Need help finding product elements on e-commerce page for automation testing

Ecom
1

Hey everyone! I’m just starting out with web automation and I’m stuck. I’m trying to click the first item on a product list page but I can’t figure out how to find the right element. I’ve looked online but nothing seems to work for my situation.

Here’s a bit of the HTML I’m dealing with:

<div class="product-item" data-id="12345">
  <div class="image-container">
    <a href="/cool-shirt-blue.html">
      <img src="shirt-blue-thumb.jpg" alt="Cool Blue Shirt">
    </a>
  </div>
  <div class="product-info">
    <h3>Cool Blue Shirt</h3>
    <span class="price">$19.99</span>
    <button class="add-to-cart">Buy Now</button>
  </div>
</div>

Any tips on how to select and click these product elements? Thanks in advance!

2

hey swimingCloud, i’ve been there! for clicking first item, try using XPath like ‘//div[@class=“product-item”][1]//a’ to grab the link. or ‘//button[@class=“add-to-cart”][1]’ for the buy button. hope that helps! let me kno if u need more tips.

3

Hey SwimmingCloud! Welcome to the world of web automation - it can be tricky at first, but you’ll get the hang of it!

I’m curious, what automation tool or framework are you using? Selenium, Cypress, Playwright? Each has its own quirks for element selection.

Have you tried using CSS selectors? For that HTML, something like ‘.product-item:first-child’ might work to grab the first product. Or you could target the ‘Buy Now’ button with ‘.add-to-cart’.

What exactly are you trying to click - the product image, title, or the ‘Buy Now’ button? Each would need a slightly different approach.

Also, are these elements loading dynamically? Sometimes that can throw a wrench in things and you might need to add a wait.

Let me know a bit more about your setup and what you’ve tried so far. I’d love to help brainstorm some solutions!

4

I’ve encountered similar challenges when automating e-commerce sites. One effective approach is using data attributes for selection. In your case, ‘[data-id=“12345”]’ could reliably target the product container. For clicking the first item, combine it with the link: ‘[data-id=“12345”] a’. This method is robust against layout changes. If you need to interact with specific elements like the ‘Buy Now’ button, ‘[data-id=“12345”] .add-to-cart’ should work well. Remember to implement appropriate waits to ensure elements are clickable before interacting. These strategies have served me well in numerous automation projects.