NoSuchElementException: Message: no such element: Unable to locate element when trying to find element within a iframe

Question

I am trying to automate a Google Chrome session in Python using Selenium. Until now, I have been using an extension to get the xpath, which works OK. But now, I encounter an error when using the xpath I have located:

NoSuchElementException: Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"//*[@id="ok"]"} (Session info: chrome=71.0.3578.98) (Driver info: chromedriver=2.45.615291 (ec3682e3c9061c10f26ea9e5cdcf3c53f3f74387),platform=Windows NT 6.3.9600 x86_64)

The line that returns an error looks like this:

browser.find_element_by_xpath('//*[@id="ok"]').click()

Unfortunately, the button I need to click is pretty deep within a webpage and requires a certain plugin, which makes it hard for you to replicate the flow of my program. Therefore, I have uploaded an image of the source code of the webpage (The blue line is the button I would like to click):

Could you provide some help on how to correct the selenium selector, so that I will be able to click the element?

Answer 1

To click() on the desired element as the the desired element is within an <iframe> so you have to:

• Induce WebDriverWait for the desired frame to be available and switch to it.
• Induce WebDriverWait for the desired element to be clickable.

• You can use the following solution:

  • Code Block (using CSS_SELECTOR):

    from selenium import webdriver
    from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
    from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
    from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
    
    WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.CSS_SELECTOR,"iframe#codefile_iframe")))
    WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "input#ok[value='OK'][onclick^='loginui']"))).click()
    

  • Code Block (using XPATH):

    from selenium import webdriver
    from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
    from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
    from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
    
    WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.XPATH,"//iframe[@id='codefile_iframe']")))
    WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//input[@id='ok' and @value='OK'][starts-with(@onclick,'loginui')]"))).click()
    

Here you can find a relevant discussion on Ways to deal with #document under iframe

Answer 2

You will need to switch to iframe before interacting with elements inside of it:

iframe = driver.find_element_by_id("codefile_iframe")    
driver.switch_to.frame(iframe)

And then continue with the wait and click.