TC8.5: EvaluateXPath not working with IE

Which version of IE are you using?  Starting with IE 7 and continuing into 8 and 9, IE spawns multiple processes so indicating just the first process of IE does not necessarily guarentee that you're going to find the page object on that process.

Hi,





I have tried your code in IE 9, and it worked fine. I have modified it a bit. Please try using the following code:

Sub VerifyXpath() 

  Dim objBrowser, objPage, objWebObject 

  'set objBrowser = Sys.Process("firefox")

  set objBrowser = Sys.Process("iexplore")

  set objPage = objBrowser.Page("http://www.aa.com/*") 

  objWebObject = objPage.EvaluateXPath("//INPUT[@id='flightSearchForm.tripType.oneWay']") 

  if Not IsNull(objWebObject) then 

     objWebObject(0).Click

  else 

    log.Message "Object Not Found"  

  end if 

End Sub

Does this work?

Thanks Tanya, this works for me !!



I was using the SET keyword while obtaining the object using Xpath.

This seems to be making a significant difference apart from the Xpath becoming more directed using "INPUT".



Robert: Thanks for your input as well & yes I am very well aware of the architecture of IE browsers and obtaining their internal process :)





Thanks,

AutoBot

On an extended thought, can we have the Xpath getting fetched in the Object Spy somehow.

I know that we get the fullname or HTML of any web object, but now that we have Xpath supported for identifying web objects, it would definitely make sense if the Xpath for an object is shown in the object spy itself.



Thanks,

AutoBot

Hi,



Hope I understood you correctly...

Could you provide several use cases / samples with expected result for better understanding?

The problem I see is that it is not easy to predict what XPath for the given object you may be interested in for the given case. For example, it may be needed to search for the control on the page regardless of where in the objects hierarchy it is. In another case only direct child may be needed. In the third case I might be looking for the control filtered by two or more criteria.

Your suggestion sounds reasonable, but I think that more definite description would help...

Hi Tanya,



I went through the help for EvaluateXPath() and the code you've provided and it seems to me that the help topic should be corrected.

The case is that the Declaration section of the help states that the return value for EvaluateXPath() may be "an array, object or null Variant value". However, according to the following description, it looks like that EvaluateXPath() always returns the array (that looks correct) and it is given array's element that might contain either object or value depending on what XPath was searching for.

The statement that EvaluateXPath() may return an object may cause problems for those who use VBScript for their tests, as in this case they must first figure out what is the type of returned value - object (so the Set keyword must be used) or array (simple assignment works in this case).

So I think that the help should be corrected to indicate that the returned value for EvaluateXPath() is an array (or null?) and then explain that the array element's value may be object or value (or null if nothing was found).



Thoughts?

Hi,





Alexei, you are right. The EvaluateXPath method cannot return an object. Only an array or null Variant value can be returned. We will correct the description in the help topic. So, there is no need to use the SET statement.





As for using XPath in the Object Spy panel, currently, there is no such functionality, but I have registered your request  in our DB as a suggestion. Thanks.

Using the Find() method works fine with both IE and Firefox.

Hi Roselle,



Which TestComplete version are you using? Please check if the problem exists in TestComplete 8.60. If it does, please save your tested page opened in FF to an HTML file and attach it to your post or send it to us.