Selenium Python: How to click on a span element with innerText

Question

This seems pretty straightforward. I am trying click on a submit button via selenium chrome web driver which obviously quite straight forward. But for some reason, I am not able to do so.

here is how the code look like:-

<div class="prettyBtn primaryBtn" onclick="setIsDataAdjustHiddenField();QuoteFormSubmit();return false;"> <span> Get Quote </span></div>

attaching image of code snippet.

so far, I have tried xpath, full Xpath of class "btn", class "prettyBtn primaryBtn".

after no success, I thought of spying them with the class name "find_elements_by_class_name" and still not able to click the button.

here is what I have tried so far:-

via Span Tag:

driver.find_elements_by_xpath("//span[text()='Get Quote']").click()

via class name:

driver.find_elements_by_class_name("btn").click() 
driver.find_elements_by_class_name("prettyBtn primaryBtn").click()

I did look into the documentation and couple of other soultion but so far no luck...I have other web pages where I was able to fill and submit the form but this one. any help or suggestions ?

Answer 1

The innerText within the <span> contains leading and trailing whitespaces around it which you have to consider and you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

• Using xpath and normalize-space():

  element = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//span[normalize-space()='Get Quote']")
  

• Using xpath and contains():

  element = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//span[contains(., 'Get Quote')]")
  

---

To click on the element ideally you need to induce WebDriverWait for the element_to_be_clickable() and you can use either of the following locator strategies:

• Using xpath and normalize-space():

  WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//span[normalize-space()='Get Quote']"))).click()
  

• Using xpath and contains():

  WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//span[contains(., 'Get Quote')]"))).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