How do I switch to the active tab in Selenium?

Question

We developed a Chrome extension, and I want to test our extension with Selenium. I created a test, but the problem is that our extension opens a new tab when it's installed, and I think I get an exception from the other tab. Is it possible to switch to the active tab I'm testing? Or another option is to start with the extension disabled, then login to our website and only then enable the extension. Is it possible? Here is my code:

def login_to_webapp(self):
    self.driver.get(url='http://example.com/logout')
    self.driver.maximize_window()
    self.assertEqual(first="Web Editor", second=self.driver.title)
    action = webdriver.ActionChains(driver=self.driver)
    action.move_to_element(to_element=self.driver.find_element_by_xpath(xpath="//div[@id='header_floater']/div[@class='header_menu']/button[@class='btn_header signature_menu'][text()='My signature']"))
    action.perform()
    self.driver.find_element_by_xpath(xpath="//ul[@id='signature_menu_downlist'][@class='menu_downlist']/li[text()='Log In']").click()
    self.driver.find_element_by_xpath(xpath="//form[@id='atho-form']/div[@class='input']/input[@name='useremail']").send_keys("[email]")
    self.driver.find_element_by_xpath(xpath="//form[@id='atho-form']/div[@class='input']/input[@name='password']").send_keys("[password]")
    self.driver.find_element_by_xpath(xpath="//form[@id='atho-form']/button[@type='submit'][@class='atho-button signin_button'][text()='Sign in']").click()

The test fails with ElementNotVisibleException: Message: element not visible, because in the new tab (opened by the extension) "Log In" is not visible (I think the new tab is opened only after the command self.driver.get(url='http://example.com/logout')).

Update: I found out that the exception is not related to the extra tab, it's from our website. But I closed the extra tab with this code, according to @aberna's answer:

def close_last_tab(self):
    if (len(self.driver.window_handles) == 2):
        self.driver.switch_to.window(window_name=self.driver.window_handles[-1])
        self.driver.close()
        self.driver.switch_to.window(window_name=self.driver.window_handles[0])

After closing the extra tab, I can see my tab in the video.

Answer 1

This actually worked for me in 3.x:

driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[1])

window handles are appended, so this selects the second tab in the list

to continue with first tab:

driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[0])

Answer 2

Some possible approaches:

1 - Switch between the tabs using the send_keys (CONTROL + TAB)

self.driver.find_element_by_tag_name('body').send_keys(Keys.CONTROL + Keys.TAB)

2 - Switch between the tabs using the using ActionsChains (CONTROL+TAB)

actions = ActionChains(self.driver)      
actions.key_down(Keys.CONTROL).key_down(Keys.TAB).key_up(Keys.TAB).key_up(Keys.CONTROL).perform()

3 - Another approach could make usage of the Selenium methods to check current window and move to another one:

You can use

driver.window_handles

to find a list of window handles and after try to switch using the following methods.

- driver.switch_to.active_element      
- driver.switch_to.default_content
- driver.switch_to.window

For example, to switch to the last opened tab, you can do:

driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[-1])

Answer 3

The accepted answer unfortunately didn't work for me.
To open a new tab and have selenium switch to it, I used:

driver.execute_script('''window.open("https://some.site/", "_blank");''')
sleep(1) # you can also try without it, just playing safe
driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[-1]) # last opened tab handle  
# driver.switch_to_window(driver.window_handles[-1]) # for older versions

if you need to switch back to the main tab, use:

driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[0])

---

Summary:

The window_handles contains a list of the handles of opened tabs, use it as argument in switch_to.window() to switch between tabs.

Answer 4

Pressing ctrl+t or choosing window_handles[0] assumes that you only have one tab open when you start.

If you have multiple tabs open then it could become unreliable.

This is what I do:

old_tabs=self.driver.window_handles
#Perform action that opens new window here
new_tabs=self.driver.window_handles
for tab in new_tabs:
     if tab in old tabs:
          pass
     else:
          new_tab=tab
driver.switch_to.window(new_tab)

This is something that would positively identify the new tab before switching to it and sets the active window to the desired new tab.

Just telling the browser to send ctrl+tab does not work because it doesn't tell the webdriver to actually switch to the new tab.

Answer 5

if you want to close only active tab and need to keep the browser window open, you can make use of switch_to.window method which has the input parameter as window handle-id. Following example shows how to achieve this automation:

from selenium import webdriver
import time

driver = webdriver.Firefox()
driver.get('https://www.google.com')

driver.execute_script("window.open('');")
time.sleep(5)

driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[1])
driver.get("https://facebook.com")
time.sleep(5)

driver.close()
time.sleep(5)

driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[0])
driver.get("https://www.yahoo.com")
time.sleep(5)

#driver.close()

Answer 6

The tip from the user "aberna" worked for me the following way:

First I got a list of the tabs:

  tab_list = driver.window_handles

Then I selectet the tab:

   driver.switch_to.window(test[1])

Going back to previous tab:

    driver.switch_to.window(test[0])

Answer 7

TLDR: there is a workaround solution, with some limitations.

I am working with the already opened browser, as shown here. The problem is that every time I launch the script, selenium internally selects a random tab. The official documentation says:

Clicking a link which opens in a new window will focus the new window or tab on screen, but WebDriver will not know which window the Operating System considers active.

It sounds very strange to me. Because is not that the first task of selenium to handle and automate browser interaction? More of that, switching to any tab with driver.switch_to.window(...) actually will switch the active tab in gui. Seems that it is a bug. At the moment of writing the python-selenium version is 4.1.0.

Let's look which approaches could we use.

Using selenium window_handles[0] approach

The approach from the answer above is not reliable. It does not always work. For example when you switch between different tabs, chromium/vivaldi may start returning not a current tab.

print("Current driver tab:", driver.title)  # <- the random tab title
driver.switch_to.window(chromium_driver.window_handles[0])
print("Current driver tab:", driver.title)  # <-- the currently opened tab title. But not always reliable.

So skip this method.

Using remote debugging approach

Provides nothing additional to what is in selenium driver from previous approach.

Getting the list of tabs via the remote debugging protocol like

r = requests.get("http://127.0.0.1:9222/json")
j = r.json()
found_tab = False
for el in j:
    if el["type"] == "page":  # Do this check, because if that is background-page, it represents one of installed extensions
        found_tab = el
        break
if not found_tab:
    print("Could not find tab", file=sys.stderr)

real_opened_tab_handle = "CDwindow-" + found_tab["id"]

driver.switch_to(real_opened_tab_handle)

actually returns the same as what is in driver.window_handles. So also skip this method.

Workaround solution for X11

from wmctrl import Window

all_x11_windows = Window.list()
chromium_windows = [ el for el in all_x11_windows if el.wm_class == 'chromium.Chromium' ]
if len(chromium_windows) != 1:
    print("unexpected numbner of chromium windows")
    exit(1)
real_active_tab_name = chromium_windows[0].wm_name.rstrip(" – Chromium")

chrome_options = Options()
chrome_options.add_experimental_option("debuggerAddress", "127.0.0.1:9222")

# https://stackoverflow.com/a/70088095/7869636 - Selenium connect to existing browser.
# Need to start chromium as: chromium --remote-debugging-port=9222

driver = webdriver.Chrome(service=Service(ChromeDriverManager(chrome_type=ChromeType.CHROMIUM).install()), options=chrome_options)

tabs = driver.window_handles
found_active_tab = False
for tab in tabs:
    driver.switch_to.window(tab)
    if driver.title != real_active_tab_name:
        continue
    else:
        found_active_tab = True
        break

if not found_active_tab:
    print("Cannot switch to needed tab, something went wrong")
    exit(1)
else:
    print("Successfully switched to opened tab")

print("Working with tab called:", driver.title)

The idea is to get the window title from wmctrl, which will let you know the active tab name.

Workaround solution for Wayland

Previous solution has a limitation, wmctrl only works with x11 windows.

I currently found out how to get the title of a window at which you click.

print("Please click on the browser window")
opened_tab = subprocess.run("qdbus org.kde.KWin /KWin queryWindowInfo | grep caption", shell=True, capture_output=True).stdout.decode("utf-8")
opened_tab_title = opened_tab.rstrip(" - Vivaldi\n").lstrip("caption: ")

Then the script from the previous solution could be used.

The solution could be improved using kwin window list query on wayland. I would be glad if somebody helps to improve this. Unfortunately, I do not know currently how to get list of wayland windows.

Answer 8

If you suddenly need a Java solution, here you go:

driver.switchTo().window((String) driver.getWindowHandles().toArray()[index of tab]);

Answer 9

Here is the full script.

Note: Remove the spaces in the two lines for tiny URL below. Stack Overflow does not allow the tiny link in here.

import ahk
import win32clipboard
import traceback
import appJar
import requests
import sys
import urllib
import selenium
import getpass
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
import socket
import time 
import urllib.request
from ahk import AHK, Hotkey, ActionChain # You want to play with AHK. 
from appJar import gui

try:                                                                                                                                                                         
    ahk = AHK(executable_path="C:\\Program Files\\AutoHotkey\\AutoHotkeyU64.exe")    

except:                                                                                                                                                                         
    ahk = AHK(executable_path="C:\\Program Files\\AutoHotkey\\AutoHotkeyU32.exe")    

finally:                                                                                                                                                                         
    pass 

chrome_options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
chrome_options.add_argument('--start-maximized')
chrome_options.add_experimental_option("excludeSwitches", ['enable-automation']);
chromeDriver = webdriver.Chrome('C:\\new_software\\chromedriver.exe', chrome_options = chrome_options)

def  ahk_disabledevmodescript():
    try:                                                                                                                                                                         
        ahk = AHK(executable_path="C:\\Program Files\\AutoHotkey\\AutoHotkeyU64.exe")                                                                                                                                                                           
    except:                                                                                                                                                                         
        ahk = AHK(executable_path="C:\\Program Files\\AutoHotkey\\AutoHotkeyU32.exe")                                                                                                                                                                         
    finally:                                                                                                                                                                         
        pass   
    ahk_disabledevmodescriptt= [
    str('WinActivate,ahk_exe chrome.exe'),
    str('Send {esc}'),
    ]
    #Run-Script
    for snipet in  ahk_disabledevmodescriptt:
        ahk.run_script(snipet, blocking=True )
    return 

def launchtabsagain():

    chromeDriver.execute_script("window.open('https://developers.google.com/edu/python/introduction', 'tab2');")
    chromeDriver.execute_script("window.open('https://www.facebook.com/', 'tab3');")
    chromeDriver.execute_script("window.open('https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/open', 'tab4');")
    chromeDriver.execute_script("window.open('https://www.easyespanol.org/', 'tab5');")
    chromeDriver.execute_script("window.open('https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=EPO2Xf3EMLPc9AO07b2gAw&q=programming+is+not+difficult&oq=programming+is+not+difficult&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i22i30.3497.22282..22555...9.0..0.219.3981.21j16j1......0....1..gws-wiz.....6..0i362i308i154i357j0j0i131j0i10j33i22i29i30..10001%3A0%2C154.h1w5MmbFx7c&ved=0ahUKEwj9jIyzjb_lAhUzLn0KHbR2DzQQ4dUDCAg&uact=5', 'tab6');")
    chromeDriver.execute_script("window.open('https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=NvO2XdCrIMHg9APduYzQDA&q=dinner+recipes&oq=&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0i362i308i154i357l6.0.0..3736...0.0..0.179.179.0j1......0......gws-wiz.....6....10001%3A0%2C154.gsoCDxw8cyU', 'tab7');")

    return  
chromeDriver.get('https://ebc.cybersource.com/ebc2/')
compoanionWindow = ahk.active_window

launchtabs = launchtabsagain()
disabledevexetmessage = ahk_disabledevmodescript()



def copyUrl(): 
    try:                                                                                                                                                                         
        ahk = AHK(executable_path="C:\\Program Files\\AutoHotkey\\AutoHotkeyU64.exe")                                                                                                                                                                           
    except:                                                                                                                                                                         
        ahk = AHK(executable_path="C:\\Program Files\\AutoHotkey\\AutoHotkeyU32.exe")                                                                                                                                                                         
    finally:                                                                                                             

        pass 
    snipet = str('WinActivate,ahk_exe chrome.exe')
    ahk.run_script(snipet, blocking=True )  
    compoanionWindow.activate() 
    ahk_TinyChromeCopyURLScript=[

        str('WinActivate,ahk_exe chrome.exe'),
        str('send ^l'),
        str('sleep 10'),
        str('send ^c'),
        str('BlockInput, MouseMoveoff'),
        str('clipwait'),
    ] 

    #Run-AHK Script
    if ahk:
        for snipet in  ahk_TinyChromeCopyURLScript:
            ahk.run_script(snipet, blocking=True )  
    win32clipboard.OpenClipboard()
    urlToShorten = win32clipboard.GetClipboardData()
    win32clipboard.CloseClipboard()   


    return(urlToShorten)


def tiny_url(url):
    try:

        apiurl = "https: // tinyurl. com / api - create. php? url= " #remove spaces here
        tinyp = requests.Session()
        tinyp.proxies = {"https" : "https://USER:PASSWORD." + "@userproxy.visa.com:443", "http" : "http://USER:PASSWORD." + "@userproxy.visa.com:8080"}
        tinyUrl = tinyp.get(apiurl+url).text
        returnedresponse = tinyp.get(apiurl+url)
        if returnedresponse.status_code == 200: 
            print('Success! response code =' + str(returnedresponse))
        else:
            print('Code returned = ' + str(returnedresponse))
            print('From IP Address =' +IPadd)


    except:
        apiurl = "https: // tinyurl. com / api - create. php? url= " #remove spaces here
        tinyp = requests.Session()
        tinyUrl = tinyp.get(apiurl+url).text
        returnedresponse = tinyp.get(apiurl+url)
        if returnedresponse.status_code == 200: 
            print('Success! response code =' + str(returnedresponse))
            print('From IP Address =' +IPadd)
        else:
            print('Code returned = ' + str(returnedresponse))

    return tinyUrl

def tinyUrlButton():

    longUrl = copyUrl()
    try:                                                                                                                                                                         
        ahk = AHK(executable_path="C:\\Program Files\\AutoHotkey\\AutoHotkeyU64.exe")                                                                                                                                                                           
    except:                                                                                                                                                                         
        ahk = AHK(executable_path="C:\\Program Files\\AutoHotkey\\AutoHotkeyU32.exe")                                                                                                                                                                         
    finally:                                                                                                                                                                         
        pass
    try:
        shortUrl = tiny_url(longUrl)
        win32clipboard.OpenClipboard()
        win32clipboard.EmptyClipboard()
        win32clipboard.SetClipboardText(shortUrl)
        win32clipboard.CloseClipboard()
        if ahk:
            try:
                if str(shortUrl) == 'Error':
                    ahk.run_script("Msgbox,262144 ,Done.,"+ shortUrl + "`rPlease make sure there is a link to copy and that the page is fully loaded., 5.5" )
                else:
                    ahk.run_script("Msgbox,262144 ,Done.,"+ shortUrl + " is in your clipboard., 1.5" )
                # ahk.run_script("WinActivate, tinyUrl" )
            except:
                traceback.print_exc()
                print('error during ahk script')

                pass

    except:
        print('Error getting tinyURl')
        traceback.print_exc()

def closeChromeTabs(): 
        try: 
            try:                                                                                                                                                                          
                ahk = AHK(executable_path="C:\\Program Files\\AutoHotkey\\AutoHotkeyU64.exe")                                                                                                                                                                          
            except:                                                                                                                                                                          
                ahk = AHK(executable_path="C:\\Program Files\\AutoHotkey\\AutoHotkeyU32.exe")                                                                                                                                                                  
            finally:                                                                                                                                                                          
                    pass   
            compoanionWindow.activate()  
            ahk_CloseChromeOtherTabsScript = [ 

                str('WinActivate,ahk_exe chrome.exe'), 
                str('Mouseclick, Right, 30, 25,,1'), 
                str('Send {UP 3} {enter}'), 
                str('BlockInput, MouseMoveOff'), 
                ] 
                #Run-Script 
            if ahk: 
                for snipet in  ahk_CloseChromeOtherTabsScript: 
                        ahk.run_script(snipet, blocking=True ) 
            return(True) 
        except: 
            traceback.print_exc() 
            print("Failed to run closeTabs function.") 
            ahk.run_script('Msgbox,262144,,Failed to run closeTabs function.,2') 
            return(False)         



        # create a GUI and testing this library.

window = gui("tinyUrl and close Tabs test ", "200x160")
window.setFont(9)
window.setBg("blue")
window.removeToolbar(hide=True)
window.addLabel("description", "Testing AHK Library.")
window.addLabel("title", "tinyURL")
window.setLabelBg("title", "blue")
window.setLabelFg("title", "white")
window.addButtons(["T"], tinyUrlButton)
window.addLabel("title1", "Close tabs")
window.setLabelBg("title1", "blue")
window.setLabelFg("title1", "white")
window.addButtons(["C"], closeChromeTabs)
window.addLabel("title2", "Launch tabs")
window.setLabelBg("title2", "blue")
window.setLabelFg("title2", "white")
window.addButtons(["L"], launchtabsagain)
window.go()

if window.exitFullscreen():
    chromeDriver.quit()


def closeTabs():
    try:
        try:                                                                                                                                                                         
            ahk = AHK(executable_path="C:\\Program Files\\AutoHotkey\\AutoHotkeyU64.exe")                                                                                                                                                                           
        except:                                                                                                                                                                         
            ahk = AHK(executable_path="C:\\Program Files\\AutoHotkey\\AutoHotkeyU32.exe")                                                                                                                                                                         
        finally:                                                                                                                                                                         
                pass   

        compoanionWindow.activate()     
        ahk_CloseChromeOtherTabsScript = [

            str('WinActivate,ahk_exe chrome.exe'),
            str('Mouseclick, Right, 30, 25,,1'),
            str('Send {UP 3} {enter}'),
            str('BlockInput, MouseMoveOff'),
            ]
            #Run-Script
        if ahk:
            for snipet in  ahk_CloseChromeOtherTabsScript:
                    ahk.run_script(snipet, blocking=True )
        return(True)
    except:
        traceback.print_exc()
        print("Failed to run closeTabs function.")
        ahk.run_script('Msgbox,262144,Failed,Failed to run closeTabs function.,2')
        return(False)

Answer 10

Found a way using ahk library. Very easy for us non-programmers that need to solve this problem. used Python 3.7.3

Install ahk with. pip install ahk

import ahk
from ahk import AHK
import selenium
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options


options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_experimental_option("excludeSwitches", ['enable-automation']); #to disable infobar about chrome controlled by automation. 
chrome_options.add_argument('--start-maximized') 
chromeDriver = webdriver.Chrome('C:\\new_software\\chromedriver.exe', chrome_options = options) #specify your chromedriver location

chromeDriver.get('https://www.autohotkey.com/')#launch a tab

#launch some other random tabs for testing. 
chromeDriver.execute_script("window.open('https://developers.google.com/edu/python/introduction', 'tab2');")

chromeDriver.execute_script("window.open('https://www.facebook.com/', 'tab3');")

chromeDriver.execute_script("window.open('https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/open', 'tab4');"`)
seleniumwindow = ahk.active_window #as soon as you open you Selenium session, get a handle of the window frame with AHK. 
seleniumwindow.activate() #will activate whatever tab you have active in the Selenium browser as AHK is activating the window frame 
#To activate specific tabs I would use chromeDriver.switchTo()
#chromeDriver.switch_to_window(chromeDriver.window_handles[-1]) This takes you to the last opened tab in Selenium and chromeDriver.switch_to_window(chromeDriver.window_handles[1])to the second tab, etc..