How to switch between AndroidElement and WebElement?

Question

I m working on Mobile Web Application Automation. Here I m using Java, Selenium and Appium. There are two fields which I m not able to automate. They are Date and drop down fields. I can able automate text fields, check boxes and radio buttons. When clicking on Date Field, there comes the Android default date picker, in which I cant able to pick a date. Here is my code below:

class openBrowser() {   
public static WebDriver driver;   
public static AppiumDriver<MobileElement> androidDriver;   
@Test   
public static void launchBrowser(){   
desiredCapabalities(...);   
androidDriver = new AndroidDriver<MobileElement>(new 
URL("http://localhost:4723/wd/hub", desiredCapabilities));    
driver = androidDriver;   
}

class pickDate() {    
MobileElement element;
try{    
element = (MobileElement) 
androidDriver.findElementByXPath("//android.view.View[@content-desc='28 May  
2017']").click();   
}catch(Exception e) { 
throw e; 
}  
}

"findElementByXPath()" looks only for the web element, but not searching for Android/Mobile element. Please refer date picker screenshot: Date picker

Kindly suggest me any solution to switch between Web Element and Android/Mobile Element. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I found a solution from the below link:
switch contexts i.e Native App and Web View

public static void switchToContext(String context) throws Exception {
    try {
        RemoteExecuteMethod executeMethod = new RemoteExecuteMethod((RemoteWebDriver) androidDriver);
        Map<String,String> params = new HashMap<>();
        params.put("name", context);
        executeMethod.execute(DriverCommand.SWITCH_TO_CONTEXT, params);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}
public static String getCurrentContextHandle() throws Exception{
    try{
        RemoteExecuteMethod executeMethod = new RemoteExecuteMethod((RemoteWebDriver) androidDriver);
        String context =  (String) executeMethod.execute(DriverCommand.GET_CURRENT_CONTEXT_HANDLE, null);
        return context;
    }catch(Exception e){
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return null;
}
public static List<String> getContextHandles() throws Exception{          
    try {
        RemoteExecuteMethod executeMethod = new RemoteExecuteMethod((RemoteWebDriver) androidDriver);
        List<String> contexts =  (List<String>) executeMethod.execute(DriverCommand.GET_CONTEXT_HANDLES, null);
        return contexts;
    } catch (Exception e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return null;
}