Locators: ID, Name, ClassName, TagName

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A locator is how you tell Selenium which element on the page you mean. Every locator strategy is exposed through the By class (org.openqa.selenium.By), and you pass the result of a By.xxx(...) call into driver.findElement(...) or driver.findElements(...) (plural, returns a list). This lesson covers the four simplest and most commonly usable strategies: id, name, className, and tagName.

By.id() — Locate by the id Attribute

The id attribute is meant by HTML convention to be unique on a page, which makes By.id() the fastest and most reliable locator whenever one is available. RecipeBox's login page has exactly this:

// <input type="email" id="email">
WebElement emailField = driver.findElement(By.id("email"));
emailField.sendKeys("tester@example.com");

// <input type="password" id="password">
driver.findElement(By.id("password")).sendKeys("Test@1234");

// <button id="loginBtn">Log In</button>
driver.findElement(By.id("loginBtn")).click();

Why id first: browsers can look elements up by id internally in constant time (it's how document.getElementById works too), and because ids are supposed to be unique, there's no ambiguity about which element you'll get back. Whenever a developer has given an element a stable id, prefer it over every other strategy in this lesson.

By.name() — Locate by the name Attribute

Not every element has an id, but form fields frequently carry a name attribute (it's what gets submitted with traditional HTML forms). Suppose RecipeBox's search box didn't have an id but did have name="q":

// <input type="text" name="q">
driver.findElement(By.name("q")).sendKeys("Butter Chicken");

Note: unlike id, name is not required to be unique on a page — radio button groups, for example, routinely share the same name on purpose. If multiple elements share a name, findElement returns only the first match in DOM order, which can silently grab the wrong element.

By.className() — Locate by CSS Class

Every recipe card in RecipeBox's recipe list might be rendered with a shared CSS class, e.g. class="recipe-card". By.className() finds elements carrying that class:

// <div class="recipe-card">Paneer Butter Masala</div>
// <div class="recipe-card">Butter Chicken</div>
List<WebElement> recipeCards = driver.findElements(By.className("recipe-card"));
System.out.println("Recipes found: " + recipeCards.size());

Note: pass a single class name to By.className() — it does not accept a space-separated list like "recipe-card featured". If an element has multiple classes and you need to match more than one, use a CSS selector instead (next lesson).

By.tagName() — Locate by HTML Tag

The bluntest locator: match every element with a given tag name. Useful for grabbing all links, all table rows, or (as below) every <option> inside RecipeBox's category dropdown:

// <select id="categoryDropdown">
//   <option>Breakfast</option>
//   <option>Main Course</option>
//   <option>Dessert</option>
// </select>
WebElement dropdown = driver.findElement(By.id("categoryDropdown"));
List<WebElement> options = dropdown.findElements(By.tagName("option"));
System.out.println("Available categories: " + options.size());

Chaining locators: notice dropdown.findElements(...) was called on the WebElement, not on driver. This searches only inside that dropdown rather than the whole page — a useful habit once pages get larger.

Which One Should You Use?

Locator	Speed / stability	Use when
`By.id()`	Fastest, most stable	An id is present — almost always your first choice
`By.name()`	Fast, reasonably stable	No id, but the form field has a stable name attribute
`By.className()`	Fast, but classes often change with styling updates	Finding a group of similarly-styled elements (e.g., all recipe cards)
`By.tagName()`	Fast, but rarely unique enough alone	Combined with another locator, or counting all elements of one type

Next up: real pages rarely give you a convenient id on every element you need. Head to CSS Selectors to learn a far more flexible locator strategy.

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