How to get selenium to wait for ajax response?

Question

How can I get selenium to wait for something like a calendar widget to load? Right now I am just doing a Thread.sleep(2500) after exporting the testcase to a junit program.

score 46 · Accepted Answer · answered May 14 '10 at 15:15

46

I would use

waitForElementPresent(locator)

This will wait until the element is present in the DOM.

If you need to check the element is visible, you may be better using

waitForElementHeight(locator)

answered May 14 '10 at 15:15

Neil Aitken

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What if ajax does redirect and selenium doesn't know about it? How to work with that? – Eugene May 23 '11 at 13:27

score 28 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 15 '11 at 07:40

A more general solution than waiting for an element would be to wait for all the connections to the server to close. This will allow you to wait for all ajax calls to finish, even if they don't have any callback and thus don't affect the page. More details can be found here.

Using C# and jQuery, I have created the following method to wait for all AJax calls to complete (if anyone have more direct ways of accessing JS variables from C#, please comment):

internal void WaitForAjax(int timeOut = 15)
{
    var value = "";
    RepeatUntil(
        () => value = GetJavascriptValue("jQuery.active"), 
        () => value == "0", 
        "Ajax calls did not complete before timeout"
    );
}

internal void RepeatUntil(Action repeat, Func<bool> until, string errorMessage, int timeout = 15)
{
    var end = DateTime.Now + TimeSpan.FromSeconds(timeout);
    var complete = false;

    while (DateTime.Now < end)
    {
        repeat();
        try
        {
            if (until())
            {
                complete = true;
                break;
            }
        }
        catch (Exception)
        { }
        Thread.Sleep(500);
    }
    if (!complete)
        throw new TimeoutException(errorMessage);
}

internal string GetJavascriptValue(string variableName)
{
    var id = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
    _selenium.RunScript(String.Format(@"window.$('body').append(""<input type='text' value='""+{0}+""' id='{1}'/>"");", variableName, id));
    return _selenium.GetValue(id);
}

this.selenium.GetEval("(window.jQuery || { active : 0 }).active ") is a little more direct than the input box. It also doesn't error if jQuery is not on the page. — jons911, Aug 16 '12 at 20:59
What is the type of the variable __selenium? I am not able to fin it in the object model — Mauricio Aviles, Apr 11 '14 at 22:36
Mauricio, it's been quite a while since I worked with Selenium so I can't recall the details, but my guess would be the IWebDriver instance. — Morten Christiansen, Apr 13 '14 at 13:27
nice, trying to figure out the same thing but for PHP here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64590437/php-webdriver-wait-for-ajax-to-finish-executing — Robert Sinclair, Oct 29 '20 at 11:57

score 16 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

16

If using python, you may use this function, which clicks the button and waits for the DOM change:

def click_n_wait(driver, button, timeout=5):
    source = driver.page_source
    button.click()
    def compare_source(driver):
        try:
            return source != driver.page_source
        except WebDriverException:
            pass
    WebDriverWait(driver, timeout).until(compare_source)

(CREDIT: based on this stack overflow answer)

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

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1

answered Apr 30 '14 at 08:15

Nimo

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Unfortunately some pages have loading animations which ruin this trick because page_source is updated but you don't have the data yet. – ubershmekel Jul 12 '15 at 17:30
It worked for me, I have a page with multiple XHR requests at on single button click, so just waiting for `jQuery.active == 0` does not work. – Viktor Carlson May 02 '20 at 14:32
Thanks @nimo, this works well. I had a loading animation on my page so I modified the lines `driver.page_source` to `driver.find_element_by_xpath(comparator_xpath).get_attribute('innerHTML')`. This way it didn't matter what was going on when the loading element was in animation. – eNc Jun 19 '20 at 02:46

score 4 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 11 '20 at 18:37

With webdriver aka selenium2 you can use implicit wait configuration as mentionned on https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/en/webdriver/waits/#implicit-wait

Using Java:

WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
driver.get("http://somedomain/url_that_delays_loading");
WebElement myDynamicElement = driver.findElement(By.id("myDynamicElement"));

Or using python:

from selenium import webdriver

ff = webdriver.Firefox()
ff.implicitly_wait(10) # seconds
ff.get("http://somedomain/url_that_delays_loading")
myDynamicElement = ff.find_element_by_id("myDynamicElement")

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 11 '17 at 07:34

This work for me

public  void waitForAjax(WebDriver driver) {
    new WebDriverWait(driver, 180).until(new ExpectedCondition<Boolean>(){
        public Boolean apply(WebDriver driver) {
            JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
            return (Boolean) js.executeScript("return jQuery.active == 0");
        }
    });
}

Hrabosch · Answer 6 · 2016-11-28T17:03:27.540

2

I wrote next method as my solution (I hadn't any load indicator):

public static void waitForAjax(WebDriver driver, String action) {
       driver.manage().timeouts().setScriptTimeout(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
       ((JavascriptExecutor) driver).executeAsyncScript(
               "var callback = arguments[arguments.length - 1];" +
                       "var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();" +
                       "xhr.open('POST', '/" + action + "', true);" +
                       "xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {" +
                       "  if (xhr.readyState == 4) {" +
                       "    callback(xhr.responseText);" +
                       "  }" +
                       "};" +
                       "xhr.send();");
}

Then I jsut called this method with actual driver. More description in this post.

edited Nov 28 '16 at 17:03

answered Jul 23 '15 at 20:15

Hrabosch

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downvote. answers are supposed to contain actual answers... they are not for driving traffic to your personal blog. – Corey Goldberg Nov 27 '16 at 19:07
@CoreyGoldberg I dont care about traffic, but Ok, I'll insert code from post here. This post is only another option, because other answers wont worked for me. – Hrabosch Nov 28 '16 at 16:58
@CoreyGoldberg I hope that now it is OK for you ;) – Hrabosch Nov 28 '16 at 17:04

score 2 · Answer 7 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

The code (C#) bellow ensures that the target element is displayed:

        internal static bool ElementIsDisplayed()
        {
          IWebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
          driver.Url = "http://www.seleniumhq.org/docs/04_webdriver_advanced.jsp";
          WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));
          By locator = By.CssSelector("input[value='csharp']:first-child");
          IWebElement myDynamicElement = wait.Until<IWebElement>((d) =>
          {
            return d.FindElement(locator);
          });
          return myDynamicElement.Displayed;
        }

If the page supports jQuery it can be used the jQuery.active function to ensure that the target element is retrieved after all the ajax calls are finished:

 public static bool ElementIsDisplayed()
    {
        IWebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.Url = "http://www.seleniumhq.org/docs/04_webdriver_advanced.jsp";
        WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));
        By locator = By.CssSelector("input[value='csharp']:first-child");
        return wait.Until(d => ElementIsDisplayed(d, locator));
    }

    public static bool ElementIsDisplayed(IWebDriver driver, By by)
    {
        try
        {
            if (driver.FindElement(by).Displayed)
            {
                //jQuery is supported.
                if ((bool)((IJavaScriptExecutor)driver).ExecuteScript("return window.$ != undefined"))
                {
                    return (bool)((IJavaScriptExecutor)driver).ExecuteScript("return $.active == 0");
                }
                else
                {
                    return true;
                }
            }
            else
            {
                return false;
            }
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            return false;
        }
    }

score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Feb 09 '18 at 02:03

This works like a charm for me :

public void waitForAjax() {

    try {
        WebDriverWait driverWait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 10);

        ExpectedCondition<Boolean> expectation;   
        expectation = new ExpectedCondition<Boolean>() {

            public Boolean apply(WebDriver driverjs) {

                JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor) driverjs;
                return js.executeScript("return((window.jQuery != null) && (jQuery.active === 0))").equals("true");
            }
        };
        driverWait.until(expectation);
    }       
    catch (TimeoutException exTimeout) {

       // fail code
    }
    catch (WebDriverException exWebDriverException) {

       // fail code
    }
    return this;
}

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 17 '13 at 11:44

I had a similar situation, i wanted to wait for ajax requests so that the loading panel would have disappeared, I have inspected the html before and after the requests, found that there is a div for the ajax loading panel, the dix is displayed during the ajax request, and hidden after the request ends. I have created a function to wait for the panel to be displayed, then wait for it to be hidden


public void WaitForModalPanel()
{
    string element_xpath = ".//*[@id='ajaxLoadingModalPanelContainer'  and not(contains(@style,'display: none'))]";
    WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, new TimeSpan(0, 2, 0));
    wait.Until(ExpectedConditions.ElementIsVisible(By.XPath(element_xpath)));
    element_xpath = ".//*[@id='ajaxLoadingModalPanelContainer' and contains(@style,'DISPLAY: none')]";
    wait.Until(ExpectedConditions.ElementExists(By.XPath(element_xpath)));
}

Check this for more details

score 1 · Answer 10 · edited Nov 28 '16 at 19:49

As mentioned above you can wait for active connections to get closed:

private static void WaitForReady() {
    WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(webDriver, waitForElement);
    wait.Until(driver => (bool)((IJavaScriptExecutor)driver).ExecuteScript("return jQuery.active == 0"));
}

My observation is this is not reliable as data transfer happens very quickly. Much more time is consumed on data processing and rendering on the page and even jQuery.active == 0 data might not be yet on the page.

Much wiser is to use an explicit wait for element to be shown on the page, see some of the answers related to this.

The best situation is if your web application have some custom loader or indication that data is being processed. In this case you can just wait for this indication to hide.

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 17 '16 at 18:59

Here's a groovy version based on Morten Christiansen's answer.

void waitForAjaxCallsToComplete() {
    repeatUntil(
            { return getJavaScriptFunction(driver, "return (window.jQuery || {active : false}).active") },
            "Ajax calls did not complete before timeout."
    )
}

static void repeatUntil(Closure runUntilTrue, String errorMessage, int pollFrequencyMS = 250, int timeOutSeconds = 10) {
    def today = new Date()
    def end = today.time + timeOutSeconds
    def complete = false;

    while (today.time < end) {
        if (runUntilTrue()) {
            complete = true;
            break;
        }

        sleep(pollFrequencyMS);
    }
    if (!complete)
        throw new TimeoutException(errorMessage);
}

static String getJavaScriptFunction(WebDriver driver, String jsFunction) {
    def jsDriver = driver as JavascriptExecutor
    jsDriver.executeScript(jsFunction)
}

Bill Hileman · Answer 12 · 2017-01-12T15:35:15.197

0

If the control you are waiting for is an "Ajax" web element, the following code will wait for it, or any other Ajax web element to finish loading or performing whatever it needs to do so that you can more-safely continue with your steps.

    public static void waitForAjaxToFinish() {

    WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 10);

    wait.until(new ExpectedCondition<Boolean>() { 
        public Boolean apply(WebDriver wdriver) { 
            return ((JavascriptExecutor) driver).executeScript(
                    "return jQuery.active == 0").equals(true);
        }
    }); 

}

edited Jan 12 '17 at 15:35

answered Jul 12 '16 at 19:52

Bill Hileman

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Please try to add some explanation over your code on how you think this code solve the OP's problem. – techspider Jul 12 '16 at 20:11

BatBold · Answer 13 · 2019-07-29T19:17:22.857

Below is my code for fetch. Took me while researching because jQuery.active doesn't work with fetch. Here is the answer helped me proxy fetch, but its only for ajax not fetch mock for selenium

public static void customPatchXMLHttpRequest(WebDriver driver) {
    try {
        if (driver instanceof JavascriptExecutor) {
            JavascriptExecutor jsDriver = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
            Object numberOfAjaxConnections = jsDriver.executeScript("return window.openHTTPs");
            if (numberOfAjaxConnections instanceof Long) {
                return;
            }
            String script = "  (function() {" + "var oldFetch = fetch;"
                    + "window.openHTTPs = 0; console.log('starting xhttps');" + "fetch = function(input,init ){ "
                    + "window.openHTTPs++; "

                    + "return oldFetch(input,init).then( function (response) {"
                    + "      if (response.status >= 200 && response.status < 300) {"
                    + "          window.openHTTPs--;  console.log('Call completed. Remaining active calls: '+ window.openHTTPs); return response;"
                    + "      } else {"
                    + "          window.openHTTPs--; console.log('Call fails. Remaining active calls: ' + window.openHTTPs);  return response;"
                    + "      };})" + "};" + "var oldOpen = XMLHttpRequest.prototype.open;"
                    + "XMLHttpRequest.prototype.open = function(method, url, async, user, pass) {"
                    + "window.openHTTPs++; console.log('xml ajax called');"
                    + "this.addEventListener('readystatechange', function() {" + "if(this.readyState == 4) {"
                    + "window.openHTTPs--; console.log('xml ajax complete');" + "}" + "}, false);"
                    + "oldOpen.call(this, method, url, async, user, pass);" + "}" +

                    "})();";
            jsDriver.executeScript(script);
        } else {
            System.out.println("Web driver: " + driver + " cannot execute javascript");
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        System.out.println(e);
    }
}

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Sep 08 '20 at 17:53

In my case the issue seemed due to ajax delays but was related to internal iframes inside the main page. In seleminum it is possible to switch to internal frames with:

    driver.switchTo().frame("body");
    driver.switchTo().frame("bodytab");

I use java. After that I was able to locate the element

    driver.findElement(By.id("e_46")).click();

score -2 · Answer 15 · edited May 23 '13 at 21:03

-2

For those who is using primefaces, just do:

selenium.waitForCondition("selenium.browserbot.getCurrentWindow().$.active==0", defaultWaitingPeriod);

edited May 23 '13 at 21:03

answered Apr 18 '12 at 15:25

Samuel Tian

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6
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waitForCondition void waitForCondition(java.lang.String script, java.lang.String timeout) Runs the specified JavaScript snippet repeatedly until it evaluates to "true". The snippet may have multiple lines, but only the result of the last line will be considered. Note that, by default, the snippet will be run in the runner's test window, not in the window of your application. To get the window of your application, you can use the JavaScript snippet selenium.browserbot.getCurrentWindow(), and then run your JavaScript in there – Samuel Tian Mar 20 '13 at 09:16
it is only for Selenium RC. Selenium WebDriver doesnot support feature – ajahongir Oct 24 '13 at 07:11
Is WebDriver the same as IDE ? – Purefan Dec 09 '13 at 12:39

How to get selenium to wait for ajax response?

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