Implementation:SeleniumHQ Selenium How

Knowledge Sources	SeleniumHQ_Selenium Selenium Documentation
Domains	WebDriver, ElementLocation, Support, PageFactory
Last Updated	2026-02-12 00:00 GMT

Overview

The How enum defines the supported element location strategies for use with Selenium's @FindBy Page Factory annotation, mapping each strategy to a corresponding By locator.

Description

How is an enum that provides a mapping between symbolic locator strategy names and the concrete By implementations used by Selenium to find elements. Each enum constant overrides the abstract buildBy(String value) method to return the appropriate By instance. The UNSET constant defaults to By.id(). This enum is primarily used as the how parameter in the @FindBy annotation within the Page Object Model / Page Factory pattern.

Usage

Use How in conjunction with the @FindBy annotation to declaratively specify element location strategies in Page Object classes. It can also be used programmatically to build By locators dynamically.

Code Reference

Source Location

Repository: SeleniumHQ_Selenium
File: java/src/org/openqa/selenium/support/How.java

Signature

public enum How {
    CLASS_NAME,
    CSS,
    ID,
    ID_OR_NAME,
    LINK_TEXT,
    NAME,
    PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT,
    TAG_NAME,
    XPATH,
    UNSET;

    public abstract By buildBy(String value);
}

Import

import org.openqa.selenium.support.How;

I/O Contract

Enum Constants and Their Locator Strategies

Constant	`buildBy(value)` Returns	Description
`CLASS_NAME`	`By.className(value)`	Locates elements by CSS class name
`CSS`	`By.cssSelector(value)`	Locates elements by CSS selector
`ID`	`By.id(value)`	Locates elements by `id` attribute
`ID_OR_NAME`	`new ByIdOrName(value)`	Locates elements by `id` first, then falls back to `name`
`LINK_TEXT`	`By.linkText(value)`	Locates anchor elements by exact link text
`NAME`	`By.name(value)`	Locates elements by `name` attribute
`PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT`	`By.partialLinkText(value)`	Locates anchor elements by partial link text match
`TAG_NAME`	`By.tagName(value)`	Locates elements by HTML tag name
`XPATH`	`By.xpath(value)`	Locates elements by XPath expression
`UNSET`	`By.id(value)`	Default when no strategy is specified; delegates to `ID`

Method

Method	Parameter	Returns	Description
`buildBy`	`String value`	`By`	Constructs the appropriate `By` locator for this strategy using the given value

Usage Examples

// Used with @FindBy annotation in Page Object classes
public class LoginPage {
    @FindBy(how = How.ID, using = "username")
    private WebElement usernameField;

    @FindBy(how = How.CSS, using = "input[type='password']")
    private WebElement passwordField;

    @FindBy(how = How.XPATH, using = "//button[@type='submit']")
    private WebElement submitButton;

    @FindBy(how = How.ID_OR_NAME, using = "remember-me")
    private WebElement rememberCheckbox;

    @FindBy(how = How.LINK_TEXT, using = "Forgot Password?")
    private WebElement forgotPasswordLink;
}

// Programmatic usage
By locator = How.CSS.buildBy("div.container > span");
WebElement element = driver.findElement(locator);

// Dynamic strategy selection
How strategy = How.valueOf("XPATH");
By dynamicLocator = strategy.buildBy("//div[@class='result']");
List<WebElement> results = driver.findElements(dynamicLocator);

Related Pages

Implementation:SeleniumHQ_Selenium_ByIdOrName - The locator class used by How.ID_OR_NAME
Implementation:SeleniumHQ_Selenium_Color - Another support utility in the same package
Implementation:SeleniumHQ_Selenium_Colors - Another support utility in the same package

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