Assert that a WebElement is not present using Selenium WebDriver with java

Question

In tests that I write, if I want to assert a WebElement is present on the page, I can do a simple:

driver.findElement(By.linkText("Test Search")); 

This will pass if it exists and it will bomb out if it does not exist. But now I want to assert that a link does not exist. I am unclear how to do this since the code above does not return a boolean.

EDIT This is how I came up with my own fix, I'm wondering if there's a better way out there still.

public static void assertLinkNotPresent (WebDriver driver, String text) throws Exception { List<WebElement> bob = driver.findElements(By.linkText(text));   if (bob.isEmpty() == false) {     throw new Exception (text + " (Link is present)");   } } 

Answer 1

It's easier to do this:

driver.findElements(By.linkText("myLinkText")).size() < 1