fix: relative XPath chaining in BiDi mode by mccmrunal · Pull Request #14912 · webdriverio/webdriverio

mccmrunal · 2025-12-03T13:44:48Z

Proposed changes

This PR fixes an issue where chaining relative XPath selectors (e.g., element.$('./following-sibling::div')) fails when running in WebDriver BiDi mode (the default in v9).

Root Cause:
The WebDriver BiDi browsingContext.locateNodes command, when provided with startNodes, searches for elements within the descendants of those nodes. It does not interpret relative XPath expressions (starting with ./ or ..) as relative to the startNodes themselves in the same way WebDriver Classic does. This caused selectors like ./following-sibling::div to fail to find elements that are siblings of the context element.

The Fix:
I updated findDeepElement and findDeepElements in [packages/webdriverio/src/utils/index.ts] to detect this specific scenario:

The selector strategy is xpath.
The selector value starts with ./ or .. (indicating a relative path).
The command is being executed on an element (i.e., elementId is present).

When these conditions are met, the code now falls back to using the WebDriver Classic findElementFromElement (or findElementsFromElement) command, ensuring the relative XPath is evaluated correctly against the context element.

Types of changes

Polish (an improvement for an existing feature)
Bugfix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected)
Documentation update (improvements to the project's docs)
Specification changes (updates to WebDriver command specifications)
Internal updates (everything related to internal scripts, governance documentation and CI files)

Checklist

I have read the CONTRIBUTING doc
I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works
I have added the necessary documentation (if appropriate)
I have added proper type definitions for new commands (if appropriate)

Backport Request

//: # (The current main branch is the development branch for WebdriverIO v9. If your change should be released to the current major version of WebdriverIO (v8), please raise another PR with the same changes against the v8 branch.)

This change is solely for v9 and doesn't need to be back-ported
Back-ported PR at #XXXXX

Further comments

I verified this fix by:

Creating a local reproduction case with element.$('./following-sibling::div') which failed in BiDi mode.
Confirming the test passes with this fix applied.
Adding unit tests in [packages/webdriverio/tests/utils/index.test.ts]

Reviewers: @webdriverio/project-committers

Fixes webdriverio#14675

pkg-pr-new · 2025-12-03T13:46:56Z

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commit: 558fa5f

christian-bromann · 2025-12-24T00:45:10Z

packages/webdriverio/src/utils/index.ts

+     * we need to fall back to the regular WebDriver Classic command as BiDi
+     * does not support relative xpath selectors with a start node
+     */
+    if (using === 'xpath' && (value.startsWith('./') || value.startsWith('..')) && (this as WebdriverIO.Element).elementId) {


As mentioned in the other PR, can we use startNodes to enable this?

startNodes searches within descendants only. Sibling axes like ./following-sibling::* look outside, so Classic fallback is still needed. (This is my understanding - happy to be corrected if I'm wrong!)

christian-bromann

LGTM 👍

wdio-bot · 2026-01-08T06:34:17Z

Hey mccmrunal 👋

Thank you for your contribution to WebdriverIO! Your pull request has been marked as an "Expensable" contribution.

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Please make sure to check your spam folder as well. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at expense@webdriver.io or in the contributing channel on Discord.

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fix: relative XPath chaining in BiDi mode

a891afd

Fixes webdriverio#14675

christian-bromann reviewed Dec 24, 2025

View reviewed changes

Merge branch 'main' into fix/xpath-chaining-bidi-issue-14675

558fa5f

christian-bromann approved these changes Jan 8, 2026

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christian-bromann merged commit 3c634f7 into webdriverio:main Jan 8, 2026
59 checks passed

christian-bromann added the PR: Bug Fix 🐛 PRs that contain bug fixes label Jan 8, 2026

wdio-bot added the Expensable $15 💸 label Jan 8, 2026

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fix: relative XPath chaining in BiDi mode#14912

fix: relative XPath chaining in BiDi mode#14912
christian-bromann merged 2 commits intowebdriverio:mainfrom
mccmrunal:fix/xpath-chaining-bidi-issue-14675

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mccmrunal commented Dec 3, 2025

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Reviewers: @webdriverio/project-committers

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