Ambiguous method call in appium WebDriver findElement API - selenium-webdriver

Question

I am using appium 6.1.0 which has <T extends WebElement> T findElement(By by); method on WebDriver class. Somewhere in automated tests I have following APIs -
protected String getText(WebElement element) {
return getText(element, Config.LOAD_WAIT);
}
and
protected String getText(By by) {
return getText(by, Config.LOAD_WAIT);
}
And getText method is invoked by test as -
public String getFullName() {
return getText(driver.findElement(By.cssSelector(".basicDataSection)))
}
But using WebDriver class from appium dependency throws exception on getFullName method about method call being ambiguous since it matches both getText(WebElement element) and getText(By by) How is this possible since findElement return type is T extends WebElement in WebDriver class in appium dependency?
On a different note, there is also WebElement findElement(By by); API in WebDriver class in selenium-api but after adding appium dependency method in my project they have begun to refer to WebDriver class from appium dependency and not from selenium-api dependency. Unfortunately WebDriver api in both classes have same package org.openqa.selenium.
I am not sure if WebDriver class from appium and selenium-api can be used interchangeably as they have different automation purpose (i.e. mobile app and web app). If WebDriver class from appium and selenium-api can not be used interchangeably then is there a way to enforce to use WebDriver class from selenium-api dependency and not from appium dependency?

Answer 1

Consider using MobileElement instead of WebElement to avoid clashes with underlying Selenium API
Make sure to have only appium-java-client library in your project dependencies, Appium 6.1.0 assumes Selenium 3.12.0 so you have to use exactly this version of Selenium in order to avoid Jar Hell so I would recommend using dependency management solution like Maven or Gradle to automatically resolve Appium Java client library and all its transitive dependencies. See Code Examples -> Appium with Java for comprehensive information and sample projects