How to refresh findBy page selectors?

[aybartsch]

Hi there. I'm mainly using findBy annotation to define web elements on a page like below:

    @FindBy(css = "input[name='firstName']")
    protected List<WebElementFacade> inputsFirstName;

    @FindBy(css = "input[name='lastName']")
    protected List<WebElementFacade> inputsLastName;

When the page is reloaded in background these references become stale. Is there a way to refresh the references defined above?

I'm aware of dynamic referencing using the $-key but I would prefer to use findBy annotations instead.

Thanks and best regards, André.

[wakaleo]

This is a known issue with the PageFactory approach - my solution is never to use @findby annotations.

[aybartsch]

Thanks, John! Unfortunately, I've used this approach in all my projects because it looked very smart to me in the beginning. What are you suggesting instead? (I'm not using screenplay pattern.)

[aybartsch]

@wakaleo Dear John. I'd like to replace the findBy annotation by dynamic selectors but predefining is causing a compiler exception:

    protected ListOfWebElementFacades inputsLastName = $$("input[name='lastName']");
    protected ListOfWebElementFacades inputsFirstName = $$("input[name='firstName']");

-->

net.thucydides.core.pages.WrongPageError: The page object class ...RegistrationSearchPage could not be instantiated:
Failed to instantiate page (java.lang.NullPointerException)

	at net.thucydides.core.pages.PageFactory.thisPageObjectLooksDodgy(PageFactory.java:103)
	at net.thucydides.core.pages.PageFactory.createPageOfType(PageFactory.java:50)

Could you please advice how to makte it correctly? Thanks and best regards, André

[aybartsch]

FYI: I decided to use By instead of FindBy annotation:

protected static final By INPUTS_LAST_NAME = By.cssSelector("input[name='lastName']");
protected static final By INPUTS_FIRST_NAME = By.cssSelector("input[name='firstName']");
...
waitAndType($$(INPUTS_LAST_NAME).get(0), decease.getLastName());
waitAndType($$(INPUTS_FIRST_NAME).get(0), decease.getFirstName());