Make SearchContext.findElements have a generic return type
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| * @see org.openqa.selenium.By | ||
| */ | ||
| List<WebElement> findElements(By by); | ||
| <T extends WebElement> List<T> findElements(By by); |
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should a similar change be done for findElement?
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No, because we can rely on co-variant return types there. The only signature that needs to change is findElements, and that's because we want to return a typed list, and List<WebElement> is not the same as List<? extends WebElement> in generics.
| */ | ||
| @Override | ||
| List<WebElement> findElements(By by); | ||
| <T extends WebElement> List<T> findElements(By by); |
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This change should also probably go into the corresponding method of the abstract By class?
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Good point. I'll do that too.
Why do this? The main reason is to support frameworks that wish to
extend Selenium, but return their own sub-types of `WebElement` from
`findBy`.
`findElement` can already be overridden using co-variant return types,
but the `List<WebElement>` returned by `findElements` could not be
overridden as easily. This signature change allows that.
With this change in place, subclasses of WebDriver can now do
something like this, without there being compilation issues:
```
public interface Special extends WebDriver {
SpecialElement findElement(By locator);
List<Specialelement> findElements(By locator);
}
```
Compiling the entire java code base suggests that this is a safe
change to make -- no tests or other calls sites needed to be modified
in order for this change to work.
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Kudos, SonarCloud Quality Gate passed! |
|
While this change “only” causes some warnings in Java (which can be easily suppressed), this change will break Kotlin code, and that’s far from ideal. Perhaps we need to hold off on this until we come up with a way to make this work smoothly for Kotlin users. |
|
After chatting with @mykola-mokhnach and checking the linked PR, the Appium team does not need this anymore. |
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Why do this? The main reason is to support frameworks that wish to
extend Selenium, but return their own sub-types of
WebElementfromfindBy.findElementcan already be overridden using co-variant return types,but the
List<WebElement>returned byfindElementscould not beoverridden as easily. This signature change allows that.
With this change in place, subclasses of WebDriver can now do
something like this, without there being compilation issues:
Compiling the entire java code base suggests that this is a safe
change to make -- no tests or other calls sites needed to be modified
in order for this change to work.
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