Webdriver + HtmlUnitDriver + Java + Drop down

I'm new to this forum and i'm kinda new to Selenium and everything around it. I'm a little familiar with Java, but i'm certainly not a pro

I know that there a threads like these, but still i haven't found my answer yet... Because some of them are in C# or .NET, ... .

I'm using Webdriver and HtmlUnitDriver because i don't want Selenium to pop up a browser. Everything has to be done in the background (don't wanna see anything, only 1 result (if everything went fine or not)).

Okay, that been said, here is the situation. I'm checking a website, and at some point i need to select an option from a drop down list (let's say the second option). But the problem is that this won't work...

Here is some code i'm using:

public class LoginLogout implements SeleniumTest{

    private WebDriver webDriver;

    @Override
    public void setUp(String baseURL){
        webDriver = new HtmlUnitDriver();
    }

    @Override
    public void invoke(){
 开发者_开发百科       // Login

        webDriver.get("http://website");
        webDriver.findElement(By.name("username")).sendKeys("Dummy123456");
        webDriver.findElement(By.name("password")).sendKeys("Muddy");
        webDriver.findElement(By.className("Submit")).click();
        webDriver.findElement(By.name("/catalogue")).click();
        webDriver.findElement(By.name("/catalogue/search/synthesis/s10")).click();  
        webDriver.findElement(By.name("firstYear")).findElement(By.name("2008")).isSelected();
        webDriver.findElement(By.name("lastYear")).findElement(By.name("2008")).isSelected();
        webDriver.findElement(By.className("Submit")).click();
        webDriver.findElement(By.className("Label")).click();
    }

    @Override
    public void tearDown(){ 
        webDriver.close();
    }
}

Where i choose the FIRSTYEAR and LASTYEAR, that's where it's going wrong...

Can someone please help me out !!! It would be great that i get this to work (with your help)

Thanks in advance

---

isSelected() will only tell you if the element is already selected or not, it won't actually set anything. I believe what you want to do is cast the WebElement to a Select object which provides methods for choosing select box items.

Select selectBox = (Select)webDriver.findElement(By.name("firstYear"));
selectBox.selectByValue("2008");

You can also select by Index which I find more reliable in cases where I don't actually care which value is selected but want to ensure something is chosen.

selectBox.selectByIndex(0); // chooses first item.