As per the JavaDocs of Annotation Type FindBy both the expression :
@FindBy(id = "foobar") WebElement foobar;
and
@FindBy(how = How.ID, using = "foobar") WebElement foobar;
Both of the expressions points to the same element.
Modifier How
How is defined in org.openqa.selenium.support.How, extends java.lang.Enum<How> and also implements java.lang.Comparable<How>. The Enum Constants of How are as follows :
CLASS_NAME
CSS
ID
ID_OR_NAME
LINK_TEXT
NAME
PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT
TAG_NAME
UNSET
XPATH
Also, as per the counter question, if you have a look at the source code of the enum How it is defined as :
public enum How {
CLASS_NAME {
@Override
public By buildBy(String value) {
return By.className(value);
}
},
CSS {
@Override
public By buildBy(String value) {
return By.cssSelector(value);
}
},
ID {
@Override
public By buildBy(String value) {
return By.id(value);
}
},
ID_OR_NAME {
@Override
public By buildBy(String value) {
return new ByIdOrName(value);
}
},
LINK_TEXT {
@Override
public By buildBy(String value) {
return By.linkText(value);
}
},
NAME {
@Override
public By buildBy(String value) {
return By.name(value);
}
},
PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT {
@Override
public By buildBy(String value) {
return By.partialLinkText(value);
}
},
TAG_NAME {
@Override
public By buildBy(String value) {
return By.tagName(value);
}
},
XPATH {
@Override
public By buildBy(String value) {
return By.xpath(value);
}
},
UNSET {
@Override
public By buildBy(String value) {
return ID.buildBy(value);
}
};
public abstract By buildBy(String value);
}
So for example when you implement How in conjunction with ID as per the following line :
@FindBy(how = How.ID, using = "foobar") WebElement foobar;
how = How.ID functionally returns By.id(value) and is equivalent to what exactly the following line returns :
@FindBy(id = "foobar") WebElement foobar;
Hence we can conclude that @FindBy(id = "foobar") and @FindBy(how = How.ID, using = "foobar") are just 2 different ways to achieve the same result and are available as per user's choice.
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