Store text in variable using Selenium Web Driver and XPath

Question

I am attempting to get the postcode from a website using this code in VBA:

variableName = driver.findElement(By.XPath(".//*[@id='T_F2']/fieldset/div[1]/div/div[4]/span[2]"))

This however gives me the error:

enter image description here

I'm assuming this error is just a simple way of telling me that my XPath is wrong. With me being no genius as XPath, I simply installed the FireBug and FirePath add ons which generated the above XPath for me. The thing is though, when I enter the XPath into FirePath .//*[@id='T_F2']/fieldset/div[1]/div/div[4]/span[2] and hit evaluate, it can find the postcode just fine.

Is there anything I might of done wrong? Here is the code behind the website I am trying to get the postcode from:

<div id="T_F2">
  <fieldset>
    <div class="txt_align_centre padding_bottom_5">
      <div class="txt_align_left">
        <div class="err_row">
          <span class="red_text_v err_formw">
            You searched for telephone number 02075884760.
            <br></br>
          </span>
        </div>

        <div class="row">
          <span class="form_label">
            <label>
              CSS Exchange:
            </label>
          </span>
          <span class="formw_nonedit">                        
          </span>
        </div>

        <div class="row">
          <span class="form_label">
            <label>
              District code:
            </label>
          </span>
          <span class="formw_nonedit">
            CL 
          </span>
        </div>

        <div class="row">
          <span class="form_label">
            <label>
              Post code:
            </label>
          </span>
          <span class="formw_nonedit">
            EC2M 3WA
          </span>
        </div>

        <div class="row">
          <span class="form_label">
            <label>
              PCP Id:
            </label>
          </span>
          <span class="formw_nonedit">
          </span>
        </div>
        ...
      </div>
    </div>
  </frameset>
</div>

There are several divs with the class row. Each row has a span class called form_label and formw_nonedit. I am interested in the formw_nonedit span class that contains the post code EC2M 3WA.

Edit: I modified my code to use VBA Remote Control rather than VBA WebDriver since I have a better idea of how to solve the problem this way. Due to this, I changed driver.findElement(By.XPath(".//*[@id='T_F2']/fieldset/div[1]/div/div[4]/span[2]")) to selenium.findElement(By.XPath(".//*[@id='T_F2']/fieldset/div[1]/div/div[4]/span[2]")). This leads to the error: Object doesn't support this property or method. Just wondering how to get findElement to work or if there was a equivalent? I am hoping this is relevant enough to not deserve it's own question.

What are you doing before trying to get the post code? Maybe needed element is not in DOM yet when you're trying to reach it. Needed XPath locator may look like .//*[@id='T_F2']//div[@class='row'][contains(text(),'Post code')]/span[@class=formw_nonedit'] — Furious Duck
– Furious Duck, Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 14:53
I'm actually doing a number of things: Loging into the website, going on Dashboard, selecting a tool, filling in a form which then leads to a results page that contains the postcode I want. — JimmyK
– JimmyK, Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 14:58
In terms of the RC modification you've just done to your code, you are getting yourself into a whole host of different problems. Do not use RC. Regardless, the problem with that error is that the older version of Selenium doesn't have the concept of "findElement" or "findElements", it works entirely differently. Have you tried the answer below? Did it work? Why not? What difference did it make? — Arran
– Arran, Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 16:03
I simply get the same problem as before when I try the below — JimmyK
– JimmyK, Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 16:04

ddavison · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-20 15:19:31Z

4

I'm not entirely sure what's wrong here, but if i could offer an alternative.. Use CSS. It's faster, cleaner, and just better.

In your case, your selector would be, (assuming that the position is static in the list.)

div#T_F2 div.txt_align_left > div.row:nth-child(4)

So you'd fetch it using

text = driver.findElement(By.CssSelector("div#T_F2 div.txt_align_left > div.row:nth-child(4)").getText();

See it working in this fiddle

edited Nov 20, 2013 at 15:19

answered Nov 20, 2013 at 15:04

ddavison

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1 Comment

ddavison Over a year ago

forgive my casing idiosyncrasies.. i'm a java programmer not a VBA programmer. I think VBA uses PascalCase, so just change the case yourself.

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