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Introduction

On this page, you’ll find a list of the syntax expressions available. We’ll first cover axes and then attribute expressions.

Reference

For more detailed examples of applied RanoreXPaths, please refer to ⇢ RanoreXPath examples.

Most of the examples on this page begin with /form, the role for top-level applications. Normally, you would further specify this role with an attribute, e.g. [@controlname='RxMainFrame'] for the Ranorex Studio Demo Application, but on this page we omit this to keep the RanoreXPaths short.

In this chapter

    Axes

    An axis represents a relationship to the context (current) node, and is used to locate nodes relative to that node on the element tree. The context node is always the node before the axis.

    All axes require further specification; they cannot stand alone. You can either specify a role (with or without a predicate) or use the any /* or any optional /? wildcards.

    This does not apply to the abbreviations // (descendant-or-self) and .. (parent). This is explained under the respective axis.

    List of axes

    Syntax
    child

    Description
    Returns all children of the context node.

    Example

    /form/child::button

     

    Syntax
    descendant

    Description
    Returns all descendants of the context node.

    Example

    /form/descendant::button

    Returns all descendants of /form that have the role button.

    Syntax
    descendant-or-self | //

    Description
    Returns the context node and all its descendants.
    For the abbreviated syntax //, further specification is optional.

    Example

    /form/descendant-or-self::button | /form//button

    Only returns the descendants of /form that have the role button. /formhas a different role and therefore isn’t returned. If it had the role button, it would also be returned.

     

    Syntax
    parent | ..

    Description
    Returns the parent of the context node.
    In its abbreviated syntax, it must stand alone and does not accept further specification.

    Examples

    /form/button[@caption='OK']/parent::container

    /form/button[@caption='OK']/..

    Example 1: Returns the parent of the specified button element if it has the role container.
    Example 2: Returns the parent of the specified button element, regardless of its role.

     

    Syntax
    ancestor

    Description
    Returns all ancestors of the context node.

    Example

    /form//button/ancestor::container

    Finds all buttons that are descendants of /form and then returns all ancestors of these buttons that have the role container.

     

    Syntax
    ancestor-or-self

    Description
    Returns the context node and all its ancestors.

    Example

    /form//button/ancestor-or-self::container

    Finds all buttons that are descendants of /form and then returns all ancestors of these buttons that have the role container. If the context node also had the role container, it would be returned as well.

     

    Syntax
    preceding-sibling

    Description
    Returns all siblings before the context node.

    Example

    /form/button[@caption='OK']/preceding-sibling::button

    Returns all UI elements that have the role button, are siblings of the specified button, and come before it.

     

    Syntax
    following-sibling

    Description
    Returns all siblings after the context node.

    Example

    /form/button[@caption='OK']/following-sibling::button

    Returns all UI elements that have the role button, are siblings of the specified button, and come after it.

    Attributes

    Reference

    You can also use regular expressions in RanoreXPaths. This is explained separately in
    Ranorex Studio Expert     > ⇢ Regular expressions in Ranorex Studio.

    Syntax
    /form

    Description
    Top-level applications usually have the role form. This syntax therefore identifies top-level applications.

     

    Syntax
    /form[@title='Calculator']

    Description
    Identifies top-level applications that have the title Calculator.

     

    Syntax
    /form[@title='Calculator' and @instance='2']

    Description
    Identifies the top-level application that has the title Calculator AND the instance attribute 2.

     

    Syntax
    /form[@title='Calculator' or @class='SciCalc']

    Description
    Identifies top-level applications that have the title Calculator OR the class SciCalc.

     

    Syntax
    /button

    Description
    Identifies UI elements that have the role button.

     

    Syntax
    /button[2]

    Description
    Identifies the second button (refers to the position in the element tree).

     

    Syntax
    /button[-2]

    Description
    Identifies the second-to-last button (refers to the position in the element tree).

     

    Syntax
    /button[@text='Exit']

    Description
    Identifies buttons with the text Exit.

     

    Syntax
    /button[@text!='Exit']

    Description
    Identifies buttons whose text attribute is not equal to Exit.

     

    Syntax
    /button[@text>'Warning']

    Description
    Identifies buttons whose text begins with Warning.

     

    Syntax
    /button[@text<'Warning']

    Description
    Identifies buttons whose text ends in Warning.

     

    Syntax
    /*[@text='Warning']

    Description
    Identifies any element with the text Warning.

     

    Syntax
    /button[?'Warning']

    Description
    Identifies buttons that have any attribute that contains the string Warning.

     

    Syntax
    /button[@text!=null()]

    Description
    Identifies buttons whose text attribute is not empty.

     

    Syntax
    /progressbar[@value>='13.5']

    Description
    Identifies progress bars with a value greater than 13.5. Other possible operators: >, <, >=, <=.

     

    Syntax
    /button[@text=$var]

    Description
    Identifies buttons whose text has the value of the variable $var.

     

    Syntax
    /button[$var]

    Description
    Identifies the first, second, third, etc. button, depending on the numeric value of $var.

     

    Syntax
    /dom//input[#'Search']

    Description
    Identifies an input element on a website (/dom for document object model) with the unique identifier Search.

    Functions

    Syntax
    /table/row/cell[first()='True']

    Description
    Identifies the first cell of a row.

     

    Syntax
    /table/row/cell[last()='True']

    Description
    Identifies the last cell of a row.

     

    Syntax
    /table/row/cell[index()='2']

    Description
    Identifies the second cell (refers to the position in the element tree). The index() function starts at 1.

     

    Syntax
    /table/row/cell[pos()='2']

    Description
    Identifies the third cell (refers to the position in the element tree). The pos() function starts at 0.

     

    Syntax
    /form[x()>'100' and y()='100']

    Description
    Identifies top-level applications with screen coordinates greater than 100 pixels.

     

    Syntax
    /form/button[cx()>'10' and cy()>'10']

    Description
    Identifies buttons with client coordinates (= an element’s coordinates relative to its parent) greater than 10 pixels.

     

    Syntax
    /form[width()>'100' and height()>'100']

    Description
    Identifies top-level applications with a width and height greater than 100 pixels.

     

    Syntax
    /dom/body/form/button[text()='Clear']

    Description
    Identifies buttons on a website with the innertext Clear. For web testing, the function text() returns the value of the attribute innertext.

     

    Syntax
    /dom/body/form/[@id=null()]

    Description
    Identifies website forms whose ID attribute is not zero.