invalid selector: The result of the xpath expression "//a[contains(@href, 'mailto')]/@href" is: [object Attr] getting the href attribute with Selenium

Question

I'm currently trying to execute this command, trying to select:

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//a[contains(@href, 'mailto')]/@href").getAttribute("href") 

To get X when <a href="X">.

It shows me this error:

invalid selector: The result of the xpath expression "//a[contains(@href, 'mailto')]/@href" is: [object Attr]. It should be an element.

I have tryed .getAttribute but without success. Could anyone help me with this ?

Thanks

Answer 1

When you use find_element_by_xpath, you should supply an XPath expression that selects elements not one that selects attributes.

So drop the final /@href.

Answer 2

This error message...

invalid selector: The result of the xpath expression "//a[contains(@href, 'mailto')]/@href" is: [object Attr]. It should be an element.

...implies that the xpath expression "//a[contains(@href, 'mailto')]/@href" is an invalid expression as it returns an object attribute where as Selenium expects an WebElement.

A quick solution would be to drop the /@href part from the fag end of the xpath.

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Comprehensive Solution

To print the value of the href attribute you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

• Using css_selector:

  print(driver.find_element_by_css_selector("a.[href*='mailto']").get_attribute("href"))
  

• Using xpath:

  print(driver.find_element_by_xpath("//a[starts-with(@href, 'mailto')]").get_attribute("href"))
  

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Ideally you need to induce WebDriverWait for the visibility_of_element_located() and you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

• Using CSS_SELECTOR:

  print(WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "//a[starts-with(@href, 'mailto')]"))).get_attribute("value"))
  

• Using XPATH:

  print(WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.XPATH, "//a[@class='name' and @title='Download']"))).get_attribute("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