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The Top 5 JSON Libraries Every Automation Tester Must-Know

by admin | Aug 11, 2021 | Automation Testing, Blog, Latest Post | 0 comments

Nowadays, data transfer from a client to a server or vice versa has become more concerning and significant. From the very beginning, using XML (Extensible Markup Language) has been one of the best ways for transferring data. Be it a configuration file or a mapping document, XML has made life easier for us by making quick data interchange possible by giving a clear structure to the data and helping the dynamic configuration & loading of variables. Then came JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), a competitive alternative and even possible replacement to XML. As a leading Test Automation Company, we make sure to always use the best tools in our projects. So in this blog, we will be listing the top 5 JSON Libraries every tester must know about and back it up with the need. But let’s take a look at a few basics before heading to the list.

What is JSON?

JSON is a data format that is both easy to read and write for us humans and easy to understand for the machines. It is mainly used to transmit data from a server to a web or mobile application. JSON is a much simpler and lightweight alternative to XML as it requires less coding and is smaller in size. This makes JSON faster when it comes to processing and transmitting data. Although it is written in JavaScript, JSON is language-independent.

Why is JSON so popular?

What makes JSON so popular is that it is text-based and has easy to parse data formatting that requires no additional code for parsing. Thus it helps in delivering faster data interchange and excellent web service results. The JSON library is open source and what makes it even better is that it is supported in all browsers. If we take a look at the other advantages of JSON, it has very precise syntax, the creation & manipulation of JSON are easy, and it uses the map data structure instead of XML’s tree data structure. We have added a sample syntax of JSON below:

{
 “Id”: “101”,
 “name: “Elvis”,
 “Age”: 26,
 “isAlive”: true,
 “department”: “Computer Science”,
}

JSON Syntax Rules:

The syntax rules are very similar to the syntax rules of JavaScript, and they are as follows,

1. It should start and end with curly brackets.

2. Both keys and values must be indicated as strings.

3. Data are separated by commas.

Example:

{“name”:”Adam”,”age”:23}

4. Square brackets hold the arrays.

1. Jackson JSON Library

Jackson Library is an open-source library that is used by the Java community mostly because of its clean and compact JSON results that creates a very simple reading structure. In this library, dependencies are not required as it is independent. Mapping creation is also not required as it provides the default mapping for most of the objects which can be serialized. Though the system holds a large object or graph, it consumes a lesser amount of space to process and fetches the result.

Three steps to process the JSON by Jackson API

1. Streaming API

It enables us to read and write JSON content as discrete events. The implication here is that the JSON Parser reads the data and the JSON Generator writes the data. It can very easily be added to the maven repository by adding its dependency to the pom.xml file

<dependency>
    		<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
    		<artifactId>jackson-core</artifactId>
    		<version>2.11.1</version>
</dependency>

2. Tree Model

It converts the JSON content into a tree node, and the ObjectMapper helps in building a tree of JsonNode nodes. The tree model approach can be considered equivalent to the DOM parser that is used for XML. It is the most flexible approach as well. So similar to the Streaming API, the tree model can also be added to the maven repository by adding its dependency to the pom.xml file

<dependency>
        	<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
        	<artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
        	<version>2.9.8</version>
    	</dependency>

3. Data Binding

Data binding lets us convert JSON to and from Plain Old Java Object (POJO) with the use of annotations. Here, the ObjectMapper reads and writes both types of data bindings (Simple Data Binding and Full Data Binding). We can add it to the maven repository by simply adding its dependency to the pom.xml file

<dependency>
    		<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
    		<artifactId>jackson-annotations</artifactId>
    		<version>2.12.3</version>
</dependency>

2. GSON Library

GSON is also an open-source library that was developed by Google. This library is special among the other JSON Libraries as it is capable of converting a JSON String into a Java Object and a Java Object into an equivalent JSON representation without calling the Java annotations in your classes.

Features of GSON

1. Open Source library

2. Cross-platform

3. Mapping is not necessary

4. Quite fast and holds low memory space

5. No Dependencies

6. Clean and compact JSON results.

Also, in GSON, we have the same three steps to process the JSON, and they are

1. Streaming API

2. Tree model

3. Data Binding

Adding it to the maven repository also has the same procedure as we have to just add it to its dependency in the pom.xml file

<dependency>
<groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
<artifactId>gson</artifactId>
<version>2.8.2</version>
</dependency>

3. JSON-simple Library

It is a simple JSON library that is used for encoding and decoding the JSON text. It uses Map and List internally for JSON processing. We can use this JSON-simple to parse JSON data as well as write JSON to a file.

Features of JSON-simple

1. Lightweight API, which works quite well with simple JSON requirements.

2. No dependencies

3. Easy to use by reusing Map and List

4. High in performance

5. Heap-based parser

If you want to use a lightweight JSON library that both reads & writes JSON and also supports streams, you probably should choose this JSON-simple library.

The same process of adding its dependency to the pom.xml life can be carried out to add it to the maven repository.

<dependency>
	<groupId>com.googlecode.json-simple</groupId>
	<artifactId>json-simple</artifactId>
	<version>1.1.1</version>
</dependency>

4. Flexjson

It is also another JSON library that is used to serialize and deserialize Java objects into and from JSON. What’s special about Flexjson is its control over serialization that allows both deep and shallow copies of objects.

Normally, to send an object-oriented model or graph, other libraries create a lot of boilerplate to translate it into a JSON object. Flexjson tries to resolve this issue by providing a higher-level API like DSL.

If you know for a fact that you will be using a small amount of data in your application that will only need a small amount of space to store and read the object into JSON format, you should consider using Flexjson.

As usual, we can add it to the maven repository by adding its dependency to the pom.xml file.

<dependency>
	<groupId>net.sf.flexjson</groupId>
	<artifactId>flexjson</artifactId>
	<version>2.0</version>
</dependency>

5. JSON-lib

JSON-lib is a java library for transforming beans, maps, collections, java arrays, and XML to JSON and back again to beans and DynaBeans. Beans are classes that encapsulate many objects into a single object (the bean), and DynaBeans, a Java object that supports properties whose names, data types, and values can be dynamically modified.

If you are about to use a large amount of data to store or read to/from JSON, then you should consider using JSON-lib or Jackson.

You can add the below dependency file to the pom.xml file to add it to the maven repository.

<dependency>
    		<groupId>net.sf.json-lib</groupId>
    		<artifactId>json-lib</artifactId>
    		<version>2.4</version>
</dependency>

Conclusion:

We hope you are now clear which of these 5 JSON libraries would be apt for your use based on the points that we have discussed. As providing the best automation testing services is always a priority for us, we always explore all the viable options to streamline our process and enhance efficiency. With these libraries, you can parse the JSON String and generate Java objects or create a JSON String from your Java Objects. If you are having web services or any applications that result in a JSON response, then these libraries are very important for you.

Ultimately, if you want to handle large data with a good response speed, you can go with Jackson. But if all you need is a simple response, GSON is better, and if you are looking for any third-party dependencies, then you can go with JSON-simple or Flexjson.

Read Data from XML by Using Different Parsers in Java

by Anika Chakraborty | Jul 26, 2021 | Automation Testing, Blog, Latest Post | 0 comments

Reducing the complexity of any process is always the key to better performance, similarly parsing the XML data to obtain a readable format of that XML file that we humans can understand is also a very important process. A simple equivalent to this parsing process would be the process of language translation. Let’s take the example of two national leaders discussing an important meeting. They could either choose to use a common language like English or talk in the languages they are comfortable with and use translators to solve the purpose. Likewise, the XML will be in a format that is easily understood by a computer, but once the information has been parsed, we will be able to read data from XML and understand it with ease.

As one of the leading QA companies in the market, we use different parsers based on our needs and so let’s explore which parser would be the perfect match for your need by understanding how they work. But before we explore how we can read data from XML, let us get introduced to XML first as there might be a few readers who may not know much about XML.

An Introduction to the XML:

XML stands for Extensible mark-up Language, and it’s primarily used to describe and organize information in ways that are easily understandable by both humans and computers. It is a subset of the Standard Generalized Mark-up Language (SGML) that is used to create structured documents. In XML, all blocks are considered as an “Element”. The tags are not pre-defined, and they are called “Self-descriptive” tags as it enables us to create our own customized tags. It also supports node-to-node interaction to fill the readability gap between Humans and Machines.

XML is designed to store and transfer data between different operating systems without us having to face any data loss. XML is not dependant on any platform or language. One can say that XML is similar to HTML as it neither acts as the frontend nor as the backend. For example, we would have used HTML to create the backend code, and that code would be passed to the frontend where it is rendered as a webpage.

Prerequisite:

There are a few basic prerequisites that should be ready in order to read data from XML, and we have listed them below,

1. Install any IDE(Eclipse/Intellij )

2. Make sure if Java is installed

3. Create a Java project in IDE

4. Create an XML file by using .xml extension

XML file creation:

So the first three steps are pretty straightforward, and you may not need any help to get it done. So let’s directly jump to the fourth and final prerequisite step, where we have to create an XML file manually in our Java project.

Navigate to the File tab in your IDE

– Create a new file

– Save it as “filename.xml”

The XML file will display under your Java project. In the same way, we can create the XML file in our local machine by using the .xml file extension. Later, we can use this XML file path in our program for parsing the XML. Let’s see the technologies for parsing the XML.

XML Parse:

XML parsing is nothing but the process of converting the XML data into a human-readable format. The XML parsing can be done by making use of different XML Parsers. But what do these parsers do? Well, parsers make use of the XSL Transformation (XSLT) processor to transform the XML data to a readable format and paves the way for using XML in our programs. The most commonly used parsers are DOM, SAX, StAX, Xpath, and JDOM. So let’s take a look at each parses one-by-one..

• DOM Parser to Read data from XML

• SAX Parser to Read data from XML
• JDOM Parser to Read data from XML
• StAX Parser to Read data from XML
• Xpath Parser to Read data from XML

Using DOM Parser to Read data from XML:

DOM stands for Document Object Model. DOM is a parser that is both easy to learn and use. It acts as an interface to access and modify the node in XML. DOM works by building the entire XML file into memory and moving it node by node in a sequential order to parse the XML. DOM can be used to identify both the content and structure of the document. But the setback that comes with DOM is that it is slow and consumes a large amount of memory because of the way it works. So DOM will be an optimal choice if you are looking to parse a smaller file and not a very large XML file as everything in DOM is a node in the XML file. Let’s see how to parse the below XML by using the DOM parser.

Here is the XML File that we need to parse:

<?xml version = "1.0"?>
<Mail>
        <email Subject="Codoid Client Meeting Remainder">
    <from>Priya</from>
    <empid>COD11</empid>
    <Designation>Software Tester</Designation>
    <to>Karthick</to>
    <body>We have meeting at tomorrow 8 AM. Please be available
    </body>
        </email>
    <email Subject="Reg:Codoid Client Meeting Remainder ">
        <from>Kartick</from>
        <empid>COD123</empid>
        <Designation>Juniour Software Tester</Designation>
        <to>Priya</to>
        <body>Thanks for reminding me about the meeting. Will join on time</body>
    </email>
</Mail>

DOM Parser:

package com.company;
import org.w3c.dom.Document;
import org.w3c.dom.Element;
import org.w3c.dom.Node;
import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
public class DOMParser {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws ParserConfigurationException, IOException, SAXException {
        try {
            File file = new File("E:\\Examp\\src\\com\\company\\xmldata.xml");
            DocumentBuilderFactory documentBuilderFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
            DocumentBuilder builder = documentBuilderFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
            Document doc = builder.parse(file);
            doc.getDocumentElement().normalize();
            System.out.println("Root element::  " + doc.getDocumentElement().getNodeName());
            NodeList nList = doc.getElementsByTagName("email");
            for (int temp = 0; temp < nList.getLength(); temp++) {
                Node nNode = nList.item(temp);
                System.out.println("\nCurrent Element :" + nNode.getNodeName());
                if (nNode.getNodeType() == Node.ELEMENT_NODE) {
                    Element eElement = (Element) nNode;
                    System.out.println("Email Subject : "
                            + eElement.getAttribute("Subject"));
                    System.out.println("From Name : "
                            + eElement
                            .getElementsByTagName("from")
                            .item(0)
                            .getTextContent());
                    System.out.println("Designation : "
                            + eElement
                            .getElementsByTagName("Designation")
                            .item(0)
                            .getTextContent());
                    System.out.println("Employee Id : "
                            + eElement
                            .getElementsByTagName("empid")
                            .item(0)
                            .getTextContent());
                    System.out.println("To Name : "
                            + eElement
                            .getElementsByTagName("to")
                            .item(0)
                            .getTextContent());
                    System.out.println("Email Body : "
                            + eElement
                            .getElementsByTagName("body")
                            .item(0)
                            .getTextContent());
                }
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

We have created a DocumentBuilderFactory API to produce the object trees from XML, after which we’ve also created a document interface to access the XML document data. As stated earlier, the node is the base datatype for DOM here. From the code, we can see that the getDocumentElement() method will return the root of the element, and the getElementsByTagName() method will return the value of that particular tag.

Using the SAX Parser to Read data from XML:

The SAX parser is a simple event-based API that parses the XML document line-by-line using the Handler class. Everything in XML is considered to be “Tokens” in SAX. Unlike the DOM parser that we saw earlier, SAX does not load the entire XML file into memory. It also doesn’t create any object representation of the XML document. Instead, it triggers events when it encounters the opening tag, closing tag, and character data in an XML file. It reads the XML from top to bottom and identifies the tokens and call-back methods in the handler that are invoked. Due to the top to bottom approach, tokens are parsed in the same order as they appear in the document. Due to the change in the way SAX works, it is faster and uses less memory in comparison to the DOM parser.

SAX Parser:

try{
            File file = new File("E:\\Examp\\src\\com\\company\\xmldata.xml");
            SAXParserFactory saxParserFactory= SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
            SAXParser saxParser= saxParserFactory.newSAXParser();
            SaxHandler sax= new SaxHandler();
            saxParser.parse(file,sax);

        }
        catch (Exception e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

In the above code, we have created an XML file and given its path in the code. The SAXParserFactory used in the code creates the new instance for that file. After that, we can create the object for the Handler class using which we parse the XML data. So we have called the handler class method by using the object. Now, let’s see how the Handler class and its method are created.

class SaxHandler extends DefaultHandler{
    boolean from=false;
    boolean to=false;
    boolean Designation= false;
    boolean empid= false;
    boolean body=false;
    StringBuilder data=null;
@Override
    public void startElement(String uri, String localName,
                             String qName, Attributes attributes){

    if(qName.equalsIgnoreCase("email")){
        String Subject= attributes.getValue("Subject");
        System.out.println("Subject::  "+Subject);
    }
    else if(qName.equalsIgnoreCase("from")){
        from=true;
    }
    else if(qName.equalsIgnoreCase("Designation")){
        Designation=true;
    }
    else if(qName.equalsIgnoreCase("empid")){
        empid=true;
    }
    else if(qName.equalsIgnoreCase("to")){
        to=true;
    }
    else if(qName.equalsIgnoreCase("body")) {
        body = true;
    }
    data=new StringBuilder();
}
@Override
      public void endElement(String uri, String localName, String qName){
      if(qName.equalsIgnoreCase("email")){
          System.out.println("End Element::  "+qName);
      }
}
    @Override
   public void characters(char ch[], int start, int length){
//    data.append(new String(ch,start,length));
        if(from){
            System.out.println("FromName::  "+new String(ch,start,length));
            from=false;
        }
        else if(Designation){
            System.out.println("Designation::  "+new String(ch,start,length));
            Designation=false;
        }
        else if(empid){
            System.out.println("empid::  "+new String(ch,start,length));
            empid=false;
        }
        else if(to){
            System.out.println("to::  "+new String(ch,start,length));
            to=false;
        }
        else if(body){
            System.out.println("body::  "+new String(ch,start,length));
            body=false;
        }
}
}

Our ultimate goal is to read data from XML using the SAX parser. So in the above example, we have created our own SAX Parser class and also extended the DefaultHandler class which has various parsing methods. The 3 most prevalent methods of the DefaultHandler class are:

1. startElement() – It receives the notification of the start of an element. It has 3 parameters which we have explained by providing the data that has to be used.

startElement(String uri, String localName,String qName, Attributes attributes)

uri – The Namespace URI, or the empty string if the element has no Namespace URI.

localName – The local name (without prefix) or the empty string if Namespace processing is not being performed.

qName – The qualified name (with prefix) or the empty string if qualified names are not available.

attributes – The attributes attached to the element. If there are no attributes, it shall be an empty attributes object.

The startElement() is used to identify the first element of the XML as it creates an object every time a start element is found in the XML file.

2. endElement() – So we have already seen about startElement(), and just as the name suggests, endElement() receives the notification of the end of an element.

endElement (String uri, String localName, String qName) 

uri – The Namespace URI, or the empty string if the element has no Namespace URI

localName – The local name (without prefix) or the empty string if Namespace processing is not being performed.

qName – The qualified name (with prefix) or the empty string if qualified names are not available.

The endElement() is used to check the end element of the XML file.

3.characters() – Receives the notification of character data inside an element.

characters (char ch[], int start, int length) 

ch – The characters.

start – The start position in the character array.

length – The number of characters that have to be used from the character array.

characters() is used to identify the character data inside an element. It divides the data into multiple character chunks. Whenever a character is found in an XML document, the char() will be executed. That’s why we append() the string to keep this data.

Using the JDOM Parser to Read data from XML:

So the JDOM parser is a combination of the DOM and SAX parsers that we have already seen. It’s an open-source Java-based library API. The JDOM parser can be as fast as the SAX, and it also doesn’t require much memory to parse the XML file. In JDOM, we even can switch the two parsers easily like DOM to SAX, or vice versa. So the main advantage is that it returns the tree structure of all elements in XML without impacting the memory of the application.

import org.jdom2.Attribute;
import org.jdom2.Document;
import org.jdom2.Element;
import org.jdom2.JDOMException;
import org.jdom2.input.SAXBuilder;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class JDOMParser {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws JDOMException, IOException {
        try{
            File file = new File("E:\\Examp\\src\\com\\company\\xmldata.xml");
            SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
            Document doc= saxBuilder.build(file);
            System.out.println("Root element :" + doc.getRootElement().getName());
            Element ele= doc.getRootElement();
            List<Element> elementList = ele.getChildren("email");
            for(Element emailelement: elementList){
                System.out.println("Current element::  "+emailelement.getName());
                Attribute attribute= emailelement.getAttribute("Subject");
                System.out.println("Subject::  "+attribute.getValue());
                System.out.println("From::  "+emailelement.getChild("from").getText());
                System.out.println("Designation::  "+emailelement.getChild("Designation").getText());
                System.out.println("Empid::  "+emailelement.getChild("empid").getText());
                System.out.println("To::  "+emailelement.getChild("to").getText());
                System.out.println("Body::  "+emailelement.getChild("body").getText());
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

We have used the SAXBuilder class to transform the XML to a JDOM document. The getRootElement() is used to find the starting element of the XML and store all the elements from the XML to a list based on the starting element and iterate that element list. At the very end, we have used the getText() method to get the value of each attribute.

Using the StAX Parser to Read data from XML:

The StAX Parser is similar to the SAX Parser with just one difference. That major difference is that it employs 2 APIs (Cursor based API and Iterator-based API) to parse the XML. The StAX parser is also known as the PULL API, and it gets the name from the fact that we can use it to access the information from the XML whenever needed. The other standout aspect of the StAX parser is that it can read and also write the XML. Every element in the XML is considered as “Events”, and below is the code that we require for parsing the XML file using the StAX Parser.

XMLInputFactory factory = XMLInputFactory.newInstance();
XMLEventReader eventReader =
        factory.createXMLEventReader(new FileReader("E:\\Examp\\src\\com\\company\\xmldata.xml "));
while(eventReader.hasNext()) {
        XMLEvent event = eventReader.nextEvent();
        switch(event.getEventType()) {
        case XMLStreamConstants.START_ELEMENT:
        StartElement startElement = event.asStartElement();
        String qName = startElement.getName().getLocalPart();
        if (qName.equalsIgnoreCase("email")) {
        System.out.println("Start Element : email");
        Iterator<Attribute> attributes = startElement.getAttributes();
    String rollNo = attributes.next().getValue();
    System.out.println("Subject " + Subject);
    } else if (qName.equalsIgnoreCase("from")) {
    EmailFrom = true;
    } else if (qName.equalsIgnoreCase("empid")) {
    Empid = true;
    } else if (qName.equalsIgnoreCase("Designation")) {
    Desination = true;
    }
    else if (qName.equalsIgnoreCase("to")) {
    EmailTo = true;
    }
    else if (qName.equalsIgnoreCase("body")) {
    EmailBody = true;
    }
    break;
    case XMLStreamConstants.CHARACTERS:
    Characters characters = event.asCharacters();
    if(EmailFrom) {
    System.out.println("From: " + characters.getData());
    EmailFrom = false;
    }
    if(Empid) {
    System.out.println("EmpId: " + characters.getData());
    Empid = false;
    }
    if(Desination) {
    System.out.println("Designation: " + characters.getData());
    Desination = false;
    }
    if(EmailTo) {
    System.out.println("to: " + characters.getData());
    EmailTo = false;
    }
    if(EmailBody) {
    System.out.println("EmailBody: " + characters.getData());
    EmailBody = false;
    }
    break;
    case XMLStreamConstants.END_ELEMENT:
    EndElement endElement = event.asEndElement();
    if(endElement.getName().getLocalPart().equalsIgnoreCase("email")) {
    System.out.println("End Element : email");
    System.out.println();
    }
    break;
    }
    }
    } catch (Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
        }
}}

In StAX, we have used the XMLEventReader interface that provides the peek at the next event and also returns the configuration information.

The StartElement interface give access to the start elements in XML and the asStartElement() method returns the startElement event. It is important to note that the exception will be shown if the start element event doesn’t occur.

All character events are reported using the Characters interface. If you are wondering what would get reported as character events? The answer is that all the text and whitespaces events are reported as characters events.

The asCharacters() method returns the Characters from XML, and we will be able to get the data from XML as characters using the getData() method. Though it iterates each and every data from the XML and gives it in the form of a tree structure, it doesn’t return the start and end element events.

The EndElement class is used to point and return the end of the elements in an XML doc.

Using the Xpath Parser to Read data from XML:

The Xpath parser is a query language that is used to find the node from an XML file and parse the XML based on the query string. Now let’s take a look at an example code for better understanding.

File inputFile = new File("E:\\Examp\\src\\com\\company\\xmldata.xml");

            DocumentBuilderFactory dbFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
//            DocumentBuilder dBuilder;
            DocumentBuilder dBuilder = dbFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
            Document doc = dBuilder.parse(inputFile);
            doc.getDocumentElement().normalize();
            XPath xPath =  XPathFactory.newInstance().newXPath();
            String expression = "/Mail/Email";
            NodeList nodeList = (NodeList) xPath.compile(expression).evaluate(doc, XPathConstants.NODESET);
for (int i = 0; i < nodeList.getLength(); i++) {
    Node nNode = nodeList.item(i);
    System.out.println("\nCurrent Element :" + nNode.getNodeName());
    if (nNode.getNodeType() == Node.ELEMENT_NODE) {
        Element eElement = (Element) nNode;
        System.out.println("From : " + eElement.getElementsByTagName("from").item(0).getTextContent());
        System.out.println("EmpId : " + eElement.getElementsByTagName("empid").item(0).getTextContent());
        System.out.println("Designation : " + eElement.getElementsByTagName("Designation").item(0).getTextContent());
        System.out.println("TO : " + eElement.getElementsByTagName("to").item(0).getTextContent());
        System.out.println("Body : " + eElement.getElementsByTagName("body").item(0).getTextContent());
    }

In the above code, we used the XPath Factory for creating a new instance for the XPath. Then we have taken the XPath for the XML data and stored it as a String datatype. This String expression is called as “XPath Expression”.

Next, we have compiled the list of the XPath Expression by using the xPath.compile() method and iterated the list of nodes from the compiled expression using the evaluate() method.

We have used the getNodeName() method to get the starting element of the XML.

So once the XML document has been read, we would reuse the document and the XPath object in all the methods.

Conclusion

We hope you have found the parser that fits your requirement and in-process also enjoyed reading this article. So to sum things up, we have seen how each parser works to understand the pros and cons of each type. Choosing the apt parser might seem like a very small aspect when compared to the entire scale of the project. But as one of the best software testing service providers, we believe in attaining maximum efficiency in each process, be it small or big.

An Introductory Action Class Guide for Beginners

by admin | Jul 19, 2021 | Automation Testing, Blog, Latest Post | 0 comments

If you are going to test an application using Selenium WebDriver, you most definitely will face scenarios where you will be needed to trigger keyboard and mouse interactions. This is where our Action Class Guide comes into the picture. Basically, Action Class is a built-in feature provided by Selenium for simulating various events and acts of a keyboard and mouse. With the help of Action classes, you will be able to trigger mouse events like Double Click, Right Click, and many more events. The same goes for keyboards as well, you can trigger the functions of CTRL key, CTRL + different keys, and other such combinations. As one of the best QA companies, we have been able to use Action Class to its zenith by using it in various combinations as per the project needs. But before exploring such Action class implementations, let’s take a look at some basics.

Action Class Guide for MouseActions

So we wanted to start our Action Class Guide by listing some of the most frequently used mouse events available in the Action class.

click() – Clicks on the particular WebElement (Normal Left Click)

contextClick() – Right clicks on the particular WebElement

doubleClick() – Performs a double click on the WebElement

dragAndDrop (WebElement source, WebElement target) – Clicks and holds the web element to drag it to the targeted web element where it is released.

dragAndDropBy(WebElement source, int xOffset, int yOffset) – Clicks and Drag the element to the given location using offset values

moveToElement(WebElement) – Moves the mouse to the web element and holds it on the location (In simple words, the mouse hovers over an element)

moveByOffset(int xOffSet, int yOffSet) – Moves the mouse from the current position to the given left (xOffset value) and down (yOffset Value).

clickAndHold(WebElement element) – Clicks and holds an element without release.

release() – Releases a held mouse click.

Action Class Guide Keyboard Actions

Same as above, we have listed some frequently used keyboard events available in the Action class,

keyDown(WebElement, java.lang.CharSequence key) – To press the key without releasing it on the WebElement

keyUp(WebElement, java.lang.CharSequence key) – To release the key stroke on the webElement

sendkeys(value) – To enter values on WebElements like textboxes

So by including these methods, you can smoothly run your script and execute the code without any issues….

Absolutely not, we’re just kidding. We still have to gather all the action methods and execute them under the Action class.

build() – It is a method where all the actions are chained together for the action which is going to be performed.

So the above method can be used to make the actions that are to be executed ready.

perform() – It is a method used to compile and also execute the action class.
A perform method can be called alone without a build method to execute the action class methods if only one action is performed.

Action Class Guide for Performing actions

Now that we have gone through the basics, let’s find out how to implement the Action Classes in Code.

Step1:

Import the Interaction package that contains the Action Class. You can use the below line for importing,

“importorg.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions; ”

Step2:

Create the object of the Action Class and use the Web Driver reference as the argument
Actions action = new Actions (driver)

Step3:

Once the above two steps have been completed, you can start writing your script using the Action classes and the different methods available.

Let’s proceed further and take a look at the implementation and uses of the actions available for both the mouse & keyboard.

1. SendKeys(WebElement element, value)

As stated above, this action class is mainly used to send a char sequence into the textbox. But it is also worth noting that we can use it to send the keystrokes of different key combinations likeCTRL+T, Enter, and so on.

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class SendKeys {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        WebDriver driver;        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver","D:\\ActionClass\\src\\test\\java\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("https://www.flipkart.com/");
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        Actions action = new Actions(driver);
        WebElement eleSearchBox = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("input[placeholder='Search for products, brands and more']"));
        driver.manage().timeouts().pageLoadTimeout(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        action.sendKeys(eleSearchBox, "Iphone").build().perform();
        action.sendKeys(Keys.ENTER).build().perform();
        driver.close();
    }
}

By using the SendKeys method, an element is searched by the keystroke instead of clicking on the Search Button. (i.e.) We can clearly see in the code that the “Keys.Enter” is inside the Keys class that has various keystrokes available for the keys.

2. MoveToElement(WebElement element)

You might be in a position to test if an element changes color, shows some additional information, or performs the intended action when the mouse hovers over it. So let’s take a look at the code and find out how you can make it happen.

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.JavascriptExecutor;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.ExpectedConditions;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.WebDriverWait;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class MouseHover {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        WebDriver driver;
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\ActionClass\\src\\test\\java\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("http://www.leafground.com/");
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        Actions action = new Actions(driver);
        driver.manage().timeouts().pageLoadTimeout(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
        js.executeScript("window.scrollBy(0,170)", "");
        driver.manage().timeouts().pageLoadTimeout(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        new WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath("//img[@alt='mouseover']"))).click();
        WebElement eleTabCourses = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[normalize-space()='TestLeaf Courses']"));
        action.moveToElement(eleTabCourses).build().perform();
        driver.close();
    }
}

We have written the above code in a way that the code first waits for the image to become clickable. Once it loads, the image gets clicked, and the mouse hovers over the element for a second.

3. DragAndDrop(source, target)

So there are basically two types of drag and drop that we will be seeing in this Action Class Guide. This is the type of action class using which we can assign a target area where the element can be dragged and dropped. Now let’s see the code to execute the DragAndDrop action,

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class DragAndDrop {
        public static void main(String[] args) {
            WebDriver driver;
            System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\ActionClass\\src\\test\\java\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");
            driver = new ChromeDriver();
            driver.get("http://www.leafground.com/");
            driver.manage().window().maximize();
            Actions action = new Actions(driver);
            driver.manage().timeouts().pageLoadTimeout(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
            driver.findElement(By.xpath("//h5[normalize-space()='Droppable']")).click();
            WebElement eleSource = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[@id='draggable']"));
            WebElement eleTarget = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[@id='droppable']"));
            action.dragAndDrop(eleSource,eleTarget).build().perform(););
            driver.close();
        }
}

For dragging an element to the dropped place, first, the locators are captured for the source and target. Following this, they are passed inside the action method using dragAndDrop.

4. DragAndDropBy(WebElement source,int xOffset, int yOffSet )

So we have already seen how to drag a drop an element within a targeted area, but what if we would like to drag and drop an element by a defined value? Let’s take a look at the code and find out how.

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class DragAndDropOffset {
        public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
            WebDriver driver;
            System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\ActionClass\\src\\test\\java\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");
            driver = new ChromeDriver();
            driver.get("http://www.leafground.com/");
            driver.manage().window().maximize();
            Actions action = new Actions(driver);
            driver.manage().timeouts().pageLoadTimeout(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
            driver.findElement(By.xpath("//img[@alt='Draggable']")).click();
            WebElement eleDrag= driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[@id='draggable']"));
            action.dragAndDropBy(eleDrag,200,130).build().perform();
            Thread.sleep(2000);
            driver.close();
        }
    }

In the above code, we have used the DragAndDropBy method in a way that it clicks and moves the element to the offset position as specified and releases it once the target location is reached.

5. Click(WebElement element)

There is no way to test anything without being able to use the left click button. So let’s find out the code to execute this very basic and necessary functionality.

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
public class LeftClick {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        WebDriver driver;
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\ActionClass\\src\\test\\java\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("https://www.google.com/");
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
        WebElement eleInput = driver.findElement(By.name("q"));
        actions.sendKeys(eleInput, "www.codoid.com").build().perform();
        WebElement BtnSearch = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[@class='FPdoLc lJ9FBc']//input[@name='btnK']"));
        actions.click(BtnSearch).build().perform();
        driver.close();
    }
}

6. ContextClick(WebElement element)

Though the right-click is not used as commonly as the left click, it is still a very basic functionality every tester must know. So let’s take a look at the code to find out how to implement it.

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class RightClick {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        WebDriver driver;
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\ActionClass\\src\\test\\java\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("http://demo.guru99.com/test/simple_context_menu.html");
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        Actions action = new Actions(driver);
        driver.manage().timeouts().pageLoadTimeout(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        WebElement eleRightClick = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//span[@class='context-menu-one btn btn-neutral']"));
        action.contextClick(eleRightClick).perform();
        driver.close();
    }
}

It is worth mentioning here that we have not used ‘build’ anywhere in the above code. Instead, we have used ‘perform’ to execute the functionality.

7. DoubleClick(WebElement element)

Just like the previous functionalities we have seen in the Action Class Guide, double-click is another basic functionality that is vital to any form of testing. So let’s jump straight to the code.

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class DoubleClick {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        WebDriver driver;
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\ActionClass\\src\\test\\java\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("http://demo.guru99.com/test/simple_context_menu.html");
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        Actions action = new Actions(driver);
        driver.manage().timeouts().pageLoadTimeout(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        WebElement eleDoubleClick = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//button[normalize-space()='Double-Click Me To See Alert']"));
        action.doubleClick(eleDoubleClick).perform();
        driver.quit();
    }

8. KeyDown(WebElement element, Modifier Key) & KeyUp (WebElement element, Modifier Key)

CTRL, SHIFT, and ALT are few examples of modifier keys that we all use on a day-to-day basis. For example, we hold down Shift if we want to type something in caps. So when we use the KeyDown action class, it holds a particular key down until we release it using the KeyUp action class. With that said, let’s see an example code in which we have used these functionalities,

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
public class KeyDownAndKeyUp {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        WebDriver driver;
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\ActionClass\\src\\test\\java\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("https://www.google.com/");
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
        WebElement eleInput = driver.findElement(By.name("q"));
        actions.click(eleInput).build().perform();
        actions.keyDown(eleInput, Keys.SHIFT);
        actions.sendKeys("eiffel tower");
        actions.keyUp(eleInput,Keys.SHIFT);
        actions.sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);
        actions.build().perform();
        driver.close();
    }
}

So if you have taken a look at the code, it is evident that once we have used the KeyDown method, the Shift key was pressed down. So the text ‘eiffel tower’ that was fed in the next line would have gotten capitalized. Now that the KeyDown has solved its purpose in this scenario, we have used to KeyUp method to release it.

9. MoveByOffset(int xOffSet, int yOffSet)

As seen above, ByOffset(int x, int y) is used when we need to click on any particular location. We can do this by assigning locations for the x and y axes. Now let’s explore the code that we have used for execution.

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
public class MoveByOffSet {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
        WebDriver driver;
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\ActionClass\\src\\test\\java\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("https://www.google.com/");
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
        WebElement eleInput = driver.findElement(By.name("q"));
        actions.sendKeys(eleInput, "Eiffel").build().perform();
        actions.sendKeys(Keys.ENTER).build().perform();
        Thread.sleep(2000);
        actions.moveByOffset(650, 300).contextClick().build().perform();
        driver.close();
    }
}

10. ClickAndHold(WebElement element)

The action method that we will be seeing now in our Action Class Guide can be used when an element has to be clicked and held for a certain period of time.

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
public class ClickAndHold {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
        WebDriver driver;
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\ActionClass\\src\\test\\java\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("https://www.google.com/");
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
        WebElement eleInput = driver.findElement(By.name("q"));
        actions.sendKeys(eleInput, "Flower").build().perform();
        actions.moveByOffset(500,300).click().build().perform();
        Thread.sleep(2000);
        WebElement BtnSearch = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[@class='FPdoLc lJ9FBc']//input[@name='btnK']"));
        actions.clickAndHold(BtnSearch).build().perform();
        driver.close();
    }
}

In the above code, we have first opened Google and then searched using ‘Flower’ as the input and then performed a left-click action at the defined location. After which, we have performed a click and hold action on the search button.

Note:

In addition to that, if we need the click to be released, we can use the release method to release the clicked element before using ‘build’.

actions.clickAndHold(BtnSearch).release().build().perform();

Uploading a File Using SendKeys Method:

We know that the SendKeys action method can be used to send a character sequence. But one interesting way to use it would be to upload a normal document. If you’re wondering how that is possible, let’s take a look at the code,

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
public class FileUpload {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
        WebDriver driver;
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\ActionClass\\src\\test\\java\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("http://www.leafground.com/");
        driver.manage().window().maximize();
        driver.findElement(By.xpath(" //img[@alt='contextClick']")).click();
        WebElement eleSendFile = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("input[name='filename']"));
        eleSendFile.sendKeys("C:\\Users\\OneDrive\\Desktop\\Sample.txt");
        Thread.sleep(2000);
        driver.close();
    }
}

In the above code, we have used the SendKeys action method to enter the file’s address path to locate the object that has to be uploaded. The document which we have used here is an input type document as this type of document is only ideal for sending the document using SendKeys.

Note:

Just in case you are not using Google Chrome and would like to execute these action class methods in Mozilla Firefox, all you have to do is just add the driver and set the system property for the gecko driver and initialize the driver object for it using the below line.

System.setProperty("webdriver.gecko.driver", "D:\\ActionClass\\src\\test\\java\\Drivers\\geckodriver.exe");
driver = new FirefoxDriver();

Conclusion:

We hope you have enjoyed reading our introductory action class guide that has covered the basic action class methods starting from a basic ‘Click’ to uploading a file using ‘SendKeys’. Action class helps one to perform all the basic actions on a webapp.Release() method, which can be used to release any element that was clicked or held. ‘Perform’ can be used alone, but if there are more composite actions, build and perform should be used together. As a leading test automation company, we are well aware of how resourceful action classes can be when used effectively. Once you have understood the basics, you would be able to perform so many more actions by using combinations of the action methods established in this blog.