appium / appium/java-client

Change default strategy for @HowToUseLocators programatically

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enhancement
Dominant language
Java
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Description

Description

Appium provides a way to use multiple locator startegies via @HowToUseLocators annotation. The default starategy is set to LocatorGroupStrategy.CHAIN, so if we want to use the alternative strategy i.e. LocatorGroupStrategy.ALL_POSSIBLE, then we need to annotate our WebElements via

@HowToUseLocators(androidAutomation = ALL_POSSIBLE, iOSAutomation = ALL_POSSIBLE)
@FindAll{@FindBy(someStrategy1), @FindBy(someStrategy2)}) 
@AndroidFindBy(someStrategy1) @AndroidFindBy(someStrategy2) 
@iOSFindBy(someStrategy1) @iOSFindBy(someStrategy2) 
RemoteWebElement someElement;

More on this here:
https://github.com/appium/java-client/blob/master/docs/Page-objects.md#--any-possible
https://www.javadoc.io/doc/io.appium/java-client/latest/io/appium/java_client/pagefactory/HowToUseLocators.html

The problem is that we have many WebElements and almost all of them use the LocatorGroupStrategy.ALL_POSSIBLE. This means that for each of the WebElement we have to write an additional line to annotate it with @HowToUseLocators(androidAutomation = ALL_POSSIBLE, iOSAutomation = ALL_POSSIBLE). This causes alot of repetitive code which could be avoided by changing the default strategy in one place.

I am looking for a way to set the default strategy at single place, so it can be applied to all the WebElements unless it is annotated differently.

Is there a way to achieve this currently? If not, would you be interested in adding this functionality to page objects?

Environment

  • Appium Java client 9.1.0

Details

Perhaps we can set this via following ways by passing an extra parameter which changes the default strategy for web elements of page:

PageFactory.initElements(new AppiumFieldDecorator(searchContext, 
	    new TimeOutDuration(15, TimeUnit.SECONDS),
            HowToUseLocators(androidAutomation = ALL_POSSIBLE, iOSAutomation = ALL_POSSIBLE)
            ), 
           pageObject
);

Code To Reproduce Issue [ Good To Have ]

Please remember: it's easier to reproduce and fix the bug with sample code.
You can git clone https://github.com/appium/appium/tree/master/sample-code or https://github.com/appium/appium/tree/master/sample-code/apps and reproduce an issue using Java and sample apps.
Also you can create a gist with pasted java code sample or put it here using markdown. About markdown please read Mastering markdown and
Writing on GitHub

Exception Stacktraces

Please create a gist with the pasted stacktrace of the exception thrown by java.

Link To Appium Logs

Please create a gist which is a paste of your full Appium logs, and link them here. Do not paste your full Appium logs here, as it will make this issue very long and hard to read!
If you are reporting a bug, always include Appium logs as linked gists! It helps to define the problem correctly and clearly.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading the Page-objects.md section and the HowToUseLocators Javadoc, then inspect how PageFactory.initElements and AppiumFieldDecorator apply locator strategies. Define how a page-level default should coexist with element-level annotations, and confirm that existing explicit strategies remain effective. Done means a single page-level configuration works for otherwise unannotated elements and is covered by tests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
developer-experience, testing-qa
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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