Choosing a Component

Start with what the user sees on the page.

I need to...	Use
Enter text or select a searchable text suggestion	`page.textbox(...)`
Enter a date	`page.date(...)`
Check or uncheck a checkbox	`page.checkbox(...).check()` / `.uncheck()`
Choose a radio option	`page.radio(...).select(...)`
Click a button	`page.button(...).click()`
Choose a standard dropdown value	`AppianDropdown`
Search in a searchable dropdown	`AppianDropdown` with `search_text`
Click an Appian link	`AppianLink` via `page.link(...)`
Select an Appian tab	`AppianTab` via `page.tab(...)`
Work with a table/grid	`AppianGrid`
Click a link	`AppianLink`

Textbox

By label:

page.textbox(label="Description").fill("Example item")

By placeholder:

page.textbox(placeholder="example@example.com").fill("user@example.com")

Some Appian forms introduce a textbox with nearby heading text instead of a normal field label:

page.textbox(header="Item Description").fill("General details")

A searchable text field is still a textbox in the public API. Enter search text and select a suggestion by value or by 1-based suggestion index:

page.textbox("Employee").fill("John").select("John Smith")
page.textbox("Employee").fill("John").select(index=2)

The same flow can be written in one call, including for a field identified only by placeholder:

page.textbox("Employee").select(search_text="John", value="John Smith")
page.textbox(placeholder="Start typing...").select(
    search_text="Example",
    index=1,
)

Date

page.date(label="Start Date").fill("10/15/2026")

Use page.date(...) for an Appian date field. Do not use a normal textbox just because the HTML input type is text.

Checkbox

page.checkbox(...) returns an AppianCheckbox.

include_details = page.checkbox(
    label="Include Details"
)
include_details.check()

Use uncheck() to clear it and is_checked() to read the state. Both check() and uncheck() are idempotent.

Radio choice / selection

page.radio(...) returns an AppianRadioSelect.

page.radio(
    label="Priority"
).select("High")

Use the complete question text when possible. This keeps choices such as Yes or No scoped to the correct question.

You can inspect the current state without changing focus:

selected = page.radio(
    label="Priority"
).is_selected("Yes")

Appian tab

page.link(name=...) returns an AppianLink for native anchors and Appian linked-card controls.

page.link(name="View Details").click()
page.link(name="Return").click()

page.tab(name=...) returns an AppianTab.

details = page.tab(name="Details")
assert details.is_selected()

page.tab(name="Contacts").select()

select() is idempotent. is_selected() reports the current accessibility state without waiting for an unselected tab to change state.

Button

page.button(name="Next").click()

Automatic focus-out

After a textbox, date, or selection value actually changes, robo-appian moves focus out automatically and waits for Appian action processing to complete before returning.

You normally should not add a Tab press, manual blur, or duplicate wait_for_appian_action_completed() call after the input operation.

Advanced locators

If none of the component APIs describe the control, use AppianPage/AppianLocator or a component-specific advanced API. See the API Reference after trying the simple component approach first.