Actions Class in Selenium

 

In Selenium WebDriver (Java), the Actions class is used to handle complex user interactions and advanced gestures like mouse movements, key presses, drag-and-drop, right-clicks, double-clicks, etc.

Why Use Actions Class?

• Simulate mouse and keyboard actions

• Handle advanced interactions not possible with simple WebElement methods

Import Statement:

import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;

Creating an Actions Object:

Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
Where driver is your instance of WebDriver.

Common Methods of Actions Class:

Method	Description
click()	Clicks at the current mouse location
click(WebElement)	Clicks on a given element
doubleClick() / doubleClick(element)	Double-clicks
contextClick() / contextClick(element)	Right-clicks
moveToElement(element)	Moves mouse to element
dragAndDrop(source, target)	Drags source to target
clickAndHold() / release()	Click and hold / release
sendKeys(Keys.XXX)	Sends keyboard keys

Most of these methods are chained and must be followed by .perform() to execute.

Example Code Snippets:

1. Mouse Hover

WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id("menu"));
Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
actions.moveToElement(element).perform();

2. Right Click (Context Click)

WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id("rightClickBtn"));
Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
actions.contextClick(element).perform();

3. Double Click

WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id("doubleClickBtn"));
Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
actions.doubleClick(element).perform();

4. Drag and Drop

WebElement source = driver.findElement(By.id("draggable"));
WebElement target = driver.findElement(By.id("droppable"));
Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
actions.dragAndDrop(source, target).perform();

5. Click and Hold / Release

Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
actions.clickAndHold(source).moveToElement(target).release().perform();

6. Keyboard Events Example:

actions.sendKeys(Keys.ENTER).perform();
actions.keyDown(Keys.CONTROL).sendKeys("a").keyUp(Keys.CONTROL).perform();