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I am trying to query a chatbot using selenium in Python to input queries and then run a jQuery to get the response.

It works nicely, assuming that the chatbot's webpage loads fast enough. If for whatever reason the webpage is slow to respond, then my script queries for a response and either gets a blank or gets the previous response.

How can I solve this without resorting to huge sleep delays? At the moment the page might take up to 5-7 seconds between replies or it may take only 1-2 seconds.

Is there a way to instruct the program to wait for the server's response before running the jQuery?

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
from selenium.webdriver.firefox.options import Options

import re
from requests import get

class AIBot:


    def __init__(self):

        # Initialize selenium options
        self.opts = Options()
        self.opts.add_argument("-headless")
        self.browser = webdriver.Firefox(options=self.opts)
        self.url = "http://demo.vhost.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=b0dafd24ee35a477"


    def get_form(self):

        # Find the form tag to enter your message
        self.browser.implicitly_wait(10.0)
        self.elem = self.browser.find_element_by_name('input')


    def send_input(self, userInput):

        # Submits your message
        fOne = '<\/?[a-z]+>|<DOCTYPE'
        fTwo = '/<[^>]+>/g'
        while True:
            try:
                self.elem.send_keys(userInput + Keys.RETURN)
            except BrokenPipeError:
                continue
            break


    def get_response(self):

        # Retrieves response message
        jFetch = get("http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.3.min.js").content.decode('utf8')
        self.browser.execute_script(jFetch)
        response = self.browser.execute_script("""
                  var main_str = $('font:has(b:contains("Chomsky:"))').contents().has( "br" ).last().text().trim();
                  main_str = main_str.replace(/Chomsky:/gi,'').replace(/Wikipedia is a great online encyclopedia./gi,
                  'Wikipedia is your friend. Use it.').replace(/^\\s*[\\r\\n]/gm, '');
                  return main_str;
                """)
        return response


def mainLoop():

    # Reset variables and connect to AI bot
    humanString = None
    robotString = None
    pb = AIBot()
    pb.browser.get(pb.url)

    while True:
        # User input
        humanString = input("Human says: ")
        pb.get_form()
        if humanString == 'exit':
            break

        # Bot response
        pb.send_input(humanString)
        robotString = pb.get_response()

        print("Robot says: " + robotString)
    pb.browser.close()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    mainLoop()

Edit:

Just to clarify, in this particular instance waiting until element is located is not helpful as this webpage just doesn't have any useful elements to target, particularly in the bot's response area.

Maybe there is a way to check if the response variable is the same as previously when the jQuery runs and keep waiting until it changes?

whereismycoffee
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    Does this answer your question? [Wait until page is loaded with Selenium WebDriver for Python](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26566799/wait-until-page-is-loaded-with-selenium-webdriver-for-python) – Juan C Dec 20 '19 at 20:25
  • I have read that thread but unfortunately I cannot get it to work in this situation because the bot's webpage is very badly formatted and simply lacks any elements that I could latch onto while waiting for the page to respond. More specifically when I send my input the page is often taking time to respond; however while this is happening the jQuery happily pulls the bot response section no matter if it's blank or has the previous response. I need to either wait until the server **responds** or to **check if response variable is the same** like previously and keep waiting until it changes. – whereismycoffee Dec 21 '19 at 06:37

0 Answers0