Agent DX improvement: Value-bearing locators are write-only — no `getValue()` anywhere

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Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
72/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
java
Domain
developer-experience, testing

Research direction

Start with HasValueFilter and the value-bearing locator interfaces, following the existing withValue/setValue path and component().getValue() access. Verify that getValue() is available for every locator supporting value operations, preserve getSelected() for ComboBoxLocator and SelectLocator, and add or update tests for the typed getter behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Problem. Every field locator can write a value but none can read one. The
locators otherwise read as if they proxy the component, so getValue() is the
first thing you reach for, and it doesn't compile.

Surveyed in browserless-test-shared:1.1.1:

Locator setValue clear value getter
TextFieldLocator ✅ ✅ ❌
TextAreaLocator ✅ ❌ ❌
BigDecimalFieldLocator ✅ ✅ ❌
NumberFieldLocator ✅ ❌ ❌
IntegerFieldLocator ✅ ❌ ❌
EmailFieldLocator / PasswordFieldLocator ✅ ✅ ❌
DatePickerLocator / DateTimePickerLocator / TimePickerLocator ✅ ❌ ❌
ComboBoxLocator / SelectLocator ❌ (selectItem) ❌ getSelected()
CheckboxLocator ❌ (click) ❌ ❌

So a test that asserts "this field defaults to 1" has to leave the locator API:

// Wanted
assertThat(findBigDecimalField().withLabel("Quantity").getValue())
        .isEqualByComparingTo("1");

// Actual
assertThat(findBigDecimalField().withLabel("Quantity").getComponent().getValue())
        .isEqualByComparingTo("1");

Why it's cheap to fix. HasValueFilter<C extends Component & HasValue<?, V>, V, SELF>
already binds both the component type and the value type — it exists to power
withValue(V). A default accessor on that interface (or a sibling
HasValueAccess) gives every value locator a typed, correct getter with no
per-locator work:

default V getValue() { return ((Locator<C, SELF>) this).component().getValue(); }

Ask. Add getValue() to the value-bearing locators (ideally as one default
method on the existing filter/accessor interface). Keep getSelected() on
ComboBoxLocator/SelectLocator as an alias if the selection vocabulary is
deliberate, but make getValue() work everywhere setValue/withValue does.

Copied from https://github.com/vaadin/agentic-dx-improvement/issues/107

Dominant language
Java
Stars
1
Forks
3
Avg merge
1d 19h
Merged PRs (30d)
15

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