How can I quickly check if a xpath is valid in IE?

Question

I am evaluating using Selenium to perform automated testing of my company's Asp.net Webforms application. Since most of the html ids are auto-generated I am trying to rely on xpaths to be able to interact with my page.

As I am knew to xpaths, I am having issues trying to pinpoint the exact xpath I need to click on this element. The process of changing my coded xpath, compiling my C# app, loading the app, running the app, then having Selenium exception out is getting pretty annoying. I need to find some way to quickly determine if an xpath is valid (i.e. exists) or not.

Unfortunately, they coded this site to only work in IE, so that is all i have access to.

If someone has a good quick way for me to test an xpath out in IE, I would be very grateful!

Solution

Use the XPath Visualizer.

This is a popular tool that through the years has taught XPath the fun way to thousands of developers.

You first load an XML file and then can enter any XPath expressions and see the selected nodes immediately hi-lighted in the XML document. There are many more features, even for experienced developers.

The XPath Visualizer can be downloaded here.