How to click the button via Selenium with 'onclick' info only?

Question

The only thing html has with the button is:

<button onclick="exportTableToCSV('hahaha.csv')">export as csv</button>

No class or id or name or type.
Tried with xpath and link text, neither works.

browser.find_element_by_xpath("//button[onclick=\"exportTableToCSV('hahaha.csv')\"]").click()
browser.find_element_by_link_text("export as csv").click()

Both return to error:

Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"//button[onclick="exportTableToCSV('hahaha.csv')"]"}

Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"link text","selector":"export as csv"}

Help appreciated!!!

If it's not there it's either in an iframe or hasn't loaded yet. I would use this css: `button[onclick*=hahaha]` — pguardiario, Feb 16 '22 at 23:00

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 16 '22 at 22:46

0

You can locate this element with XPath or CSS Selector.
The locator you tried has some syntax error.
Please try this XPath:

browser.find_element_by_xpath("//button[@onclick=\"exportTableToCSV('hahaha.csv')\"]").click()

Or this CSS Selector

browser.find_element_by_css_selector("button[onclick=\"exportTableToCSV('hahaha.csv')\"]").click()

In case exportTableToCSV is an unique value you can also use this XPath

browser.find_element_by_xpath("//button[contains(@onclick,'exportTableToCSV')]").click()

answered Feb 16 '22 at 22:46

Prophet

32,350
22
54
79

Thanks for the answer. Tried all 3 but not working, all returns " Message: no such element: Unable to locate element". – Mavis Dracula Feb 16 '22 at 22:55
exportTableToCSV is a self defined function in html, would this make a difference? – Mavis Dracula Feb 16 '22 at 22:56
Maybe you just missing a wait / delay? Or the element is inside an iframe? – Prophet Feb 16 '22 at 22:56
Looks like here it is just a string, this should not make problems – Prophet Feb 16 '22 at 22:57

undetected Selenium · Answer 2 · 2022-02-16T23:05:22.033

The text export as csv is the text of the <button> element but not of an <a> tag. Hence you can't use find_element_by_link_text() to locate the desired element.

Solution

To click() on a element with text as export as csv you need to induce WebDriverWait for the element_to_be_clickable() and you can use either of the following locator strategies:

Using CSS_SELECTOR:

WebDriverWait(browser, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "button[onclick^='exportTableToCSV']"))).click()

Using XPATH:

WebDriverWait(browser, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//button[starts-with(@onclick, 'exportTableToCSV') and text()='export as csv']"))).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

The driver wait works! Thank you! – Mavis Dracula Feb 16 '22 at 23:02 — Mavis Dracula, Feb 16 '22 at 23:02

How to click the button via Selenium with 'onclick' info only?

2 Answers2

Solution