Question: Why are we using the same package name org.openqa.selenium

[vsadineni1]

Description

In our projects we use both selenium & appium java client jars together.

One of the problems I am facing is: duplicate classes
as we are using the same package name: org.openqa.selenium for the classes under the below path in the appium java-client & selenium jars.
https://github.com/appium/java-client/tree/master/src/main/java/org/openqa/selenium

Can we use unique package names please?

[vsadineni1]

We have these classes present both in appium java-client jar & selenium java client jar with the same package name & same class name
WebDriver
WebElement
SearchContext

[SrinivasanTarget]

@vsadineni1 It's not recommended to use both selenium java client and appium java client packages. Appium Java client comes along with selenium java client so there is no necessity to include both. Reason for using selenium package inside was we were not able to modify selenium packages directly through PR or it took time in past.

[AndiCover]

The package in the appium java-client does not contain all classes which are in the selenium package. The selenium package is much bigger than the appium one and we need those classes in our project. I.e the WebDriverException.java.

I faced that problem when upgrading from java-client.4.0.0 to java-client.6.1.0.
Currently I created my own appium library without the mentioned package, and everything works fine so far but this is only a workaround and no real solution.

When I upgraded to the java-client.6.1.0 i got following compilation error in my code:
The method domClick(WebElement, WebDriver) is ambiguous for the type MyClass
When using verion <= 4.0.0 or my customized appium java-client this works just fine.

Here a short example how to reproduce that:

public static void domClick(WebElement element, WebDriver driver) {
//Do something.
}

public static void domClick(By by, WebDriver driver) {
	domClick(driver.findElement(by), driver);
}

Can we expect that this will be fixed?

[vsadineni1]

Thank you @AndiCover for sharing your experience.

@SrinivasanTarget - here the problem is caused because we are using the same package name as that of Selenium classes(org.openqa.selenium).
One simple question to ourselves is: why do we need to use a selenium package name inside the appium project? If we want to have these classes in the appium project, why can not we use the appium package name similar to other classes? That should solve this, right?

It is a pain for individual developers to fork off the appium project. It is adding additional work that gives no value.

[vsadineni1]

@AndiCover I have a question for you.
I have forked appium java-client git repo. In my fork I have deleted the package: org.openqa.selenium
but I am running into a bunch of compile errors. It seems like we have to fix all the imports.
Did you have to go through this process as well, or do you have an easy approach to work around this?

[SrinivasanTarget]

@AndiCover java-client.4.0.0 to java-client.6.1.0 alot has changed between these two versions over years. Why do you want to customize the java client which java client doesnt solve for you is my question.

The package in the appium java-client does not contain all classes which are in the selenium package.

exclude group: 'com.google.code.gson'
exclude module: 'htmlunit-driver'
exclude group: 'net.sourceforge.htmlunit'
Above ones are excluded from selenium and i think html unit driver has already been removed from selenium if i'm not wrong. Whats the exact problem you are facing and please feel free to raise that with errors or logs.

@vsadineni1

problem is caused because we are using the same package name as that of Selenium classes(org.openqa.selenium)

Share the details of how is it impacting you.

why do we need to use a selenium package name inside the appium project?

Exact reason why we pulled commits of selenium inside java client is because of this PR.

[AndiCover]

@vsadineni1 You are right. It seems that this does not work as I thought.
I simply removed the package: org.openqa.selenium from the jar and my compilation errors were gone. Unfortunately this is no solution.

@SrinivasanTarget I don't want to customize the java client, I have to. When using java-client.6.1.0 I cannot compile my project because of following errors:

The method domClick(WebElement, WebDriver) is ambiguous for the type MyClass

It does not matter if I have selenium and the java-client in my build.gradle file or not. After some time I found out that I get that error because of org.openqa.selenium in the java-client and removed it completely from the jar. After that I was able to successfully compile my project again.

With following class you should be able to reproduce that error:

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;

public class MyClass {
	public static void domClick(WebElement element, WebDriver driver) {
		// code here
	}

	public static void domClick(By by, WebDriver driver) {
		domClick(driver.findElement(by), driver);
	}
}

[SrinivasanTarget]

Ok @vsadineni1 @AndiCover Ok no worries. Will improve this soon.

[vsadineni1]

Thank you @SrinivasanTarget

[kool79]

It's not recommended to use both selenium java client and appium java client packages.

Moreover it is not possible because of compilation errors and because of java9 modules system restrictions (for whose who use modules).
Unfortunately I cannot follow you recommendation because I have a lot of tests which were written with 3rd-party framework which demends/compiled with selenium-java. Now I need appium-java to port all my tests to Safari/iOS. Some time ago I used selenium-java for all browsers, but recent appium version prefer W3C protocol and some command (isDisplayed/getAttribute) works incorrectly (actually does not wark at all) with selenium-java + appium

So I will appricate much if you will solve this compatibiity issue.

[vsadineni1]

Hello guys,
can you please prioritize this one?
We are in the process of upgrading our java-client from 3.2.0 to some latest version. Anything >= 5.0.0 version is having the name space conflict.
Appreciate your help.

cc @SrinivasanTarget

[kool79]

@vsadineni1 Please change this from 'question' to 'bug' with 'critical' status. Because this BLOCKS usage of appium java-client library in the same project with selenium-java library by SeleniumHQ.
@SrinivasanTarget
I understand that some PRs was not merged long time ago. But actually they were reviewed and declined. (and I'm totally agree with reason, because PR tried to use java generics as tool for typecasting) So no chance to have your changes in official selenium client. Your advice to not use selenium client is... strange. Because appium was created and declared as tool which supports COMMON webdrdriver interface. In my tests I need to use both libraries because I work both with desktop and mobile. It is 1st time in my practice when vendor/company/group rewrites interface and republish it at the same name and package