CSS Selector - ID

  • Syntax: css=<HTML tag><#><Value of ID attribute>.
  • '#' is used to symbolize ID attribute. It is mandatory to use hash sign if ID attribute is being used to create CSS Selector.
  • The value of the attribute is always preceded by a hash sign.

Let us consider an example on how to use ID attribute to create a CSS Selector which uniquely identifies a web element.

We will try to locate a web element by defining the CSS Selector for that particular web element.

  • Launch Firefox browser.
  • Click on the Selenium icon present on the top right corner on your browser.
  • It will launch the default interface of Selenium IDE.
  • Click on the command text box present on the Test Script Editor Box.

Selenium CSS Selector - ID
  • Modify the properties of first command as:

Selenium CSS Selector - ID

Now, using second command we will try to locate the "Username" text box. First we will inspect the "Username" text box to get the value of its ID attribute.

    • Right click on the Username text box and select inspect elements.

Selenium CSS Selector - ID
    • It will launch a window containing all the specific codes involved in the development of "Username" text box.

Selenium CSS Selector - ID
    • Pick the ID attribute from the selected portion of codes.

Selenium CSS Selector - ID

Now, we will define the CSS Selector as: css=input#email

  • Modify the properties of second command as:
    • Command: click at
    • Target: css=input#email
    • After execution, this command will click on the "Username" text box.

We will add one more command using the same CSS Selector. This command will type the username text into the "Username" text box.

  • Modify the properties of third command as:
    • Command: type
    • Target: css=input#email
    • Value: username
    • After execution, this command will type the value in the "Username" text box.

Selenium CSS Selector - ID

Let us execute our test script to see whether our inserted commands are working or not.

  • Click on the "Run Current Test" button present on the tool bar menu of the IDE. It will execute all of your inserted commands on the browser and gives you an overall summary of the executed test script.

The following screenshot shows that we have successfully executed our test script.

(1) - ID attribute is used for both of our CSS Selector's to locate the "Username" text box element.

(2) - Log pane displays the overall summary of the executed test script.

(3) - Value generated as a result of execution of our third command.





Latest Courses