How to Locate Elements using XPath in Selenium

In this article, you’ll learn how to interact with form elements on a web page using XPath locators in Selenium WebDriver. By locating elements like input fields and buttons with XPath, you’ll automate actions such as typing text and clicking buttons. This is a fundamental skill in web automation and testing.

Below you can find the snippet of the HTML code used.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Sample Form</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="loginForm">
        <input id="username" class="input-field" type="text" placeholder="Username">
        <input id="password" class="input-field" type="password" placeholder="Password">
        <button class="btn primary" type="submit">Login</button>
        
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Step 1: Setup and Open the Web Page

Start by importing necessary modules and initializing the WebDriver. Open the target HTML form using its URL.

Step 2: Locate and Interact with the Username Input Field

This XPath //input[@id='username'] targets an <input> element with the specific attribute id="username" and used the send_keys() method to enter text into the input field.

Step 3: Locate and Interact with the Password Input Field

This XPath //input[@id=’password’] selects the <input> element with the id="password" and used the send_keys() method to type in the password.

Step 4: Locate and Click the Login Button

This XPath //button[text()='Login'] targets a <button> element whose text content is exactly “Login” and uses the click() action method to simulate a click on the button.

Step 5: Handle Exceptions and Wait Before Closing

Use a try-except block to catch any errors during element interaction. Print a success or error message accordingly. Add a delay before closing the browser to observe the actions performed.

Final Code

import time
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

# Initialize the WebDriver
driver = webdriver.Chrome()

# Open the form page (localhost example)
url = "http://127.0.0.1:5500/css-selector-form.html"
driver.get(url)

try:
    # Locate username input field using XPath
    username_field = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//input[@id='username']")
    username_field.send_keys("testuser")

    # Locate password input field using XPath
    password_field = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//input[@id='password']")
    password_field.send_keys("password123")

    # Locate login button using XPath and click it
    login_button = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//button[text()='Login']")
    login_button.click()

    print("Form filled and login button clicked successfully!")

except Exception as e:
    print("Error:", e)

# Wait before closing the browser
time.sleep(5)
driver.quit()

Let’s see the code in action.

with this you have learned how to locate elements using XPath.

Step 1: Setup and Open the Web Page

Step 2: Locate and Interact with the Username Input Field

Step 4: Locate and Click the Login Button

Step 5: Handle Exceptions and Wait Before Closing

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