Drag and drop in Selenium Java

Introduction

Drag and drop lets you test if you can move items on a webpage by clicking and dragging them. It checks if the page reacts correctly when you move things around.

Testing a shopping cart where you drag products to add them.

Rearranging items in a list by dragging them up or down.

Moving files or icons on a web desktop interface.

Testing games or apps that require dragging objects.

Checking if drag and drop upload areas accept files.

Syntax

Selenium Java

Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
actions.dragAndDrop(sourceElement, targetElement).perform();

Actions is a Selenium class to handle complex mouse and keyboard actions.

dragAndDrop takes two elements: the one to drag and where to drop it.

Examples

Drag element with id 'drag1' and drop it on element with id 'drop1'.

Selenium Java

WebElement source = driver.findElement(By.id("drag1"));
WebElement target = driver.findElement(By.id("drop1"));
Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
actions.dragAndDrop(source, target).perform();

Alternative way: click and hold source, move to target, then release.

Selenium Java

WebElement source = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector(".item"));
WebElement target = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector(".container"));
Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
actions.clickAndHold(source).moveToElement(target).release().perform();

Sample Program

This test opens a page with a drag and drop demo, drags the box, and checks if the drop was successful by reading the text.

Selenium Java

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;

public class DragAndDropTest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "path/to/chromedriver");
        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
        try {
            driver.get("https://jqueryui.com/droppable/");
            driver.switchTo().frame(0); // Switch to demo frame

            WebElement source = driver.findElement(By.id("draggable"));
            WebElement target = driver.findElement(By.id("droppable"));

            Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
            actions.dragAndDrop(source, target).perform();

            String textAfterDrop = target.getText();
            if ("Dropped!".equals(textAfterDrop)) {
                System.out.println("Test Passed: Drag and drop worked.");
            } else {
                System.out.println("Test Failed: Drag and drop did not work.");
            }
        } finally {
            driver.quit();
        }
    }
}

Important Notes

Make sure the elements are visible and interactable before dragging.

Switch to the correct frame if the drag and drop elements are inside an iframe.

Use explicit waits if needed to wait for elements to load.

Summary

Drag and drop tests moving elements by mouse actions.

Use Selenium's Actions class with dragAndDrop or clickAndHold/moveToElement/release.

Check the result by verifying changes on the page after dropping.