Switch from child to parent window in Selenium Webdriver

Question

I'm creating test scripts in Selenium WebSriver using Eclipse, and have hit a snag in a scenario whereby I have a parent window, I click on a link on that window and a child window opens. I then want to close the child window and carry out functions again on the parent window.

My code is as below:

public static void daysInStockSelectContract(InternetExplorerDriver driver) {
    driver.findElement(By.xpath(".//*[@id='page-content']/table/tbody/tr[1]/td[1]/a")).click();

    for(String winHandle : driver.getWindowHandles()) {
        driver.switchTo().window(winHandle);
        driver.close();
    }
 }

When I run the above code, the child window remains open whilst the parent window closes, which is the opposite effect of what I wanted. Also an error as follows is shown in the console:

"Exception in thread "main" org.openqa.selenium.remote.SessionNotFoundException: session 1ff55fb6-71c9-4466-9993-32d7d9cae760 does not exist"

I'm using IE WebDriver for my Selenium scripts.

---

UPDATE - 17/11/14

Subh, here is the code I used from the link you kindly send over which unfortunately doesn't appear to work.

public static void daysInStockSelectContract(InternetExplorerDriver driver) {
    //get the parent handle before clicking on the link
    String winHandleBefore = driver.getWindowHandle();

    driver.findElement(By.xpath(".//*[@id='page-content']/table/tbody/tr[1]/td[1]/a")).click();

    // the set will contain only the child window now. Switch to child window and close it.
    for(String winHandle : driver.getWindowHandles()) {
        driver.switchTo().window(winHandle);
    }
    driver.close();
    driver.switchTo().window(winHandleBefore);
}

Answer 1

Probably, the switching to child window didn't happen properly.

Hence, 'driver.close()' is closing the parent window, instead of child window. Also, since the parent window has been closed, it implies the session has been lost which gives the error 'SessionNotFoundException'.

This link will help you out in properly switching between windows

On another note, just an advice. Rather than passing "driver" as a parameter, why don't you make it a static variable. It will be easily accessible to all the methods inside the class and it's subclasses too, and you don't have to bother about passing it each time to a method.. :)

---

Below is the code that you've requested in your comment (Unrelated to the question above)

public class Testing_anew {

    public static WebDriver driver;

    public static void main(String args[]) throws InterruptedException{

        driver = new FirefoxDriver();

        driver.manage().window().maximize();

        driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

      }

    public static void testmethod(){

    driver.findElement(By.xpath("//some xpath")).click();
   }

---

Updated Code 19/11/14

public static void daysInStockSelectContract(InternetExplorerDriver driver) {
    //get the parent handle before clicking on the link 
    String winHandleBefore = driver.getWindowHandle();

    System.out.println("Current handle is: "+winHandleBefore);

    driver.findElement(By.xpath(".//*[@id='page-content']/table/tbody/tr[1]/td[1]/a")).click();

    // Iterating through the set of window handles till the child window's handle, that is infact
    // not equal to the current window handle, is found
    for(String winHandle : driver.getWindowHandles()) {
       if(!winHandle.equals(winHandleBefore)){
                System.out.println("Child handle is: "+ winHandle);
                //Sleeping for 4 seconds for detecting Child window
                try{
                    Thread.sleep(4000);
                   }catch(InterruptedException e){
                    System.out.println("Caught exception related to sleep:"+e.getMessage());
                   }
                driver.switchTo().window(winHandle);
                break;
            }
    } 

    System.out.println("AFTER SWITCHING, Handle is: "+driver.getWindowHandle());

    driver.close();

    //Sleeping for 4 seconds for detecting Parent window
    try{
        Thread.sleep(4000);
       }catch(InterruptedException e){
        System.out.println("Caught exception related to sleep:"+e.getMessage());
       }

    driver.switchTo().window(winHandleBefore); // Switching back to parent window

     System.out.println("NOW THE CURRENT Handle is: "+driver.getWindowHandle());

     //Now perform some user action here with respect to parent window to assert that the window has switched properly


} 

Answer 2

When you loop through the windowHandles, the first handle is the parent handle. So when you say driver.close(), the parent window is getting closed. This can be avoided by using the following code:

public static void daysInStockSelectContract(InternetExplorerDriver driver) {
    //get the parent handle before clicking on the link
    String parentHandle = driver.getWindowHandle();

    driver.findElement(By.xpath(".//*[@id='page-content']/table/tbody/tr[1]/td[1]/a")).click();

    //get all the window handles and assign it to a set 
    //It will include child window and parentwindow
    Set<String> windowHandles = driver.getWindowHandles();

    System.out.println("No of Window Handles: " + windowHandles.size());

    //remove the parent handle from the set
    windowHandles.remove(parentHandle);

    // the set will contain only the child window now. Switch to child window and close it.
    for(String winHandle : driver.getWindowHandles()) {

strong text driver.switchTo().window(winHandle); driver.close(); } }

If you get the size as 1 (no of windowHandles as one) or is getting same error message, then probably the window is an alert box. To handle the alert box you can use the following code just after clicking on the link.

Alert alert = driver.switchTo().alert();
alert.accept();

Try this code for debugging

public static void daysInStockSelectContract(InternetExplorerDriver driver) {
    // get the parent handle before clicking on the link
    String parentHandle = driver.getWindowHandle();
    System.out.println("ParentHandle : " + parentHandle);
    driver.findElement(
            By.xpath(".//*[@id='page-content']/table/tbody/tr[1]/td[1]/a"))
            .click();

    // get all the window handles and assign it to a set
    // It will include child window and parentwindow
    Set<String> windowHandles = driver.getWindowHandles();

    System.out.println("No of Window Handles: " + windowHandles.size());

    // remove the parent handle from the set
    windowHandles.remove(parentHandle);

    // the set will contain only the child window now. Switch to child
    // window and close it.
    for (String winHandle : driver.getWindowHandles()) {
        driver.switchTo().window(winHandle);
        System.out.println("Child Handle : " + winHandle);
        driver.close();
    }

    // get the window handles again, print the size
    windowHandles = driver.getWindowHandles();
    System.out.println("No of Window Handles: " + windowHandles.size());
    for (String winHandldes : windowHandles) {
        System.out.println("Active Window : " + winHandldes);
    }

    driver.switchTo().window(parentHandle);
}

Answer 3

I managed to resolve this issue by using the steps outlined by Subh above. Especially, ensure that 'Enable Protected Mode' is disabled on the 'Security' tab of 'Internet Options'