Why Cant I Click an Element in Selenium using python and Chrome Webdriver?

Question

I use Selenium-python to scrape this page and click on Pagination numbers.

i try this one:

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
time.sleep(5)
driver.get(
    'http://www.ooshop.com/courses-en-ligne/ContentNavigation.aspx?TO_NOEUD_IDMO=N000000013081&FROM_NOEUD_IDMO=N000000013056&TO_NOEUD_IDFO=81018&NOEUD_NIVEAU=2&UNIVERS_INDEX=2')
nbdespages = 23

for i in xrange(2,nbdespages):
    time.sleep(10)
    number = str(i)
    if(i<10):
        cssSelec = 'ctl00_cphC_pn3T1_ctl01_rptPaginationB_ctl0%s_lbPage' %number
    else:
        cssSelec = 'ctl00_cphC_pn3T1_ctl01_rptPaginationB_ctl%s_lbPage' %number
    try:
        driver.execute_script("window.scrollTo(0, document.body.scrollHeight);")
        element = WebDriverWait(driver, 30).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, cssSelec)))
        driver.execute_script("arguments[0].click()", element)
        driver.find_element_by_css_selector(cssSelec).click()
    finally:
        driver.save_screenshot('/Users/Parik/Desktop/test.jpg')
        print "TRY Again, you will find"

but i got this exception:

TimeoutException: Message:

i use WebDriverWait because sometimes i got this error if i don't use it and i read this question and use it for my problem:

 Element is not clickable at point

the value of css selector is correct

POST http://127.0.0.1:51099/session/ddf78c5a19e720909cbe6a0f5408788e/element {"using": "css selector", "sessionId": "ddf78c5a19e720909cbe6a0f5408788e", "value": "ctl00_cphC_pn3T1_ctl01_rptPaginationB_ctl02_lbPage"}

UPADTE1

UPDATE 2

With Screen shot i see that i can't see the numbers, i changed my code to this:

    try:
        element = driver.find_element_by_css_selector('img#ctl00_cphC_pn3T1_ctl01_rp_ctl15_ctl00_iVisu.image')
        driver.execute_script("return arguments[0].scrollIntoView();", element)
        driver.execute_script("arguments[0].click()", element)
        driver.find_element_by_css_selector(cssSelec).click()
    finally:
        driver.save_screenshot('/Users/Parik/Desktop/test.jpg')
        print "TRY Again, you will find"

and now i see the Pagination

but i have always this exception:

NoSuchElementException: Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"css selector","selector":"ctl00_cphC_pn3T1_ctl01_rptPaginationB_ctl02_lbPage"}
  (Session info: chrome=51.0.2704.103)
  (Driver info: chromedriver=2.21.371459 (36d3d07f660ff2bc1bf28a75d1cdabed0983e7c4),platform=Mac OS X 10.11.5 x86_64)

i think first u need to scroll down to make the pagination number visible. do it and let me know what happens ... if ok i will convert it to answer. — noor, Jun 21 '16 at 08:11
You need to execute `javascript` to perform click like this `driver.execute_script("arguments[0].click();",element)`....hope it will work.. — Saurabh Gaur, Jun 21 '16 at 08:28
click like this `element = WebDriverWait(driver, 30).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, cssSelec))) driver.execute_script("arguments[0].click();",element)` — Saurabh Gaur, Jun 21 '16 at 10:02
@parik take a screen shot when you get an exception. And see whats blocking your click. browser.save_screenshot('screenie.png') — Hassan Mehmood, Jun 21 '16 at 10:26
@SaurabhGaur i added your suggestion in my code and i took a screen shot — parik, Jun 21 '16 at 10:48
Ok so now you can clearly see that Element you want to click is not visible. — Hassan Mehmood, Jun 21 '16 at 10:52
By the way here is a quick work around. You can visit the next page by changing the URL. — Hassan Mehmood, Jun 21 '16 at 10:54
@HassanMehmood for the URL i think that you're wrong, with wich url i can see the second page? i changed my code and know i see the page numbers ( i added it to my question) — parik, Jun 21 '16 at 11:03
@parik..ok forget everything... just use like this `try:driver.execute_script("document.getElementById(arguments[0]).click();", cssSelec)`.. — Saurabh Gaur, Jun 21 '16 at 11:25
@SaurabhGaur thanks a lot man, it works, can you post it like answer please, maybe it can help someone else too. — parik, Jun 21 '16 at 11:28

Saurabh Gaur · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-21T11:48:15.473

You should try .execute_script to perform click as below :-

try:driver.execute_script("document.getElementById(arguments[0]).click();", cssSelec)

You can also try as below :-

try:
element = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(
    EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, cssSelec))
)
driver.execute_script("arguments[0].click()", element)

Note :- you are preparing locator for id but using as By.CSS_SELECTOR to finding the element, for that reason you are getting exception as NoSuchElementException, so change it to By.ID.

You can also use element.click() but if you are getting Exception as like Element is not clickable at point, I suggest you can use here driver.execute_script("arguments[0].click()", element) to perform click.

Hope it will help you..:)

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 21 '16 at 10:11

cssSelec = 'ctl00_cphC_pn3T1_ctl01_rptPaginationH_ctl0%s_lbPage' %number and cssSelec = 'ctl00_cphC_pn3T1_ctl01_rptPaginationH_ctl%s_lbPage' %number refer to the id's for the elements you're trying to click and are not applicable CSS selectors by themselves - you can use them in a CSS selector using the # symbol like so:

a#ctl00_cphC_pn3T1_ctl01_rptPaginationH_ctl02_lbPage

Another method you could use to locate and click the elements is to use WebDriver's link text locator as the elements are anchor (<a> tag) elements.

I would highly recommend you avoid using Javascript to click the elements as this a hack at best and opens up potential for Javascript errors in your tests.

i added a# but i got this error : WebDriverException: Message: unknown error: Element is not clickable at point (151, 8). Other element would receive the click:
...
(Session info: chrome=51.0.2704.103) (Driver info: chromedriver=2.21.371459 (36d3d07f660ff2bc1bf28a75d1cdabed0983e7c4),platform=Mac OS X 10.11.5 x86_64) — parik, Jun 21 '16 at 10:38

Why Cant I Click an Element in Selenium using python and Chrome Webdriver?

2 Answers2