Modern web and mobile applications often feature dynamic user interfaces where elements appear, disappear, or change properties based on user actions or asynchronous data loading. This dynamic behaviour presents a significant challenge for automated testing—especially in Model-Driven Testing (MDT), where abstract models guide test generation and execution.
In this blog, we explore practical strategies and best practices for handling dynamic UI elements effectively within model-driven tests, helping you design resilient and maintainable automation that adapts gracefully to UI changes.
Understanding Dynamic UI Elements
Dynamic UI elements are components that alter their presence, structure, or attributes at runtime. Common examples include:
1. Menus or dialogs that appear only after user interaction
2. Tables or lists that load data asynchronously
3. Elements with dynamically generated IDs or class names
4. UI components that change based on user roles or settings
Because these elements change dynamically, traditional static locators (e.g., fixed XPath or ID selectors) often become brittle and unreliable.
Challenges in Model-Driven Testing
Model-driven testing leverages abstract representations (e.g., state machines, flow models) to define possible user interactions and system states. Dynamic UIs complicate this approach:
1. Models may not capture all possible states or transitions
2. Locators embedded in models may become invalid
3. Timing issues arise when elements load with unpredictable delays
4. Tests may become flaky, failing intermittently without actual defects
To overcome these obstacles, a combination of model design enhancements and execution-level strategies is required.
Strategies for Handling Dynamic UI Elements
1. Use Robust Locators Based on Stable Attributes
Avoid relying on fragile selectors. Instead:
1. Use relative XPath based on stable parent elements
2. Combine CSS classes with meaningful text or ARIA labels
3. Add custom data-* attributes to elements specifically for test automation
4. Use regular expressions or partial matches when attribute values change dynamically
2. Incorporate Waits and Smart Synchronization
Elements may not appear immediately, so synchronization is crucial:
1. Use explicit waits for visibility, presence, or interactability
2. Avoid fixed sleep() delays as they reduce reliability and slow down execution
3. Embed waits within model transitions to reflect real application flow
3. Model Dynamic States and Transitions Explicitly
Extend your model to include dynamic behaviours:
1. Represent dialogs, dropdowns, or modals as separate states
2. Use optional transitions to model conditional element appearances
3. Annotate transitions with guard conditions based on UI presence or attribute state
4. Parameterize Locators in the Model
Introduce flexibility in how elements are located:
1. Define placeholders or variables in the model for dynamic values
2. Resolve those values at runtime using test data or context
3. This reduces duplication and allows one model to serve multiple variations
5. Use AI or Heuristic-Based Element Identification
For highly dynamic or visually complex UIs:
1. Apply AI-driven element recognition based on visual cues or semantic meaning
2. Use heuristics that combine multiple attributes to locate elements reliably
3. Plugins or extensions can be integrated with some model-driven tools for more sophisticated identification techniques.
6. Keep Models and Tests in Sync with UI Changes
Maintain alignment between the application and your testing assets:
1. Maintain a clear mapping between model elements and UI components
2. Automated checks can help uncover broken selectors or mismatched interface elements.
3. Employ version control and collaborative reviews to manage model updates efficiently
Best Practices Summary
✔️ Prefer maintainable, dynamic-friendly locators over brittle paths
✔️ Reflect real application behavior by modeling dynamic states
✔️ Incorporate synchronization logic into both the model and execution layer
✔️ Use parameterized locators for flexibility
✔️ Keep models and testing artifacts up to date as the user interface changes.
✔️ Adopt AI-based tools if needed to handle visual and complex UIs
Conclusion
Dynamic UI elements are a core part of modern applications, and model-driven testing must evolve to handle them gracefully. By combining robust locator strategies, explicit modeling of UI behavior, and synchronization mechanisms, you can build automated tests that are stable, scalable, and low-maintenance.
With the right techniques, model-driven testing becomes a powerful ally in ensuring quality for even the most dynamic and complex user interfaces.