trouble finding element with xpath

Using IDE I am trying to dynamic locate an element with xpath. Its a text box where you would enter comments here is the source html

in my IDE html code looks like this:

store
xpath=//input[@type='text' and contains(@id, 'ViewMerchantWizard_MerchantWizard1_cbWizardPanel_MerchantTab_ControlUC_CommentCtrl_TextBoxCtrl_I')]
CommentsTextBox



type
${CommentsTextBox}
test



It fails with the following error:

info] Executing: |store | xpath=//input[@type='text'
and contains(@id,
'ViewMerchantWizard_MerchantWizard1_cbWizardPanel_MerchantTab_ControlUC_CommentCtrl_TextBoxCtrl_I')]
| CommentsTextBox |

[info] Executing: |type | ${CommentsTextBox} | test |

[error] Element xpath=//input[@type='text' and
contains(@id,
'ViewMerchantWizard_MerchantWizard1_cbWizardPanel_MerchantTab_ControlUC_CommentCtrl_TextBoxCtrl_I')]
not found

I am running IDE 1.7.2
thanks for a great forum. Its really helped me get to using selenium much better now

I see a few problems here. Typically if your are storing something in a text box, I would use storeValue as opposed to store.

The second problem is you must use the order Selenium uses for typing the stored information. First use the type Command, then the Target of where you want to type it, then the ${information}.

Hopefully this helps.

-Cameron

I figured it out, the problem I had was how to dynamically find the text box object using contains here is how I made it work. The product is dotnetnuke and the element identifier changes with each build so simply using id=dnn_ctr4579 fails because the number changes each time.
xpath=//*[contains(@id, 'ViewMerchantWizard_MerchantWizard1_cbWizardPanel_MerchantTab_ControlUC_CommentCtrl_TextBoxCtrl_I')]



store
This is a test
comments


echo
${comments}



store
xpath=//*[contains(@id, 'ViewMerchantWizard_MerchantWizard1_cbWizardPanel_MerchantTab_ControlUC_CommentCtrl_TextBoxCtrl_I')]
CommentsTextBox


click
${CommentsTextBox}



type
${CommentsTextBox}
${comments}