What are advantages by introducing Generics to new Java client 3.0.0?

Support
1

Hi All,

As per new java client 3.0.0, the new concept introduce generics (however, I know generics in java) which has additional dependencies on selenium standalone server 2.46 but i have curiosity to know how it can be helpful?
@SergeyTichomirov and @jonahss , can you post basic example (for android or ios) how it is helpful, is new changes affects pagefactory framework which already uses @find annotation in scripts?

Thanks,
Priyank Shah

2

The specific advantage is that before, appium drivers would only return WebElement objects, and you had to cast to MobileElement or IOSElement. Now, when you instantiate a driver with the generic, it can return that type of element.

before:
MobileElement el = (MobileElement) driver.findElementByName('name');

after:
MobileElement el = driver.findElementByName('name');

3

The same is true for lists

This expression causes compilation error
List**<MobileElement>** el = (List**<MobileElement>**) driver.findElementByName(‘name’);

with 3.0.0 it works
List**<MobileElement>** el = List**<MobileElement>** driver.findElementByName(‘name’);

It is expected that it doesn’t affect page objects