Selenium WebDriver - Windows and Tabs

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Selenium Webdriver can be used to handle windows and tabs. There is no difference in handling windows and tabs by Selenium Webdriver. Each window opened has a unique identifier for that session.

Once a new window is opened, the driver context still remains on the parent window. In order to perform some tasks on the child windows, we would need to switch the driver context from the main window to the child windows.

There are multiple methods available in Selenium that can enable us to automate tests based on windows and tabs. For accessing the child windows, we have to first switch the driver context to the other window using the switchTo().window("window handle id of the child window") method. Let us discuss some other methods −

• driver.getWindowHandle() − This is used to get the window handle id of the window in focus. Its return type is a String.

• driver.getWindowHandles() − This is used to get all the window handle ids of the windows which are opened. Its return type is a Set of Strings.

Let us take an example of the below page, where we would click on the New Tab button.

After clicking on the New Tab, we would navigate to another tab having the text New Tab.

Syntax

WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

// Get the window handle of the original window
String oW = driver.getWindowHandle();

// get all opened windows handle ids
Set<String> windows = driver.getWindowHandles();

// Iterating through all window handles
for (String w : windows) {
   if(!oW.equalsIgnoreCase(w)) {
   
      // switching to child window
      driver.switchTo().window(w);
      
      // accessing element in new tab
      WebElement e = driver.findElement(By.xpath("<value of xpath>"));
      System.out.println("Text in new tab is: " + e.getText());
      break;
   }
}

Example

Code Implementation on Tabs.java class file.

package org.example;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

public class Tabs {
   public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {

      // Initiate the Webdriver
      WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

      // adding implicit wait of 12 secs
      driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(12, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

      // Opening the webpage where we will open a new tab
      driver.get("https://www.tutorialspoint.com/selenium/practice/browser-windows.php");

      // click link and navigate to next tab
      WebElement b = driver.findElement
         (By.xpath("/html/body/main/div/div/div[2]/button[1]"));
      b.click();
      
      // Get the window handle of the original window
      String oW = driver.getWindowHandle();
      
      // get all opened windows handle ids
      Set<String> windows = driver.getWindowHandles();

      // Iterating through all window handles
      for (String w : windows) {
         if(!oW.equalsIgnoreCase(w)) {
         
            // switching to child tab
            driver.switchTo().window(w);
            
            // accessing element in new tab
            WebElement e = driver.findElement
               (By.xpath("/html/body/main/div/div/h1"));
            System.out.println("Text in new tab is: " + e.getText());
            break;
         }
      }
      
      // quitting the browser
      driver.quit();
   }
}

Output

Text in new tab is: New Tab

Process finished with exit code 0

In the above example, we captured the text on the new tab and received the message in the console - Text in new tab is: New Tab.

Finally, the message Process finished with exit code 0 was received, signifying successful execution of the code.

Let us take another example as shown in the below image where we would click on the New Window Message button.

After clicking on the New Window Message, we would navigate to another window having the text New Window Message.

Then we would close the new window and switch back to the original window and get the text - Browser Windows there. Finally we would quit the session.

Example

Code Implementation on Windows.java class file.

package org.example;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

public class Windows {
   public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
   
      // Initiate the Webdriver
      WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

      // adding implicit wait of 12 secs
      driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(12, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

      // Opening the webpage where we will open a new window
      driver.get("https://www.tutorialspoint.com/selenium/practice/browser-windows.php");

      // click link and navigate to next window
      WebElement b =  driver.findElement
         (By.xpath("/html/body/main/div/div/div[2]/button[3]"));
      b.click();

      // Get the window handle of the original window
      String oW = driver.getWindowHandle();

      // get all opened windows handle ids
      Set<String> windows = driver.getWindowHandles();

      // Iterating through all window handles
      for (String w : windows) {
         if(!oW.equalsIgnoreCase(w)) {
         
            // switching to child window
            driver.switchTo().window(w);
            
            // accessing element in new window
            WebElement e = driver.findElement
               (By.xpath("/html/body/main/div/div/h1"));
            System.out.println("Text in new window is: " + e.getText());
            driver.close();
            break;
         }
      }
      // switching to parent window
      driver.switchTo().window(oW);

      // accessing element in parent window
      WebElement e1 = driver.findElement
         (By.xpath("/html/body/main/div/div/div[2]/h1"));
      System.out.println("Text in parent window is: " + e1.getText());

      // quitting the browser session
      driver.quit();
   }
}

Output

Text in new window is: New Window Message
Text in parent window is: Browser Windows

Process finished with exit code 0

In the above example, we captured the text on the new window and received the message in the console - Text in new window is: New Window Message. Then we closed the child window and switched back to the parent window. Lastly, obtain the text on the parent window in the console - Text in parent window is: Browser Windows.

Finally, the message Process finished with exit code 0 was received, signifying successful execution of the code.

Thus there is a difference between close() and quit() methods. While the close() method only closes the browser window in focus, the quit() method closes everything associated with the driver session(browser and all background driver processes).

Selenium 4 gives the option to open a new tab or window. To open a new window, we would take the help of the method −

driver.switchTo().newWindow(WindowType.WINDOW)

Let us take another example where we would first open a window and launch an application having the text - Check Box.

Then we would open a new window and launch another application having the text - Radio Button.

Example

Code Implementation on NewWindow.java class file.

package org.example;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.WindowType;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

public class NewWindow {
   public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
      
      // Initiate the Webdriver
      WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
      
      // adding implicit wait of 12 secs
      driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(12, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
      
      // Opening the webpage in window 1
      driver.get("https://www.tutorialspoint.com/selenium/practice/check-box.php");
      
      // get text in window 1
      WebElement e = driver.findElement
         (By.xpath("/html/body/main/div/div/div[2]/h1"));
      System.out.println("Text is: " + e.getText());
      
      // Initiate the Webdriver
      WebDriver newDriver = driver.switchTo().newWindow(WindowType.WINDOW);
      
      // Opening the webpage in new window
      driver.get("https://www.tutorialspoint.com/selenium/practice/radio-button.php");
      
      // get text in window 2
      WebElement e1 = driver.findElement
         (By.xpath("/html/body/main/div/div/div[2]/form/h1"));
      System.out.println("Text in new window is: " + e1.getText());

      // quitting the browser session
      driver.quit();
   }
}

Output

Text is: Check Box
Text in new window is: Radio Button

Process finished with exit code 0

In the above example, we captured the text in the first window and received the message in the console - Text is: Check Box. Then opened another window and an application there. Finally, we obtained the text in the new window in the console - Text in new window is: Radio Button.

Finally, the message Process finished with exit code 0 was received, signifying successful execution of the code.

Selenium 4 gives the option to open a new tab or window. To open a new tab, we would take the help of the method −

driver.switchTo().newWindow(WindowType.TAB)

Let us take another example where we would first open a window and launch an application having the text - Check Box.

Then we would open a new tab and launch another application having the text - Radio Button.

Example

Code Implementation on NewTabs.java class file.

package org.example;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.WindowType;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

public class NewTabs {
   public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {

      // Initiate the Webdriver
      WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

      // adding implicit wait of 12 secs
      driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(12, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

      // Opening the webpage in window 1
      driver.get("https://www.tutorialspoint.com/selenium/practice/check-box.php");

      // get text in window 1
      WebElement e = driver.findElement
         (By.xpath("/html/body/main/div/div/div[2]/h1"));
      System.out.println("Text is: " + e.getText());

      // Initiate the Webdriver
      WebDriver newDriver =driver.switchTo().newWindow(WindowType.TAB);

      // Opening the webpage in new tab
      driver.get("https://www.tutorialspoint.com/selenium/practice/radio-button.php");

      // get text in other tab
      WebElement e1 = driver.findElement
         (By.xpath("/html/body/main/div/div/div[2]/form/h1"));
      System.out.println("Text in other tab is: " + e1.getText());

      // quitting the browser session
      driver.quit();

   }
}

Output

Text is: Check Box
Text in other tab is: Radio Button

Process finished with exit code 0

In the above example, we captured the text in the first window and received the message in the console - Text is: Check Box. Then opened another tab and an application there. Finally, we obtained the text in the new tab in the console - Text in other tab is: Radio Button.

Finally, the message Process finished with exit code 0 was received, signifying successful execution of the code.

Thus, in this tutorial, we had discussed how to handle windows and tabs using the Selenium Webdriver.