The findElement method

In UI automation, locating an element is the first step before executing any user actions on it. WebDriver's findElement() method is a convenient way to locate an element on the web page. According to WebDriver's Javadoc (http://selenium.googlecode.com/git/docs/api/java/index.html), the method declaration is as follows:

WebElement findElement(By by)

So, the input parameter for the findElement() method is the By instance. The By instance is a WebElement-locating mechanism. There are eight different ways to locate a WebElement on a web page. We will see each of these eight methods later in the chapter.

The return type of the findElement() method is the WebElement instance that represents the actual HTML element or component of the web page. The method returns the first WebElement that the driver comes across that satisfies the locating-mechanism condition. This WebElement instance will act as a handle to that component from then on. Appropriate actions can be taken on that component by the test-script developer using this returned WebElement instance.

If WebDriver doesn't find the element, it throws a runtime exception named NoSuchElementException, which the invoking class or method should handle.