Selenium: element.get_property("textContent") returns empty string

Question

I'm trying to read some messages in Discord with selenium, but there a specific one that the webdriver seems unable to read.

chat_messages = browser.find_elements(By.CLASS_NAME, "markup-eYLPri")
for chat_message in chat_messages:
    print(chat_message.get_property("textContent"))

I have tried with:

element.get_property("textContent")
element.get_property("innerText")
element.text

All of them return an empty string.

However, in the browser, I've tried running this javascript snippet:

e = document.getElementById("message-content-1008775068500893826")
e.innerText
e.textContent

And, they did print the text as expected.

Is there anything I am missing?

Answer 1

The second part of the classname i.e. eYLPri is dynamically generated and is bound to change sooner/later. They may change next time you access the application afresh or even while next application startup. So can't be used in locators.

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Solution

To print textContent you can use the get_attribute() method and of the element you can use either of the following locator strategies:

• Using css_selector:

  chat_messages = browser.find_elements(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "[class^='markup']")
  for chat_message in chat_messages:
      print(chat_message.get_property("textContent"))
  

• Using xpath:

  chat_messages = browser.find_elements(By.XPATH, "//*[starts-with(@class, 'markup')]")
  for chat_message in chat_messages:
          print(chat_message.get_property("textContent"))
  

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Update

Induce WebDriverWait for visibility_of_all_elements_located() and you can use either of the following locator strategies:

• Using CSS_SELECTOR:

  print([my_elem.get_attribute("textContent") for my_elem in WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.visibility_of_all_elements_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "[class^='markup']")))])
  

• Using XPATH:

  print([my_elem.get_attribute("textContent") for my_elem in WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.visibility_of_all_elements_located((By.XPATH, "//*[starts-with(@class, 'markup')]")))])