How to correctly assert that element not visible?

Question

I have element,for example //div[@class='create-button'].
My test assert that for some users without admin rights this button not visible.

Assert.False(pageObject.IsElementDisplayed());

where:

public bool IsElementDisplayed() {

     try{

           element.Displayed;

           return true;

     }

     catch(NotFoundElementException){

           return false;

     }

}

Someone in my team change button class. Locator is broken. Now method IsElementDisplayed() always return false and my test always pass. This is a false positive result. How to avoid such results?

Answer 1

I suggast you to throw NotFoundElementException instead of handling it. You should handle element not found exception saparatly. Instead of simply returning false, you should log exception and throw exception back to the method where it's called. So you can fail the test.

 

As per your requirement, you should identify if element is visible or not. But with your custom method you are explictly ignoring element presence. We already have a method called isDisplayed (), you should be using that.

 

Hope that helps!