In protractor, browser.isElementPresent vs element.isPresent vs element.isElementPresent

Question

In protractor, there are, basically, 3 ways to check if an element is present:

var elm = element(by.id(\"myid\"));

browser.isElementPresent(elm);
elm.isPres         


        

Answer 1

I can't speak to which one is preferred but I was able to find the source code and examine it.

According to the docs, elm.isPresent() and elm.isElementPresent() are equivalent. Hope that helps.

Protractor API Docs

There is a link to View code just to the right of the title.

browser.isElementPresent(elm);

https://angular.github.io/protractor/#/api?view=webdriver.WebElement.prototype.isElementPresent

/**
 * Schedules a command to test if there is at least one descendant of this
 * element that matches the given search criteria.
 *
 * @param {!(webdriver.Locator|webdriver.By.Hash|Function)} locator The
 *     locator strategy to use when searching for the element.
 * @return {!webdriver.promise.Promise.} A promise that will be
 *     resolved with whether an element could be located on the page.
 */
webdriver.WebElement.prototype.isElementPresent = function(locator) {
  return this.findElements(locator).then(function(result) {
    return !!result.length;
  });
};

elm.isPresent();

https://angular.github.io/protractor/#/api?view=ElementFinder.prototype.isPresent

/**
 * Determine whether the element is present on the page.
 *
 * @view
 * {{person.name}}
 *
 * @example
 * // Element exists.
 * expect(element(by.binding('person.name')).isPresent()).toBe(true);
 *
 * // Element not present.
 * expect(element(by.binding('notPresent')).isPresent()).toBe(false);
 *
 * @return {ElementFinder} which resolves to whether
 *     the element is present on the page.
 */
ElementFinder.prototype.isPresent = function() {
  return this.parentElementArrayFinder.getWebElements().then(function(arr) {
    if (arr.length === 0) {
      return false;
    }
    return arr[0].isEnabled().then(function() {
      return true; // is present, whether it is enabled or not
    }, function(err) {
      if (err.code == webdriver.error.ErrorCode.STALE_ELEMENT_REFERENCE) {
        return false;
      } else {
        throw err;
      }
    });
  }, function(err) {
    if (err.code == webdriver.error.ErrorCode.NO_SUCH_ELEMENT) {
      return false;
    } else {
      throw err;
    }
  });
};

elm.isElementPresent();

https://angular.github.io/protractor/#/api?view=ElementFinder.prototype.isElementPresent

/**
 * Same as ElementFinder.isPresent(), except this checks whether the element
 * identified by the subLocator is present, rather than the current element 
 * finder. i.e. `element(by.css('#abc')).element(by.css('#def')).isPresent()` is
 * identical to `element(by.css('#abc')).isElementPresent(by.css('#def'))`.
 *
 * @see ElementFinder.isPresent
 *
 * @param {webdriver.Locator} subLocator Locator for element to look for.
 * @return {ElementFinder} which resolves to whether
 *     the subelement is present on the page.
 */
ElementFinder.prototype.isElementPresent = function(subLocator) {
  if (!subLocator) {
    throw new Error('SubLocator is not supplied as a parameter to ' + 
      '`isElementPresent(subLocator)`. You are probably looking for the ' + 
      'function `isPresent()`.');
  }
  return this.element(subLocator).isPresent();
};