iterating through links in a footer section of a web page Selenium Java

Question

I am trying to iterate through the links in a section of the footer. I have written this code but it keeps failing. I hope someone will be able to tell me what I am doing wrong and how can I fix this.

import java.awt.List;
import java.util.Iterator;
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;

public class HomeWork {

public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
    System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "C:\\Work\\chromedriver_win32\\chromedriver.exe");
    WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

    driver.manage().window().maximize();
    driver.manage().deleteAllCookies();
    driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

    String url = "http://automationpractice.com/index.php?controller=authentication&back=my-account";
    driver.get(url);



    WebElement infoLinkSec = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id=\"block_various_links_footer\"]"));
    int noOfLink = infoLinkSec.findElements(By.tagName("a")).size();
    System.out.println(noOfLink);


    Iterator<WebElement> links = infoLinkSec.findElements(By.tagName("a")).iterator();





    WebElement[] link = new WebElement[noOfLink];


    for (int i = 0; i< noOfLink; i++ ) {
        link[i] = links.next();
            }


    for (int i = 0; i< noOfLink; i++ ) {

        link[i].click();
        Thread.sleep(2000L);

        String cUrl = driver.getCurrentUrl();
        String cPageTitle = driver.getTitle();
        System.out.println((i+1) +". The current url is "+cUrl+"\nThe current page title is "+cPageTitle);

        driver.navigate().back();
        driver.navigate().refresh();
        Thread.sleep(3000L);
        }


}

    }

When I try to open anylink using link[3].click(); or link[4].click(); it will open the link, The problem seems to be when we go back and refresh, that is when it would open another link.

The ERROR is :

Starting ChromeDriver 78.0.3904.70         (edb9c9f3de0247fd912a77b7f6cae7447f6d3ad5-refs/branch-    heads/3904@{#800}) on port 5525
Only local connections are allowed.
Please protect ports used by ChromeDriver and related test     frameworks to prevent access by malicious code.
[1575300793.350][WARNING]: Timed out connecting to Chrome,     retrying...
Dec 02, 2019 10:33:15 AM     org.openqa.selenium.remote.ProtocolHandshake createSession
INFO: Detected dialect: W3C
[1575300797.392][WARNING]: Timed out connecting to Chrome,     retrying...
8
1. The current url is     http://automationpractice.com/index.php?controller=prices-drop
The current page title is Prices drop - My Store
Exception in thread "main"     org.openqa.selenium.StaleElementReferenceException: stale     element reference: element is not attached to the page     document
  (Session info: chrome=78.0.3904.108)
For documentation on this error, please visit:     https://www.seleniumhq.org/exceptions/stale_element_reference.    html
Build info: version: '3.141.59', revision: 'e82be7d358',     time: '2018-11-14T08:25:48'
System info: host: 'LAPTOP-P9CFNEOV', ip: '192.168.56.1',     os.name: 'Windows 10', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '10.0',     java.version: '1.8.0_222'
Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver
Capabilities {acceptInsecureCerts: false, browserName:     chrome, browserVersion: 78.0.3904.108, chrome:     {chromedriverVersion: 78.0.3904.70 (edb9c9f3de024...,     userDataDir: C:\Users\YSAMSE~1\AppData\L...},     goog:chromeOptions: {debuggerAddress: localhost:54615},     javascriptEnabled: true, networkConnectionEnabled: false,     pageLoadStrategy: normal, platform: XP, platformName: XP,     proxy: Proxy(), setWindowRect: true,     strictFileInteractability: false, timeouts: {implicit: 0,     pageLoad: 300000, script: 30000}, unhandledPromptBehavior:     dismiss and notify}
Session ID: 2377347e6ccb38499c3f86e0b8cc0862
    at     sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native     Method)
    at     sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeCo    nstructorAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at     sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Dele    gatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
    at     java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:423    )
    at     org.openqa.selenium.remote.http.W3CHttpResponseCodec.createExc    eption(W3CHttpResponseCodec.java:187)
    at     org.openqa.selenium.remote.http.W3CHttpResponseCodec.decode(W3    CHttpResponseCodec.java:122)
at     org.openqa.selenium.remote.http.W3CHttpResponseCodec.decode(W3    CHttpResponseCodec.java:49)
    at     org.openqa.selenium.remote.HttpCommandExecutor.execute(HttpCom    mandExecutor.java:158)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.service.DriverCommandExecutor.execu    te(DriverCommandExecutor.java:83)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:552)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebElement.execute(RemoteWebElement.java:285)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebElement.click(RemoteWebElement.java:84)
at HomeWork.main(HomeWork.java:50)

Answer 1

So, it looks like you are getting a StaleElementReferenceException here. You said "The problem seems to be when we go back and refresh", which is exactly correct -- that's how you encounter this exception.

When you find a WebElement or list of WebElement and store it in a variable, then change the page (through refreshing or going to a different page), your reference to this element is no longer valid. Your variable is pointing to an element that has gone stale.

This issue can be fixed by re-finding all of the elements you are interacting with after you refresh the page.

So, after driver.navigate.refresh();, link[i].click() will throw the exception, because link[] now contains a list of elements that are no longer valid on the page. You will need to re-call driver.findElements to set link[] back to a state of fresh elements.

Your code to set the link[] variable seems a bit complex here, so it's not as easy as just calling driver.findElements after you refresh. You may need to refactor the code so that you can easily find a fresh set of links after each refresh:

System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "C:\\Work\\chromedriver_win32\\chromedriver.exe");
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

driver.manage().window().maximize();
driver.manage().deleteAllCookies();
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

String url = "http://automationpractice.com/index.php?controller=authentication&back=my-account";
driver.get(url);

// get the links
List<WebElement> links = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id='block_various_links_footer']//a"));

// iterate links in a for loop
for (int i = 0; i < links.size(); i++)
{
    // click the link
    link[i].click();
    Thread.sleep(2000L);

    // print page info
    String cUrl = driver.getCurrentUrl();
    String cPageTitle = driver.getTitle();
    System.out.println((i+1) +". The current url is "+cUrl+"\nThe current page title is "+cPageTitle);

    // go back
    driver.navigate().back();
    driver.navigate().refresh();
    Thread.sleep(3000L);

    // re-find links list
    List<WebElement> links = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id='block_various_links_footer']//a"));
}

Selenium gave you a helpful link to their documentation on StaleElementReferenceException in your stack trace. You can read more on their page if you're extra curious.