Appium FindElement and FindElements command with Example

Appium Find Element:   Search for an Element. 

• Find the first WebElement using the given method.
• This method is affected by the 'implicit wait' times in force at the time of execution. 
• The findElement(..) invocation will return a matching row, or try again repeatedly until the configured timeout is reached.
• FindElement should not be used to look for non-present elements, use findElements(By) and assert zero length response instead.

Example:

MobileElement elementOne =driver.findElementByAccessibilityId("SomeAccessibilityID");

 MobileElement elementTwo = driver.findElementByClassName("SomeClassName");

Below is the java program with findElement:

package practise;

import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.DesiredCapabilities;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;
import io.appium.java_client.AppiumDriver;
import io.appium.java_client.MobileElement;
import utils.extentReports.ExtentTestManager;

public class FindElementExample {

               static AppiumDriver<MobileElement> driver;

               @Test
               public void setup(Method method) throws InterruptedException, MalformedURLException {
                              ExtentTestManager.startTest(method.getName(), "Setup Method");
                              DesiredCapabilities cap = new DesiredCapabilities();
                              cap.setCapability("deviceName", "emulator-5554");
                              cap.setCapability("udid", "emulator-5554");
                              cap.setCapability("appActivity", "com.android.calculator2.Calculator");
                              cap.setCapability("appPackage", "com.android.calculator2");
                              cap.setCapability("platformName", "Android");
                              cap.setCapability("platformVersion", "9.0");
                              driver = new AppiumDriver<MobileElement>(new URL("http://127.0.0.2:4723/wd/hub"), cap);
                              driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(15, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
                              Thread.sleep(5000);

                              driver.findElement(By.id("com.android.calculator2:id/digit_1")).click();
                              driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@text='1']")).click();
               }

}

Appium Find Elements: This command will be used to search for multiple elements

• Find all elements within the current context using the given mechanism.
•  When using xpath be aware that webdriver follows standard conventions: a search prefixed with "//" will search the entire document, not just the children of this current node. 
• Use ".//" to limit your search to the children of this WebElement. 
• This method is affected by the 'implicit wait' times in force at the time of execution. 
• When implicitly waiting, this method will return as soon as there are more than 0 items in the found collection, or will return an empty list if the timeout is reached.

Example:

 List<MobileElement> elementsOne = driver.findElementsByAccessibilityId("SomeAccessibilityID"); List<MobileElement> elementsTwo =
            driver.findElementsByClassName("SomeClassName");

Below is the java program with findElements Example:

package practise;

import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.DesiredCapabilities;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;
import io.appium.java_client.AppiumDriver;
import io.appium.java_client.MobileElement;
import utils.extentReports.ExtentTestManager;

public class FindElementsExample {

               static AppiumDriver<MobileElement> driver;

               @Test
               public void setup(Method method) throws InterruptedException, MalformedURLException {
                              ExtentTestManager.startTest(method.getName(), "Setup Method");
                              DesiredCapabilities cap = new DesiredCapabilities();
                              cap.setCapability("deviceName", "emulator-5554");
                              cap.setCapability("udid", "emulator-5554");
                              cap.setCapability("appActivity", "com.android.calculator2.Calculator");
                              cap.setCapability("appPackage", "com.android.calculator2");
                              cap.setCapability("platformName", "Android");
                              cap.setCapability("platformVersion", "9.0");
                              driver = new AppiumDriver<MobileElement>(new URL("http://127.0.0.2:4723/wd/hub"), cap);
                              driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(15, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
                             
                              List<MobileElement> elementsOne =driver.findElementsByAccessibilityId("SomeAccessibilityID");
                              List<MobileElement> elementsTwo =driver.findElementsByClassName("SomeClassName");
               }

}

Final Note: 

• FindElement is used for finding single element, if multiple elements exist, will throw the exception.
• FindElements is used for finding more than one element. If single element exist, still statement will execute