Element is found in XPath Checker but not in Selenium

Question

I have the following XPath:

//div[contains(@id, \'box\')]/div/h4/small/a[contains(@href, \'google\')]/@href

When I try out this XPath in XP

Answer 1

You should write xpath first eg

WebDriver_Object_name.findElement(By.xpath("...xpath...")).getAttribute("..Attri_name..");

Here your WebDriver_Object_name might be selenium

Answer 2

According to the API doc, it should be

...getAttribute("xpath=//div[contains....

Answer 3

In Selenium RC: it needs to mention xpath as "xpath=//div[contains(@id, 'box')]/div/h4/small/a[contains(@href, 'google')]/@href". So in your case, the code is as below:

selenium.getAttribute("xpath=//div[contains(@id, 'box')]/div/h4/small/a[contains(@href, 'google')]/@href");

In Selenium WebDriver: the code is as below:

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[contains(@id, 'box')]/div/h4/small/a[contains(@href, 'google')]/@href")).getAttribute("The name of the attribute");

Answer 4

Shouldn't that query string look like this (according to javadoc api)?

"xpath=//div[contains(@id, 'box')]/div/h4/small/a[contains(@href, 'google')]/@href"