and backend testing:



<figure class="wp-block-table">
<table style="border: 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse;">
<tbody>
<tr style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px; border-collapse: collapse;">
<td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px; border-collapse: collapse;">Frontend testing</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px; border-collapse: collapse;">Backend testing</td>
</tr>
<tr style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px; border-collapse: collapse;">
<td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px; border-collapse: collapse;">Frontend testing is about testing the user interface of an application that the user sees and interacts with.</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px; border-collapse: collapse;">Backend testing is about testing the database and server side of an application and ensuring that it’s working properly.</td>
</tr>
<tr style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px; border-collapse: collapse;">
<td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px; border-collapse: collapse;">Frontend testing is black box testing, meaning the tester will not be able to see the code logic behind the user interface and functionality.</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px; border-collapse: collapse;">Backend testing is white-box testing, meaning the tester will interact with the code logic behind any functionality.</td>
</tr>
<tr style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px; border-collapse: collapse;">
<td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px; border-collapse: collapse;">Frontend testing doesn’t require any knowledge of programming language.</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px; border-collapse: collapse;">Backend testing required knowledge of the database and the language used in the backend.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></figure>



<h2 id="9ns2c">Summary</h2>



To ensure an application’s overall functionality of an application, it’s important to test both the backend and frontend sides of an application. Frontend testing ensures that an application’s overall functionality works as intended in all operating systems and browser combinations. Whereas backed testing ensures the database side of the application is working properly.



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<ts-linktext-value>UI Testing Tools</ts-linktext-value>
<ts-linkurl-value>https://testsigma.com/user-interface-testing-tools</ts-linkurl-value>
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<ts-linktext-value>Web Automation Testing Tools</ts-linktext-value>
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Frontend Testing vs Backend Testing: What’s the Difference?

How to report an issue using a bug report template? cover

Bug Report Template | A Step-by-Step Guide to Reporting Issues in Software

Data is the new asset for any business use case for drawing insights. Similarly, Automation Testing is the new standard that tech companies set for testing their software products.



XPath plays a vital role in any of the uses above, in scraping data from multiple websites or testing products and functionality. XPath allows testers like us to navigate around various locators of the web page with the help of numerous properties such as ID, Tag Name, Group Index, and Predicates.



This blog post walks you through various examples of XPath locators and their definitions.



We have shown the Java implementation of the XPath locator in our cheat sheet for Selenium locators. Let&#8217;s begin with this comprehensive XPath cheat sheet, which will be quite helpful while performing <a href="https://testsigma.com/automated-testing">automated testing</a> or scraping data through Selenium.



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#What_is_XPath">1 What is XPath?</a></li><li><a href="#The_XPath_Syntax">2 The XPath Syntax</a></li><li><a href="#Different_types_of_XPath_in_Selenium">3 Different types of XPath in Selenium</a><ul><li><a href="#Absolute_XPath">3.1 Absolute XPath</a></li><li><a href="#Relative_XPath">3.2 Relative XPath</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#XPath_Expressions_in_Selenium">4 XPath Expressions in Selenium</a></li><li><a href="#XPath_Selectors_in_Selenium">5 XPath Selectors in Selenium</a><ul><li><a href="#Descendant_Selectors">5.1 Descendant Selectors</a></li><li><a href="#Attribute_selectors">5.2 Attribute selectors</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Axes_in_XPath">6 Axes in XPath</a></li><li><a href="#Functions_in_XPath">7 Functions in XPath</a></li><li><a href="#Operators_in_XPath">8 Operators in XPath</a></li><li><a href="#Browser_console_to_locate_XPath">9 Browser console to locate XPath</a></li><li><a href="#Wrapping_Up">10 Wrapping Up</a></li><li><a href="#Frequently_Asked_Questions">11 Frequently Asked Questions:</a><ul><li><a href="#What_is_the_easiest_way_to_find_XPath">11.1 What is the easiest way to find XPath?</a></li><li><a href="#Which_XPath_is_faster_in_Selenium">11.2 Which XPath is faster in Selenium?</a></li><li><a href="#Which_XPath_is_best">11.3 Which XPath is best?</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="a9l6r">What is XPath?</h2>



XPath is the path of elements on the HTML tree. XPath allows us to use different selectors on the HTML page.



We represent the current webpage in XPath by using(.) and (/) to represent child elements to navigate through different elements in HTML and XML documents.



<h2 id="an6t2">The XPath Syntax</h2>



Since we’ve discussed XPath, let’s check how we can generate XPath. The example below shows XPath syntax with single and multiple attributes.



XPath Syntax for Single Attribute



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">//tag[@AttributeName = ‘Attribute Value’]</pre>



XPath Syntax for Multiple Attributes



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">//tag[@AttributeName1=’Attribute Value’ and @AttributeName2=’AttributeValue2’]</pre>



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">//tag[@AttributeName1=’Attribute Value’ or @AttributeName2=’AttributeValue2’]</pre>



<h2 id="5jra6">Different types of XPath in Selenium</h2>



XPath allows us to navigate through the webpage in two different types:



<ol type="1"><li>Absolute XPath</li><li>Relative XPath</li></ol>



<h3 id="ah60n">Absolute XPath</h3>



This locator uses the whole expression from the parent tag and starts with a single tag representing child elements.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://images.storychief.com/account_36412/image21_f18e3ccf352df315c83ba66d2d308d79_800.jpeg" alt="Testsigma - XPath"/></figure>



Below attached is one more example of using a selector with multiple divisions. In such cases, we can use the index in the path. We define the array index inside the bracket according to the node position.



Example:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://images.storychief.com/account_36412/image41_683ed70a11a138af40f1613fc6159b9e_800.png" alt="Testsigma - XPath"/></figure>



<h3 id="cgcr0">Relative XPath</h3>



Relative XPath can start from anywhere from the HTML structure. We use Relative XPath when we don’t want to write the complete XPath expression from the root node.



The Relative XPath starts from a double forward slash, whereas the Absolute XPath starts from a single slash.



Example:



In the below example, we are choosing the image selector. Unlike Absolute XPath, we need not start from HTML.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://images.storychief.com/account_36412/image51_a4abbc3843692c896c7e258429f40666_800.jpeg" alt="Testsigma - XPath"/></figure>



<h2 id="3v3qt">XPath Expressions in Selenium</h2>



XPath expressions navigate and select appropriate elements in HTML and XML documents.



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table style="border: 1px solid black;border-collapse: collapse;"><tbody><tr style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;"><td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;">Symbol</td><td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;">Definition</td></tr><tr style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;"><td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;">/</td><td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;">The single forward slash is used for selecting the child element,to create absolute XPath, to select elements from the root node, and to traverse through child elements from the parent node.</td></tr><tr style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;"><td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;">//</td><td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;">The double forward slash symbol is used for the descendant child(child,grandchild,etc.)in relative paths to select any elements present in the document.</td></tr><tr style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;"><td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;">.</td><td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;">The single dot selects the current node.</td></tr><tr style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;"><td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;">@</td><td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;">Select attributes</td></tr><tr style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;"><td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;">//a/..</td><td style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;
 border-collapse: collapse;">Backward traversing is where we use (.) dot notations to go up the tree or reach the parent node.The expression attached will get the parent element of the anchor tag.</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<h2 id="2uro4">XPath Selectors in Selenium</h2>



XPath selectors allow us to select a specific part of HTML documents.



<h3 id="geni">Descendant Selectors</h3>



To select child elements of the current parent node, Descendant selectors are used. We use a double forward slash or single forward slash to select the child or grand-child elements in the HTML.



The Syntax for Descendant selectors:



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">/tag or //tag</pre>



<h3 id="61apm">Attribute selectors</h3>



Attribute selectors are used for elements based on the attribute present in a single HTML node.



The Syntax for Attribute selectors:



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">//tag[@AttibuteName= ‘Attribute Value”]</pre>



XPath by Group Index



XPath by Group Index is used to match a single element. We write the index inside the bracket and the elements outside the block element.



It executes the XPath inside the brackets and stores the matching elements in the XPath array. Then, it will identify the elements based on the index from the elements mentioned outside the bracket.



Example: If we follow the XPath by Group index, we can get a single result of our Choice.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://images.storychief.com/account_36412/image11_371c5e1a0c201202c5190835f8a81db5_800.jpg" alt="Testsigma - XPath"/></figure>



<h2 id="3tsg7">Axes in XPath</h2>



Axes represent the relationship between the current element and its relative element. It could be anything, such as a child or sibling, parent nodes etc.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://images.storychief.com/account_36412/AttributeSelectors_e6a2e96fcf9ba933ef65e84902ea3668_800.png" alt="Testsigma - XPath"/></figure>



<h2 id="cnc5">Functions in XPath</h2>



A set of operations can be used for making Functions in XPath. It could be adding two HTML or getting the count of images present in a webpage.



Node Functions



XPath has several node functions such as name(), text(), position(), last(), comment() and name(). This Function provides the name of the HTML node.



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">Xpath=//[starts-with(name(), ‘h’)]</pre>



text()



This function is used to locate the HTML elements based on the text of the web element.



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">Xpath=//td[text()='login']</pre>



comment()



This function selects the elements with comments.



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">/span/comment()</pre>



last()



This function selects the last element in the current Node.



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">/span/img[last()]</pre>



position()



This function provides the position of the element.



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">Ex: (//a)[position() ≤= n]</pre>



<h2 id="cuhf3">Operators in XPath</h2>



We can use operators combined with XPath to check certain conditions and verify requirements. It behaves like the if-else condition. XPath predicates come in square brackets after the parent elements are tested. With the following attached XML below, we’ve provided different examples for the operator:



<ul><li>Greater than(&gt;)</li><li>Less than(&lt;)</li><li>OR operator ( OR )</li><li>AND operator ( AND )</li><li>Not Equal to ( != )</li><li>Equal to ( = )</li></ul>



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">&lt;eCommerce&gt; &lt;mobile&gt; &lt;Iphone supplier="mother" id="1"&gt; &lt;year&gt;2020&lt;/year&gt; &lt;amount&gt;1000&lt;/amount&gt; &lt;store&gt;ABC&lt;/store&gt; &lt;/Iphone&gt; &lt;Samsung supplier="store" id="2"&gt; &lt;year&gt;2018&lt;/year&gt; &lt;amount&gt;700&lt;/amount&gt; &lt;amount&gt;700&lt;/amount&gt; &lt;store&gt;XYZ&lt;/store&gt; &lt;/Samsung&gt; &lt;/mobile&gt; &lt;/eCommerce&gt;</pre>



Less than operator ( &lt; )



We can use this operator with XPath to check if the result is less than the number



Example:



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">eCommerce/mobile/iphone[year &lt; 2019]</pre>



Result: In this expression, all the phones are listed with a year Lesser than 2019.



Greater than operator ( &gt; )



We can use this operator with XPath to check if the result is greater than a number.



Example:



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">eCommerce/mobile/iphone[year &gt; 2019]</pre>



Result: In this expression, all the phones are listed with a year greater than 2019.



Equal to operator ( = )



We can use this operator for comparing or checking if the value is equal to the expected value.



Example:



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">eCommerce//[@store=’ABC’]</pre>



Result: In this expression, all the stores with the name ABC are listed. Thus, the result will be an iPhone.



Not Equal to operator ( != )



We can use this operator to check if the operator is not equal to the expected value



Example:



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">eCommerce//[@store!=’ABC’]</pre>



Result: In this, we will have all stores not named ABC. The result will be Samsung.



AND operator ( and )



We use this operator in cases where we want both conditions to be true.



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">eCommerce//[@store=’ABC and @store=’XYZ’’]</pre>



OR operator ( or )



We use this operator in cases where we want any one of the conditions to be true.



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">eCommerce//[@store=’ABC or @store=’XYZ’’]</pre>



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">//input[@value=’A’ or @value=’B’]</pre>



<h2 id="eamk2">Browser console to locate XPath</h2>



We can test our XPath in browsers before checking it programmatically. With the help of debugging tools such as a console, we can test our XPath in the console.



We can write our XPath or with help of an inspector, we can get the XPath of any element on the webpage.



To validate XPath programmatically, follow these steps:



<ol type="1"><li>Visit any website (for example, Testsigma) and press F12 on the keyboard.</li><li>Click on the console as shown in the image below.</li><li>$x(&#8220;//img[@class=&#8217;img-responsive&#8217;]/@src&#8221;)</li><li>Entering the above XPath, we can select the Testsigma logo element on the left top corner as shown in the below image.</li></ol>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://images.storychief.com/account_36412/Testigma_72645294d8e4483227a806635149da97_800.png" alt="Testsigma - XPath"/></figure>



Validating XPath with help of inspector XPath:



<ol type="1"><li>Visit any website and press F12 on the keyboard.</li><li>Click on Elements and right click element of your choice</li><li>Hover the cursor over Copy and select Copy full XPath.</li></ol>



Once done we can place the copied XPath inside the $x(`place your XPath copied from elements`) and check your results.



<h2 id="bfbuv">Wrapping Up</h2>



XPath is used to select or find elements on a webpage. We can use XPath in combination with other programming languages as well.



XPath allows us to navigate through the webpage in two different types:



<ol type="1"><li>Absolute XPath.</li><li>Relative XPath.</li></ol>



Relative XPath is more reliable and efficient while testing or scrapping a webpage. Since it supports dynamic operations, we can continue to extract data or automate tasks using the same code, even if the website is updated.



<h2 id="ffu0t">Frequently Asked Questions:</h2>



<h3 id="64mh2">What is the easiest way to find XPath?</h3>



The easiest way to find XPath is by using browser developer tools. Follow the below steps to generate XPath quickly.



<ol type="1"><li>Right-click on the element of your choice and select inspect; this will launch the inspector tool for elements HTML code.</li><li>Copy the XPath by right-clicking the HTML element.</li><li>Test the copied XPath to locate the same element in Chrome.</li></ol>



<h3 id="6bbqu">Which XPath is faster in Selenium?</h3>



The Relative XPath is faster in Selenium than the Absolute XPath. Absolute XPath is slow because it starts from the root node. Relative XPath is faster and most preferred because it starts from the middle of the HTML structure.



<h3 id="dek6t">Which XPath is best?</h3>



Relative XPath is best in major scenarios as there&#8217;s minimum code maintenance required if there&#8217;s any update on the website.



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