Using Selenium on calendar date picker

Question

I am trying to pick a date (01/01/2011) from a calendar on this page. https://cotthosting.com/NYRocklandExternal/LandRecords/protected/SrchQuickName.aspx

The calendar is on the part of the form that says Date: FROM. When I click it, a calendar pops up for you to pick dates. However, the field also allows you type in a date. Given the complexity of calendars, I have chosen to use send_keys() but it is not working.

I have identified the empty field date field by its ID but for some reason it does not fill the form. when I try:

driver.find_element_by_id('ctl00_cphMain_SrchDates1_txtFiledFrom').send_keys("01012011")

Any ideas on how I can maneuver it differently? I'm using Python 2.7 with Selenium and ChromeDriver

Your code worked for me once I signed in as guest. Which webdriver are you using? I am using Chrome. — elethan, Sep 15 '16 at 22:00
@elethan I am using ChromeDriver as well. And no it's not working for me. Here is my script https://repl.it/DbMP/0 — Tendekai Muchenje, Sep 16 '16 at 13:15
@TendekaiMuchenje got it, thanks for the extra info. I figured out what I was doing different from you. See my answer. — elethan, Sep 16 '16 at 13:30
@TendekaiMuchenje Did You try my code? It worked for me. Tell me for more queries. — Kishan Patel, Sep 18 '16 at 18:04

elethan · Answer 1 · 2016-09-16T13:59:52.430

To get this to work, add one extra step of clicking the element before sending the keys:

datefield = driver.find_element_by_id('ctl00_cphMain_SrchDates1_txtFiledFrom')
datefield.click()
datefield.send_keys("01012011")

Update:

It looks like you might have to use ActionChains after all in your case, which will allow you to chain a series of actions together, and then perform them one after the other:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.action_chains import ActionChains

driver = webdriver.Chrome()

driver.get("https://cotthosting.com/NYRocklandExternal/User/Login.aspx")
driver.find_element_by_id('ctl00_cphMain_blkLogin_btnGuestLogin').click()

driver.find_element_by_id('ctl00_cphMain_SrchNames1_txtFirmSurName').send_keys("Adam")

datefield = driver.find_element_by_id('ctl00_cphMain_SrchDates1_txtFiledFrom')

ActionChains(driver).move_to_element(datefield).click().send_keys('01012011').perform()
search_btn = driver.find_element_by_id('ctl00_cphMain_btnSearchAll')
ActionChains(driver).move_to_element(search_btn).click().click().perform()

I am not sure why two click() calls were necessary in this case, but it seems that they were. I tried a few other things including double_click(), but this was the only thing that worked for me to get the datefield unfocused and then click the search button.

this works for the date sending part, but it now breaks the search button click which was the next event in my script and it was working before this. Any ideas? — Tendekai Muchenje, Sep 16 '16 at 13:35
ActionChains totally worked for me! Thanks for posting, elethan! :-) — yeamusic21, Jul 10 '23 at 15:27

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 04 '21 at 03:44

An alternative solution with some explanation:

Solution

Similar to what is suggested here, do:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

driver.get("https://cotthosting.com/NYRocklandExternal/LandRecords/protected/SrchQuickName.aspx")

# [Do whatever else is necessary...]

date_input = driver.find_element_by_id('ctl00_cphMain_SrchDates1_txtFiledFrom')
date_input.click()                      # Focus input field
date_input.send_keys(Keys.CONTROL, "a") # Select all pre-existing text/input value
date_input.send_keys(Keys.BACKSPACE)    # Remove that text
date_input.send_keys("01012011")        # Add desired text/set input value

What is going on

Here is a screenshot of devtools open to your page:

Two things stick out:

The input has value="From". So if you just call send_keys right away the input will have value From01012011.
Parenthetically, it appears that they set input to have type=text (it should really be type=date!)

So we have just ctrl-a, backspace to clear the value.

I was using date_input.clear(). But this solved my problem. Thank you so much — Jihjohn, Mar 04 '21 at 17:15

score -1 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 28 '21 at 12:12

-1

date = 'yyyy-mm-dd'
driver.execute_script(f"document.getElementById('id').value = '{date}'")

edited Sep 28 '21 at 12:12

4b0

21,981
30
95
142

answered Sep 28 '21 at 11:50

zahir 9

1
4

1

Code-only answers are not particularly helpful. Please add some descriptions of how this code solves the problem. – 4b0 Sep 28 '21 at 12:12
2

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Sep 28 '21 at 12:21

score -2 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 16 '16 at 07:26

I use Actions Class in Java . The Java code which ran successfully is as belows:

package stackoverflow;

public class question1 {

@Test
public void a () throws InterruptedException{

    System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\Selenium\\CP-SAT\\Chromedriver\\chromedriver.exe");
    WebDriver a = new ChromeDriver();
    a.manage().window().maximize();
    a.get("https://cotthosting.com/NYRocklandExternal/LandRecords/protected/SrchQuickName.aspx");
    Thread.sleep(2000L);
    a.findElement(By.id("ctl00_cphMain_blkLogin_btnGuestLogin")).click();
    Thread.sleep(2000L);
    a.findElement(By.id("ctl00_cphMain_SrchDates1_txtFiledFrom")).click();
    Actions b = new Actions(a);
    for (int i = 0;i<6 ;i++){
        for(int j = 0; j<6; j++){   
                WebElement c = a.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id='ctl00_cphMain_SrchDates1_ceFiledFrom_day_"+ i + "_" + j + "']"));
                Thread.sleep(2000L);
                b.moveToElement(c).build().perform();
            }
        }
    }
}

I tried to convert it for you in python, but I'm not sure about the syntax. Below is the code:

    a.get("https://cotthosting.com/NYRocklandExternal/LandRecords/protected/SrchQuickName.aspx");
    a.implicitly_wait(3);
    a.find_element_by_id("ctl00_cphMain_blkLogin_btnGuestLogin").click();
    a.implicitly_wait(3);
    a.find_element_by_id("ctl00_cphMain_SrchDates1_txtFiledFrom").click();
    actions = ActionChains(a);
    for (int i = 0;i<6 ;i++){
        for(int j = 0; j<6; j++){   
                WebElement c = a.find_element_by_xpath("//*[@id='ctl00_cphMain_SrchDates1_ceFiledFrom_day_"+ i + "_" + j + "']");
                a.implicitly_wait(3);
                actions.move_to_element(c).perform();

            }
        }

Try it at your end and let me know for further issues. Happy learning :-)

Using Selenium on calendar date picker

4 Answers4

Update:

Solution

What is going on

Linked