How to select a value from a drop-down using Selenium from a website with special setting- Python

Question

Note: I particularly deal with this website

How can I use selenium with Python to get the reviews on this page to sort by 'Most recent'?

What I tried was:

driver.find_element_by_id('sort-order-dropdown').send_keys('Most recent')

from this didn't cause any error but didn't work.

Then I tried

from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import Select

select = Select(driver.find_element_by_id('sort-order-dropdown'))
select.select_by_value('recent')
select.select_by_visible_text('Most recent')
select.select_by_index(1)

I've got: Message: Element <select id="sort-order-dropdown" class="a-native-dropdown" name=""> is not clickable at point (66.18333435058594,843.7999877929688) because another element <span class="a-dropdown-prompt"> obscures it

This one

element = driver.find_element_by_id('sort-order-dropdown')
element.click()
li = driver.find_elements_by_css_selector('#sort-order-dropdown > option:nth-child(2)')
li.click()

from this caused the same error msg

This one from this caused the same error also

Select(driver.find_element_by_id('sort-order-dropdown')).select_by_value('recent').click()

So, I'm curious to know if there is any way that I can select the reviews to sort from the most recent first.

Thank you

Not sure I understand what drop down menu are you referring to. For me, in order to get to the drop down menu, I had first to select "See all 71 customer reviews. Is this the case or I am missing something? — Eugene S, Dec 15 '17 at 06:47
Possible duplicate of [Selenium Web Driver & Java. Element is not clickable at point (36, 72). Other element would receive the click:](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44912203/selenium-web-driver-java-element-is-not-clickable-at-point-36-72-other-el) — undetected Selenium, Dec 15 '17 at 06:58
@Eugene S yes, I wanted to sort from that page. Sorry for the confusion. Also updated in the thread. — bensw, Dec 15 '17 at 07:05
@DebanjanB that one used java while I use python but will have a look if it helps. thx. — bensw, Dec 15 '17 at 07:07
@bensw The concept and JS commands remains the same. Only the coding style varies. — undetected Selenium, Dec 15 '17 at 07:09
So do you actually navigate there? Or in other words, do you click on the "*See all 71 customer reviews*" and then you have the issue you are describing? — Eugene S, Dec 15 '17 at 07:18
@Eugene S Yes, I did click on the *"See all 71 customer reviews"* and encountered that issue when I made an attempt to sort the reviews. — bensw, Dec 15 '17 at 07:22
@Eugene S Been trying to update the link but it won't stay. Very bizarre. — bensw, Dec 15 '17 at 07:25
@Eugene Found the workaround but if you want the bounty go ahead, otherwise will delete this thread. — bensw, Dec 15 '17 at 07:32
Better post the workaround so the others can learn. If I find there is a better way to do that, I will post an additional answer. — Eugene S, Dec 15 '17 at 07:35

Eugene S · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-16T01:21:46.277

This worked for me using Java:

@Test
public void amazonTest() throws InterruptedException {
    String URL = "https://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Slytherin-Wall-Banner/product-reviews/B01GVT5KR6/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_top?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews";
    String menuSelector = ".a-dropdown-prompt";
    String menuItemSelector = ".a-dropdown-common .a-dropdown-item";

    driver.get(URL);

    Thread.sleep(2000);

    WebElement menu = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector(menuSelector));
    menu.click();

    List<WebElement> menuItem = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector(menuItemSelector));
    menuItem.get(1).click();
}

You can reuse the element names and follow a similar path using Python.

The key points here are:

Click on the menu itself
Click on the second menu item

It is a better practice not to hard-code the item number but actually read the item names and select the correct one so it works even if the menu changes. This is just a note for future improvement.

EDIT This is how the same can be done in Python.

import time

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

URL = "https://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Slytherin-Wall-Banner/product-reviews/B01GVT5KR6/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_top?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews";
menuSelector = ".a-dropdown-prompt";
menuItemSelector = ".a-dropdown-common .a-dropdown-item";

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get(URL)

elem = driver.find_element_by_css_selector(menuSelector)
elem.click()

time.sleep(1)
elemItems = []
elemItems = driver.find_elements_by_css_selector(menuItemSelector)
elemItems[1].click()

time.sleep(5)
driver.close()

Just to keep in mind, css selectors are a better alternative to xpath as they are much faster, more robust and easier to read and change.

Thank you for the additional remark. Appreciate that. Tried to translate your code to Python but no luck so far. Thank you for being around though. — bensw, Dec 15 '17 at 08:40
@bensw I added a Python version. Just keep in mind, css selectors are a better alternative to xpath as they are much faster, more robust and easier to read and change. — Eugene S, Dec 16 '17 at 01:22
@ Eugene S That worked. I'll accept your answer as a correct answer. — bensw, Dec 16 '17 at 13:47

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 15 '17 at 08:38

This is the simplified version of what I did to get the reviews sorted from the most recent ones. As "Eugene S" said above, the key point is to click on the button itself and select/click the desired item from the list. However, my Python code use XPath instead of selector.

# click on "Top rated" button
driver.find_element_by_xpath('//*[@id="a-autoid-4-announce"]').click() 
# this one select the "Most recent"
driver.find_element_by_xpath('//*[@id="sort-order-dropdown_1"]').click()

How to select a value from a drop-down using Selenium from a website with special setting- Python

2 Answers2