protractor getText returns empty string for non-empty element

Question

I have issues getting the text from an element in protractor. For other elements of the page it works as expected, just not for this one :/

<p class="error theme-info-i ng-binding ng-scope" ng-if="firstFormError && form.$invalid" ng-click="goToErrorField(firstFormError)">
  <span class="emphasize ng-binding">User ID</span> (The user ID is required.)
</p>

I can locate both elements without problems using by.className, and getInnerHtml/getOuterHtml works as expected. However getText returns an empty string for both.

FrankyBoy · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-15 11:02:57Z

4

Found the reason ... its a two-step registration where the first step has the same notification area and just gets hidden. For reasons beyond my comprehension the devs update both notification areas (not just the one on the current page), so inner/outerHtml just seemingly returned the "correct content" and because the first area was hidden, getText returned empty as by spec.

I think I'm gonna file some internal bug report now wtf we are doing with those notifications ;)

answered Sep 15, 2014 at 11:02

FrankyBoy

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Megha · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-30 07:44:40Z

3

You can try

var firstName = element(by.model('firstName'))
expect(firstName.getAttribute('value'))

This gives you the value of the input box.

answered Jul 30, 2015 at 7:44

Megha

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1 Comment

moudrick Over a year ago

.getAttribute('value') may not work. You can also try .getAttribute('textContent') or .getAttribute('innerText')

Berci · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-16 15:37:31Z

2

Had the same problem.

expect(element(By.css('span.emphasize.ng-binding')).getAttribute('textContent'))...

Seems to work just fine for me (this of course if you have only one span with those classes or is the first one. else you need to be more specific. But anyway if you still need to solve the problem try with .getAttribute('textContent') )

edited Dec 16, 2021 at 15:37

answered Oct 3, 2017 at 13:16

Berci

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