Difference between action.build().perform() and action.perform()

In Webdriver, handling keyboard events and mouse events (including actions such as Drag and Drop or clicking multiple elements With Control key) are done using the advanced user interactions API . It contains Actions and Action classes which are needed when performing these events. In order to perform action events, we need to use org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions class.

The build() method is used compile all the listed actions into a single step.
we have to use build() when we are performing sequence of operations and no need to use only if we are performing single action.

example where build() required
Actions builder = new Actions(driver);
builder.clickAndHold((WebElement)listItems.get(0)).clickAndHold((WebElement)listItems.get(3)).click().build().perform();

in the above code we are performing more than one operations so we have to use build() to compile all the actions into a single step

example where build is not required

WebElement draggable = driver.findElement(By.id("draggable")); 

WebElement droppable = driver.findElement(By.id("droppable")); 

new Actions(driver).dragAndDrop(draggable, droppable).perform();
in the above code we are performing just a single operations so no need to use build()

Perform Mouse, drag-and-drop, sliding, selecting multiple Action in Webdriver/Selenium 2

Perform Mouse, drag-and-drop, sliding, selecting multiple Actions in Web driver/Selenium 2 

Solution

The example code below shows some examples where we can use the Actions interface of Selenium WebDriver.

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package selenium2.examples; import java.util.List; import org.openqa.selenium.By; import org.openqa.selenium.Keys; import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver; import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement; import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver; import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Action; import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions; import org.testng.annotations.AfterClass; import org.testng.annotations.BeforeClass; import org.testng.annotations.Test; public class ActionExample { private static WebDriver driver; @BeforeClass public void setUp() { driver = new FirefoxDriver(); } @AfterClass public void tearDown() { driver.close(); driver.quit(); } @Test public void draggable() { driver.get("http://jqueryui.com/demos/draggable/"); WebElement draggable = driver.findElement(By.id("draggable")); new Actions(driver).dragAndDropBy(draggable, 120, 120).build() .perform(); } @Test public void droppable() { driver.get("http://jqueryui.com/demos/droppable/"); WebElement draggable = driver.findElement(By.id("draggable")); WebElement droppable = driver.findElement(By.id("droppable")); new Actions(driver).dragAndDrop(draggable, droppable).build().perform(); } @Test public void selectMultiple() throws InterruptedException { driver.get("http://jqueryui.com/demos/selectable/"); List<WebElement> listItems = driver.findElements(By .cssSelector("ol#selectable *")); Actions builder = new Actions(driver); builder.clickAndHold(listItems.get(1)).clickAndHold(listItems.get(2)) .click(); Action selectMultiple = builder.build(); selectMultiple.perform(); } @Test public void sliding() { driver.get("http://jqueryui.com/demos/slider/"); WebElement draggable = driver.findElement(By .className("ui-slider-handle")); new Actions(driver).dragAndDropBy(draggable, 120, 0).build().perform(); } }