create-xpath-and-cssquery.md

Creating CSS and XPath query

Selecting a UiElement by CSS or XPath is much faster than selecting it by a Selector. To create a CSS or XPath query you will need a String with a specific syntax. A single String can contain more than one attribute, so you will only need one XPath or CSS query to select a UiElement.

Example for CSS Query:

final String CSS_QUERY_EXAMPLE = "[bounds=[10,25][34,49]][class=android.widget.ImageView][package=com.example.coolstory]";

Examples for XPath Query:

final String XPATH_QUERY_EXAMPLE = "//node[@index=1 and @text='' and @className='android.widget.FrameLayout' and @package='com.example.coolstory']";

final String XPATH_QUERY_CONTAINS_EXAMPLE = "//node[contains(@text,'CHARTS')][@resourceId='com.android.vending:id/li_title']";

Each attribute can be provided in separate square brackets or in the same square brackets using the and/or keywords.

CSS and XPath element selection attributes

You can select an element by using the attributes provided in the NoteDetail list in the Dump XML. Notice that these attributes are in CSS format and the corresponding XPath ones should use cammelCase instead of dashes to differentiate words. Use the table below as an example:

CSS attribute	XPath attribute
class	className
content-desc	contentDesc
long-clickable	longClickable
resource-id	resourceId

For more information about dumping XML you can check How to dump XML.