Unable to read text from textbox using gettext() of selenium webdriver?
The call to get the input text should be:
driver.findElement(By.id("ctl00_SampleContent_Date5")).getAttribute("value");Don't ask me why, it's just the way it always has been. By typing into an input element, you are changing its value attribute.
I think Selenium is aligned to how DOM works but still, I don't think any user expect that getText will not return what is visible in the screen. Both innerHTML, and innerText return empty string so that explain why getText doesn't return anything.
I think Selenium should simplify oddities of the DOM. In other words, getText() should return what a user see in the screen, then if a use case want the real innerText, they can call other API.