Css Selector button click with selenium (python)

Question

I am trying to click on a button using selenium. My code states it is unable to find the css_selector with said class name. The class name has spaces in it, which lead me to use the css_selector object. When I try to pass the class name in the 'css_selector' object, it fails since the class name is a string, which is not callable. The website is password protected otherwise I would share the full code. This is what I have so far.

# Button I wish to click
<a href="#" class="btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn">See Full List</a>
# Once button is clicked, it changes to:
<a href="#" class="btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn" style="display: none;">See Full List</a>

What I have tried:

driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR("btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn")) # str object not callable
driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR,"btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn")
# Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"css selector","selector":"btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn"}

cruisepandey · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-05T18:04:49.983

As you've mentioned

The class name has spaces in it, which lead me to use the css_selector

this is right approach, however you should also make sure that one

One should remove the space and put a .
. represent class in CSS.

So the below code should work:

driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, ".btn.btn-alt.see-full-list-btn")

or you can even use it with the tag a

driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "a.btn.btn-alt.see-full-list-btn")

or the recommended solution would be to use with explicit waits:

see_full_list_button = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "a.btn.btn-alt.see-full-list-btn")))
see_full_list_button.click()

Imports:

from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

Thank you for letting me know I am on the right path. However, that snippet still triggers the error: 'str' object is not callable. — Jack Armstrong, Apr 05 '22 at 18:03
@JackArmstrong: Got the issue it should have been this `driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, ".btn.btn-alt.see-full-list-btn")` — cruisepandey, Apr 05 '22 at 18:06

undetected Selenium · Answer 2 · 2022-04-05T18:15:56.670

There is no necessity to focus on the element HTML after the click is already invoked.

As per the HTML

<a href="#" class="btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn">See Full List</a>

you can use either of the following locator strategies:

Using link_text:

driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "See Full List").click()

Using css_selector:

driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "a.btn.btn-alt.see-full-list-btn").click()

Using xpath:

driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//a[@class='btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn' and text()='See Full List']").click()

Ideally to click on 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 LINK_TEXT:

WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.LINK_TEXT, "See Full List"))).click()

Using CSS_SELECTOR:

WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "a.btn.btn-alt.see-full-list-btn"))).click()

Using XPATH:

WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//a[@class='btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn' and text()='See Full List']"))).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

Css Selector button click with selenium (python)

2 Answers2