JavaScript is the preferred language inside the browser to interact with HTML dom. This means that a Browser has JavaScript implementation in it and understands the JavaScript commands.
WebDriver gives you a method called Driver.executeScript which executes the JavaScript in context of the loaded browser page. There are some conditions where we cannot handle some problems with WebDriver only, web controls do not react well against selenium commands. In this kind of situations, we use Javascript. It is useful for custom synchronizations, hide or show the web elements, change values, test flash/HTML5 and so on. In order to do these, we can use Selenium’s JavascriptExecutor interface that executes JavaScript through Selenium driver.
What is JavaScriptExecutor?
JavaScriptExecutor comes separately and comes under the WebDriver but both do the same thing. Within the WebDriver, it is name as ExecuteScript. JavaScriptExecutor is an interface that provides a mechanism to execute Javascript through selenium driver. It provides “executescript” & “executeAsyncScript” methods, to run JavaScript in the context of the currently selected frame or window.
ExecuteScript Method
This method executes JavaScript in the context of the currently selected frame or window in Selenium. The script used in this method runs in the body of an anonymous function (a function without a name). We can also pass complicated arguments to it.
The script can return values. Data types returned are
- Boolean
- Long
- String
- List
- WebElement
JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
js.executeScript(Script,Arguments);
Script – This JavaScript needs to execute.
Arguments – It is the arguments to the script. It is optional
Below is an example, which shows how executeScript method can be use. In this example,
- Launch the site
- Scroll down by 600 pixel
- Refresh the page
- Highlight a particular element
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;
public class JavaSE_Demo {
public static void main(String[] args){
System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver","C:\\Users\\Vibha\\Desktop\\Drivers\\chromedriver_win32\\chromedriver.exe");
WebDriver driver= new ChromeDriver();
//Create the JavascriptExecutor interface object by Type casting
JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor)driver;
driver.get("https://configureselenium.blogspot.com/");
driver.manage().window().maximize();
//Vertical scroll down by 600 pixels
js.executeScript("window.scrollBy(0,600)");
//Refresh the page
js.executeScript("history.go(0);");
//Higlight element - Total PageCount
WebElement TotalCount= driver.findElement(By.id("Stats1"));
js.executeScript("arguments[0].style.border='3px dotted blue'", TotalCount);
}
}
How to enter text-using JavaScriptexecutor (Without Sendkeys)
import org.openqa.selenium.JavascriptExecutor;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
public class JavaScript_EnterText {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver","C:\\Users\\Vibha\\Desktop\\Drivers\\chromedriver_win32\\chromedriver.exe");
WebDriver driver = newChromeDriver();
//Creating the JavascriptExecutor interface object by Type casting
JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor)driver;
//Launching the Site.
driver.get("https://www.google.com/");
//Maximize window
driver.manage().window().maximize();
js.executeScript("document.getElementsByName('q')[0].value = 'Selenium Introduction';");
}
}
QA Automation Expert 