So I have this project: It is a website with multiple WebElements on it. I find those WebElements by their class name (they all have the same one obviously) and then iterate through them to click on each of them. After clicking on them I have to click on another button "next". Some of them then open a website in a new tab (others don't). I then immediately close the newly opened tab and try to iterate through the next element when I get the StaleElementReferenceException.
Don't get me wrong here, I know what a StaleElementReferenceException is, I just don't know why it occurs. The DOM of the initial website doesn't seem to change and more importantly: The WebElement I'm trying to reach in the next iteration is still known so I can print it out, but not click on it.
I have tried working around this issue by creating a new class CustomElement to permanently "save" the found WebElements to be able to reach them after the DOM has changed but that also doesn't seem to be working.
Whatever here's some code for you guys:
def myMethod():
driver.get("https://initialwebsite.com")
time.sleep(1)
scrollToBottom() #custom Method to scroll to the bottom of the website to make sure I find all webelemnts
ways = driver.find_elements_by_class_name("sc-dYzWWc")
waysCounter = 1
for way in ways:
# print("clicking: " + str(way)) ##this will get executed even if there was a new tab opened in the previous iteration....
driver.execute_script("arguments[0].click();", way)
# print("clicked: " + str(way)) ##...but this won't get executed
try:
text = driver.find_element_by_xpath("/html/body/div[1]/div/div[2]/div/div[1]/div/div[7]/div[2]/div[" + str(entryWaysCounter) + "]/div[1]/div/div/div[1]").text
except:
waysCounter += 1
text = driver.find_element_by_xpath("/html/body/div[1]/div/div[2]/div/div[1]/div/div[7]/div[2]/div[" + str(entryWaysCounter) + "]/div[1]/div/div/div[1]").text
methode = None
#big bunch of if and else statements to give methode a specific number based on what text reads
print(methode)
weiterButton = driver.find_element_by_xpath(
"/html/body/div[1]/div/div[2]/div/div[1]/div/div[7]/div[2]/div[" + str(
entryWaysCounter) + "]/div[2]/div/div/div/div/div/div[2]/button[2]")
try:
driver.execute_script("arguments[0].click();", weiterButton)
except:
pass
if (methode == 19):
time.sleep(0.2)
try:
driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[1])
driver.close()
time.sleep(0.5)
driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[0])
time.sleep(0.5)
except:
pass
waysCounter += 1
time.sleep(0.5)
And for those who are curious here's the workaround class I set up:
class CustomElement:
def __init__(self, text, id, location):
self.text = text
self.id = id
self.location = location
def __str__(self):
return str(str(self.text) + " \t" + str(self.id) + " \t" + str(self.location))
def storeWebElements(seleniumElements):
result = []
for elem in seleniumElements:
result.append(CustomElement(elem.text, elem.id, elem.location))
return result
I tried then working with the id and "re-finding" the WebElement ("way") by id but apparently the id that gets saved is a completely different id.
So what can I say I really tried my best, searched nearly every forum but didn't come up with a good soluation, I really hope you got one for me :)
Thanks!
