How to Test Checkboxes

Intro

Checkboxes are an often used element in web applications. This guide will show you how to work with them in your Selenium tests.

Intuitively you may reach for a method that has the word 'checked' in it -- like .checked or .is_checked but this doesn't exist in Selenium.

A Solution

There are two ways to approach this issue -- by seeing if an element has a checked attribute (a.k.a. performing an attribute lookup), or by asking an element if it has been selected.

We're going to go through each of these approaches to see their pros and cons.

About The Author

Dave Haeffner is the original writer of Elemental Selenium -- a free, once weekly Selenium tip newsletter that's read by thousands of testing professionals. He also created and maintains the-internet (an open-source web app that's perfect for writing automated tests against).

Dave has helped numerous companies successfully implement automated acceptance testing; including The Motley Fool, ManTech International, Sittercity, and Animoto. He is also an active member of the Selenium project and has spoken at numerous conferences and meetups around the world about automated acceptance testing.