xpath is validated but getting "no such element: Unable to locate element"

Question

Im trying to open the calendar and click the month. I can manage to open up the calendar but my xpath for the calendar isnt being recognized. I validated that my xpath works in the chrome console but its only able to validate it once the calendar is opened. Can someone please help me out? Thanks!

`

`import java.util.List;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

 import org.openqa.selenium.By;
 import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
 import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
 import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
 import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.ExpectedConditions;
 import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.WebDriverWait;

 public class CalendarExample {

     public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver","C:\\Program Files\\Java\\Selenium\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");
    WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
    driver.manage().window().maximize();
    driver.get("https://www.path2usa.com/travel-companions");

    List<WebElement> dates = driver.findElements(By.className("day"));
    String text = "";


    //select August 22 from calendar
    //step 1: open the calendar
    driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[@id='travel_date']")).click();

    //step 2: click the month 
    driver.findElement(By.xpath("//body/div[4]/div[@class='datepicker-days']/table//th[@class='datepicker-switch']")).click();
    }
}

please ensure that element is visible at the time you are trying to get the element by xpath — Aman Chhabra, Mar 30 '18 at 01:54
can you please share the URL if possible where you are trying to implement the test — Aman Chhabra, Mar 30 '18 at 01:58
My element was [under a shadow root and I had to use a CSS selector](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56380091/how-to-interact-with-the-elements-within-shadow-root-open-while-clearing-brow). — Mikael Dúi Bolinder, Oct 24 '21 at 14:14

Aman Chhabra · Answer 1 · 2018-06-26T06:17:22.490

1

In selenium, an element object is returned only when the element is visible in the browser. On the other hand, if the element is not visible, Selenium.ElementNotVisibleException is returned. So, looking at the issue you shared, it is possible that the calendar elements are being created only when its open, so at the time you are trying to click on calendar, you have to ensure the calendar is open. Only then, the element will be returned.

PS: One suggestion of what kind of XPath you should use, Please refer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/49497529/1262248

edited Jun 26 '18 at 06:17

answered Mar 30 '18 at 01:57

Aman Chhabra

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I figured it out, I just had to tell it to wait until the webpage loaded. i just put a "Thread.sleep(5000);" after the "driver.get("https://www.path2usa.com/travel-companions");" – Rohit Kumar Mar 30 '18 at 02:23
right... its better to add it as an answer to your question so that other ending with the same issue have an idea how to solve it – Aman Chhabra Mar 30 '18 at 02:27
3

Thread.sleep(5000) is not a great idea. Use waits provided by Selenium API https://www.seleniumhq.org/docs/04_webdriver_advanced.jsp#explicit-and-implicit-waits – Alex Mar 30 '18 at 02:29

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 30 '18 at 02:25

You experience your error because you are trying to access an element before it is available in DOM. So just first open calendar and after that access element with class "day". No need to change your xpath.

//open calendar
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[@id='travel_date']")).click();

//access element with class "day"
List<WebElement> dates = driver.findElements(By.className("day"));

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 01 '18 at 16:20

The element is not visible when you are trying to click it.

Declare this at the start of your class:

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 20);

Then, before you click the element insert this:

wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.xpath("//body/div[4]/div[@class='datepicker-days']/table//th[@class='datepicker-switch']")));

Hope this helps.

xpath is validated but getting "no such element: Unable to locate element"

3 Answers3