Python using Selenium to click on a button based on type, value, and class

Question

So this is what the html looks like:

<button type="submit" name="page" value="2" class="_btn _btng">Next →</button>

<button type="submit" name="page" value="1" class="_btn">← Back</button>

And this is what I'm attempting:

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//*[contains(text(), 'Next')]").click()

For whatever reasons, this isn't actually clicking the button, it's just moving down to where the button is located and it just waits there. So maybe there's another hidden button somewhere that I can't visibly see that the code is "clicking" on. Not sure, so I guess my question really comes down to, is there a way where I can search for a button based on its value, type, and class?

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 30 '14 at 15:23

5

Give the text based search a shot. That's my favourite

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//*[.='Next →')]").click()

With . we are directly pointing to parent in html hierarchy and * allows you to do a search without depending on any specific tag

answered Dec 30 '14 at 15:23

Saifur

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I tried doing that, but the → character doesn't seem to be understood... :( – Stupid.Fat.Cat Dec 30 '14 at 15:31
1

In that case go for `//button[contains(text(), 'Next')]` – Saifur Dec 30 '14 at 15:32
Have you tried `cssSelector` `[value='2'][class='_btn _btng']` – Saifur Dec 30 '14 at 15:36
I have not tried using cssSelector, in the past it never seemed to work for me, but I'll give it a spin. – Stupid.Fat.Cat Dec 30 '14 at 15:37
Actually! Using //button[... worked! Hmm, could you explain why //* did't work but //button did? – Stupid.Fat.Cat Dec 30 '14 at 15:39
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As I said with `*` you are doing a `tag` independent search. You might have some other tag say for example `a` with same text that's why it was failing. Now with `//button[....]` you are just searching button `tags` eliminating others. – Saifur Dec 30 '14 at 15:40
Button contains worked for me for unsplash.com to load more content button. Thanks – james-see Jan 11 '22 at 19:41

aberna · Answer 2 · 2014-12-30T15:32:01.923

0

A solution could be:

buttons = self.driver.find_elements_by_xpath("//title[contains(text(),'Next')]")
actions = ActionChains(self.driver)
time.sleep(2)
actions.click(button)
actions.perform()

Documentation on Selenium Action Chain here: http://selenium-python.readthedocs.org/en/latest/api.html#module-selenium.webdriver.common.action_chains

edited Dec 30 '14 at 15:32

answered Dec 30 '14 at 15:17

aberna

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Could you explain exactly what that's doing? – Stupid.Fat.Cat Dec 30 '14 at 15:18
find the button with "next" text , create an action chain, press the button. There is even a delay by using the time sleep in case there is code loaded by ajax – aberna Dec 30 '14 at 15:21

Python using Selenium to click on a button based on type, value, and class

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