Python/Selenium Identifying an element issue

Question

im trying to log in with python into webpage, but for some reason i cant get correct login element no matter what i try, because im noob and this is my first attempt.

This is supposed to be the element from webpage:

<label class="">Username</label>
<input type="text" formcontrolname="username" class="form-control ng-pristine ng-invalid ng-touched xh-highlight">

I have tried search by label without success:

username = browser.find_element_by_xpath("//label[contains(text(),'Username')]")

I have tried search by class:

username = browser.find_element_by_xpath('//input[@class="form-control ng-pristine ng-invalid ng-touched"]')

I have tried search with CssSelector:

username = browser.find_element_by_css_selector("input[formcontrolname='Username']")

I have even tried full road:

username = browser.find_element_by_xpath("/html/body/app/div[@class='app-container']/ng-component/div[@class='container']/div[@class='row']/div[@class='col']/div[@class='card']/ng-component/div[@class='card-body']/form[@class='ng-pristine ng-invalid ng-touched']/div[@class='form-group'][1]/input[@class='form-control ng-pristine ng-invalid ng-touched']")

I don't know what i'm doing wrong, please help

There are several possible issues. Can you share a link to that page? — Prophet, Dec 20 '21 at 20:17
This link is not enough. 1) There are maybe iframes there 2) maybe you are missing waits etc... — Prophet, Dec 20 '21 at 20:40
[Link to image of the source code.](https://imgur.com/E9zJSQK) — weakhandjoe, Dec 20 '21 at 20:16

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 20 '21 at 21:05

To locate the clickable element you need to induce WebDriverWait for the element_to_be_clickable() and you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

Using CSS_SELECTOR:

username = WebDriverWait(browser, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "input[formcontrolname='username']"))).click()

Using XPATH:

username = WebDriverWait(browser, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//input[@formcontrolname='username']"))).click()

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

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 20 '21 at 21:15

There are several possible issues:

You may be missing a wait / delay to let the page loaded before you try accessing the elements.
The element may be located inside an iframe, so you will have to switch to that iframe in order to access the elements inside it.
The locator may be not unique.
To give more clear answer we need to see the we page you are working with and all your relevant code

Python/Selenium Identifying an element issue

2 Answers2