Selenium wait until attribute appears

Question

I'm using Selenium to download several files. The process is simple: I look for a reference, wait until results are ready and download the associated files.

I've a problem with the part "wait until results are ready". The website uses an AJAX table which loads the results. During the update of this table, an attribute appears in the HTML code and when results are ready it dissapears.

The object is always present, it's only the attribute that changes. If I do the next loop just right after clicking the button of search:

for i in range(0,10):
    print(self.driver.find_element(By.ID, "gridpoOverview").get_attribute("aria-busy"))
    time.sleep(0.05)

It returns (so I know how to detect it):

none 
true
true
none
none
none
none
none
none
none

I want to do it using an EC, but the next code doesn't work (Timeout exception):

WebDriverWait(self.driver, 10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH, '//div[@id="gridpoOverview" and @aria-busy="true"]')))

Does [this](https://stackoverflow.com/q/43813170/6843158) help ? — Kate, Nov 08 '21 at 17:19
Actually I've already tested this method. The problem is that the object always exists, it's only the attribute which appears/dissapears — Ralk, Nov 08 '21 at 17:35
Is this a polling loop? (updating every x units of time?) Or is it just a loading indicator? — pcalkins, Nov 08 '21 at 20:29
Each 0.05 seconds since I clicked the "Search" button I get the attribute "aria-busy" of the element with ID "gridpoOverview". What we can see it's that, at one moment, it becames "true" (while the results are loading) while the rest of the time it just doesn't exist (that's why it returns "none") — Ralk, Nov 08 '21 at 20:41
ok, it sounds like it's just a "loading" indicator. You should just use a webdriverwait to get what should show after the loading is done. Be sure to catch stale element exceptions and re-get the webelement if caught. You can use something like this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66820416/random-errors-using-wait-for-element-clickable-method-in-selenium/66820707#66820707 (Or create a function and try/catch... re-call function if stale element in caught.) The key is that Stale Element will be thrown on a webelement method call if DOM is still updating. — pcalkins, Nov 08 '21 at 22:42

undetected Selenium · Answer 1 · 2021-11-08T21:18:52.770

1

Seems you are close enough.

As returned by get_attribute("aria-busy") the value of aria-busy attribute turns True.

So you need to replace true with True as follows:

WebDriverWait(self.driver, 10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH, '//div[@id="gridpoOverview" and @aria-busy="True"]')))

Update

As per your updated question you can use:

WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.staleness_of(driver.find_element_by_xpath("//div[@id="gridpoOverview" and not(@aria-busy)]")))

Or

WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.staleness_of(driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//div[@id="gridpoOverview" and not(@aria-busy)]")))

edited Nov 08 '21 at 21:18

answered Nov 08 '21 at 17:22

undetected Selenium

183,867
41
278
352

I'm sorry, typing mistake – Ralk Nov 08 '21 at 17:29
Does the answer solves your question? – undetected Selenium Nov 08 '21 at 17:29
I'm sorry but no... – Ralk Nov 08 '21 at 17:34
If at all you are downloading/updating the table clicking some element, how are you catching the first `none`? – undetected Selenium Nov 08 '21 at 17:38
Because in the loop I use the "get_attribute" method, so I can catch when the attribute appears (it appears with a value of "true") and the rest of the time it returns "none" because the results are already loaded of it hasn't started yet to search – Ralk Nov 08 '21 at 20:44
I still don't understand your first `none` – undetected Selenium Nov 08 '21 at 20:56
Results have not started yet to update at this points. After that it updates the results (true) and the rest of the "nones" is just because the results are loaded and availables – Ralk Nov 08 '21 at 20:58
Checkout the answer update and let me know the status. – undetected Selenium Nov 08 '21 at 21:19

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 09 '21 at 14:07

I've found a solution that works, but I don't know why.

The attribute 'aria-disabled' from the same element is always present. If I include this line before, it will work.

    WebDriverWait(self.driver, 20).until(EC.element_attribute_to_include((By.XPATH, '//div[@id="gridpoOverview"]'),'aria-disabled'))
    WebDriverWait(self.driver, 20).until(EC.element_attribute_to_include((By.XPATH, '//div[@id="gridpoOverview"]'),'aria-busy'))

If the first line if not present, it does not work (I've the Timeout exception).

Does anyone knows why ?

Selenium wait until attribute appears

2 Answers2

Update