Selenium-IDE: How to simulate non-printable keys (ENTER, ESC, Backspace)?

Question

What is the exact HTML code to simulate ENTER, ESC, BACKSPACE and DOWN in Selenium IDE 1.3.0?

typeKeys didn't work nor did this:

<tr>
    <td>keyDown</td>
    <td>id=zc_0_4_3-real</td>
    <td>10</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>keyUp</td>
    <td>id=zc_0_4_3-real</td>
    <td>10</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>keyPress</td>
    <td>id=zc_0_4_3-real</td>
    <td>10</td>
</tr>

Graceless

Answer 1

For example to submit a form by pressing enter, the only one I can figure out is:

Command: keyPressAndWait
Target:  id=q              [depends on your form of course]
Value:   \\13              [for enter - any ascii value can go here]

So it looks like this:

<tr>
<td>keyPressAndWait</td>
<td>id=q</td>
<td>\13</td>
</tr>

Hope it helps Paul

Update:

keyPressAndWait is deprecated

Now you can use:

Command: sendKeys,

Target: id=<your id>,

Value: <your letter in utf8 and not ascii anymore>

For non-printable keys you can have a look at this page: http://www.testingdiaries.com/selenium-ide-keypress-events/

Ophiolatry

For anyone else encountering the \\13 problem. Ensure you are using the correct command, eg keyPress, and not typeKeys. – Vagrant

Right, don't use sendKeys. Use keyPress – Smegma

Answer 2

None of the solutions above helped me, however, the special keys described here this did the trick:

http://blog.reallysimplethoughts.com/2013/09/25/using-special-keys-in-selenium-ide-part-1/

sendKeys | id=search | ${KEY_ENTER}

Special keys - like normal keys, only a bit special. :)

Cocoa

add content in ur answer – Errhine

Answer 3

you can use ${KEY_ENTER} and for other keys as the same as ${KEY_F8},${KEY_ESC}.. etc

Here is a blog post with more details.

Doubler

Is that documented somewhere? – Graceless

dont know, but i have used in my testing today. if needed use in your testing – Doubler

@AaronDigulla thanks that was the perfect dot com where i searched for. – Doubler

It's documented Here! And thank you for that Emmanuel Angelo R. – Revest

Answer 4

For the newer versions of Firefox (22 & 23) the typeKeys command won't work in the Selenium IDE. It's deprecated. You have to use sendKeys.

command = sendKeys 
target = css=.someclass 
value = ${KEY_ENTER}

If you want to combine text with special keys you can do something like:

command = sendKeys 
target = css=.someclass 
value = demo${KEY_ENTER}

Clow

Answer 5

These methods doesn't work with the TAB key.

To simulate the TAB key pressed we need to use the command fireEvent like this

Canale

Answer 6

Clear text field using Ctrl+A and Del (for Selenium IDE):

<tr>
<td>keyDown</td>
<td>id=your text field id</td>
<td>\17</td>

<tr>
<td>keyPress</td>
<td>id=your text field id</td>
<td>\65</td>

<tr>
<td>keyUp</td>
<td>id=your text field id</td>
<td>\17</td>

<tr>
<td>keyPress</td>
<td>id=your text field id</td>
<td>\127</td>

Theirs

Answer 7

You can use code 13 for enter key, code 9 for tab key, code 40 for down key, 8 for backspace key

Hamfurd

Answer 8

The Best Answer to the qs how to Record the Enter Key Through Selenium IDE

<tr>
<td>keyDown</td>
<td>id=txtFilterContentUnit</td>
<td>\13 </td>
</tr>

Its Working i tried that on Selenium IDE here. replace txtFilterContentUnit with your text box name.

hope u can do it -Abhijeet

Flashboard

This is not recording anything, this is manual typing you have to do yourself, right? – Scurf