How to use XPath preceding-sibling correctly

Question

I am writing tests for my site using Selenium IDE and I am having trouble with having selenium click on a button using preceding-sibling

<td> <div class="btn-group"> <button class="btn btn btn-danger block" title="Warning, Delete" name="delete" type="button"> <button class="btn btn btn-default block" title="View History" name="history" type="button"> <button class="btn btn btn-default block" title="View Settings" name="settings" type="button"> <button class="btn btn btn-default block" name="device" type="button"> <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-pencil"/>  Arcade Reader </button> </div> </td> 

My path

xpath=//button[contains(.,'Arcade Reader')]/../preceding-sibling::button[@name='settings'] 

Answer 1

You don't need to go level up and use .. since all buttons are on the same level:

//button[contains(.,'Arcade Reader')]/preceding-sibling::button[@name='settings'] 

Answer 2

I also like to build locators from up to bottom like:

//div[contains(@class,'btn-group')][./button[contains(.,'Arcade Reader')]]/button[@name='settings'] 

It's pretty simple, as we just search btn-group with button[contains(.,'Arcade Reader')] and get it's button[@name='settings']

That's just another option to build xPath locators

What is the profit of searching wrapper element: you can return it by method (example in java) and just build selenium constructions like:

getGroupByName("Arcade Reader").find("button[name='settings']"); getGroupByName("Arcade Reader").find("button[name='delete']"); 

or even simplify more

getGroupButton("Arcade Reader", "delete").click();