AttributeError: 'WebElement' object has no attribute 'copy' error when moved the function Select to a common file using Selenium Python through Django

Question

I have a HTML element like this

<select id="my_id">
<option value="">ALL</option>
<option value="1.0">ALL</option>
<option value="2.0">A</option>
<option value="3.0">B</option>
<option value="4.0">C</option>
</select>

I want to select and choose an value of that, when I use define a function in test file It will working OK

my_test_file.py
def _find_and_select(self, elm_id, value):
    select_item = Select(self.browser.find_element_by_id(elm_id))
    select_item.select_by_value(value)

self._find_and_select("my_id", "1.0")

But when I move to a common test file

common_file.py
class Common:
    @staticmethod
    def _find_and_select(browser, elm_id, value):
        select_item = Select(browser.find_element_by_id(elm_id))
        select_item.select_by_value(value)

my_test_file.py
Common._find_and_select(self.browser, "my_id", "1.0")

It's will get error :

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\iBNet-Prj\ibnet\apps\autotest\contract\tests.py", line 251, in test_search
    CommonTest._find_and_select(self.browser, "contractLoanStatus", loanStatus[0])
  File "D:\iBNet-Prj\ibnet\apps\common_test.py", line 467, in _find_and_select
    select_item = Select(browser.find_element_by_id(elm_id))
  File "D:\iBNet-Prj\venv\lib\site-packages\django\forms\widgets.py", line 558, in __init__
    super().__init__(attrs)
  File "D:\iBNet-Prj\venv\lib\site-packages\django\forms\widgets.py", line 201, in __init__
    self.attrs = {} if attrs is None else attrs.copy()
AttributeError: 'WebElement' object has no attribute 'copy'

Answer 1

This error message...

  File "D:\iBNet-Prj\ibnet\apps\common_test.py", line 467, in _find_and_select
    select_item = Select(browser.find_element_by_id(elm_id))
  File "D:\iBNet-Prj\venv\lib\site-packages\django\forms\widgets.py", line 558, in __init__
    super().__init__(attrs)
  File "D:\iBNet-Prj\venv\lib\site-packages\django\forms\widgets.py", line 201, in __init__
    self.attrs = {} if attrs is None else attrs.copy()
AttributeError: 'WebElement' object has no attribute 'copy'

...implies that the line of code select_item = Select(browser.find_element_by_id(elm_id)) failed and as you are using django framework super().__init__(attrs) was invoked which produces the error:

AttributeError: 'WebElement' object has no attribute 'copy'

Solution

To select the desired element ideally you have to induce WebDriverWait for the element_to_be_clickable() and you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

• Using CSS_SELECTOR:

  select_item = Select(WebDriverWait(browser, 10).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "select#my_id"))))
  select_item.select_by_value(value)
  

• Using XPATH:

  select_item = Select(WebDriverWait(browser, 10).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//select[@id='my_id']"))))
  select_item.select_by_value(value)
  

• Note : You have to add the following imports :

  from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
  from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
  from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC