WebDriver: Keeping implicit and explicit waits separate using reusable methods

SeleniumHQ documentation says:

"WARNING: Do not mix implicit and explicit waits. Doing so can cause unpredictable wait times. For example setting an implicit wait of 10s and an explicit wait of 15 seconds, could cause a timeout to occur after 20 seconds."

In order to not mix the implicit and explicit waits, an approach can be taken to implement the reusable methods in such a way that when an explicit wait is required, the implicit timeout can be set to 0 and just before coming out of the reusable method setting the implicit wait back to the default value.

Below is the wrapper class implementing the reusable method : findElement(SearchContext, by, long)

public  class WebDriverWrapper {

       

    //Setting a default value of the wait timeout.

    public static final long IMPLICITLY_WAIT_TIMEOUT = 3000;

    private WebDriver driver;

    public WebDriverWrapper(WebDriver driver) {

        this.driver = driver;

    }

   

   //Method to let implicit wait to be set on the basis of the passed parameter      //value   

    public void setTimeout(long seconds) {

        driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(seconds, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

    }

   

    //Set implicitly wait timeout to the default value

        public void setTimeout() {

        driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(IMPLICITLY_WAIT_TIMEOUT, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

    }

    //Implementing reusable method FindElement  

        public WebElement findElement(SearchContext context, By by, long timeoutSeconds) {

        setTimeout(0); //Implicit timeout has been set to 0

        FluentWait<SearchContext> wait = new FluentWait<SearchContext>                   (context).withTimeout(timeoutSeconds,                TimeUnit.SECONDS).ignoring(NotFoundException.class);

        WebElement element;

        try {

            element = wait.until(elementLocated(by));

        } catch (Exception e) {

            element = null;

        } finally {

            setTimeout();//implicit timeout has been set to default value.

        }

        return element;

    }

//explicitFind() Method implemented in MyHomepage class

// to demonstrate usage of findElement method implemented in WebDriverWrapper //class to avoid mixing implicit and explicit wait.

public boolean explicitFind() {

     

      if((findElement(getDriver(), By.id("Submit"), 5000))!=null){

            return true;

      } else

            return false;

}

 //This test uses findElement method implemented in WebDriverWrapper

    class which helps in keeping implicit and explicit wait separate.

      @Test

      public void testTimeouts() throws InterruptedException {

            Boolean val = MyHomepage.explicitFind();

            Assert.assertTrue(val);

           

      }