Selenium Webdriver PageFactory Worked Example

I found that, while adequate, the standard selenium examples for PageFactory were not quite enough to smoothly get me started. After asking around I saw that, contrary to the example, the most common practice seems to be to use the PageFactory inside the PageObject’s constructor rather than from the client class. I will illustrate this with code to test Blackboard Learn, my employer’s product starting with a simple login test. It is my hope that through more examples people can help get started more easily.

So, first the client code that uses this PageFactory generated PageObject

public class LearnQA {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
        String url = "https://test.example.com/";
        
        LearnLoginPage loginPage = new LearnLoginPage(driver, url);
        // Creds set elsewhere
        LearnHomePage homePage = loginPage.loginAs(USERNAME, PASS);

    }
    
}

Basically, with a nice neat PageObject all we need to do is instantiate the page, “LearnLoginPage” in this example, and then perform the requested test such as logging in as a particular user. This hides the complexity of the page from the user of the class and we can change things internally without impacting anyone.

As for the actual LearnLoginPage, this uses the convenience of the PageFactory to reduce boiler plate code. First the listing -

public class LearnLoginPage {
    @FindBy(how = How.CLASS_NAME, using = "login-page")
    private WebElement loginPageClass;
    @FindBy(how = How.ID, using = "user_id")
    private WebElement usernameBox;
    @FindBy(how = How.ID, using = "password")
    private WebElement passwordBox;
    @FindBy(how = How.NAME, using = "login")
    private WebElement loginButton;
    
    private WebDriver driver;
    private String url;

    protected LearnLoginPage(WebDriver driver, String url) {
        this.driver = driver;
        this.url = url;
        driver.get(url);
        PageFactory.initElements(driver, this);
        
        By loginPageTag = By.tagName("body");
        if (! "login-page".equals(driver.findElement(loginPageTag).getAttribute("class"))) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("This is not the login page");
        }
    }
    
    public LearnLoginPage typeUsername(String username) {
        usernameBox.sendKeys(username);
        return this;
    }
    
    public LearnLoginPage typePassword(String password) {
        passwordBox.sendKeys(password);
        return this;
    }
    
    public LearnHomePage submitLogin() {
        loginButton.submit();
        return new LearnHomePage(driver);
    }
    
    public LearnHomePage loginAs(String username, String password) {
        typeUsername(username);
        typePassword(password);
        return submitLogin();
    }
    
}

Instead of the tedious WebElement finding we can now use the “FindBy” annotations to pre-populate the various web elements we are going to use. Such as the username/password fields and the login button. I believe this results in much more readible code.

Finally we have a couple of methods to

• Type the username - typeUsername
• Type the password - typePassword
• Submit the login - submitLogin
• And, finally, a convenience method that combines all of the above into one operation called “loginAs”.