Click button by find_element_by_class_name not working python selenium webdriver NOT working

Question

I'm trying to add contacts on LinkedIn using Python and Selenium. I'm attempting to do so by adding the contact suggestions made by LinkedIn in the "Network" tab (https://www.linkedin.com/mynetwork), which has an infinite scroll feature.

Basically I want the script to locate the button "Connect", which is next to each suggested profile, click the button, and then repeat until error whereby the script should scroll down to load more "Connect" buttons to reiterate.

The best way I've found to locate the button element is by find_element_by_class_name() since all the connect buttons have the same class. I've also tried locating the elements using CSS and Xpath, without success.

PROBLEM: The script is able to click the first Connect button, but none after that. I've tried many ideas for implementation (locating by Xpath, CSS, using a list of buttons to click), yet none seem to work. Below is the relevant part of the script.

while True:
    try:
        driver.find_element_by_class_name("mn-person-card__person-btn-ext.button-secondary-medium").click()
        time.sleep(1)
    except:
        pass
        print("trying to scroll")
        driver.execute_script("window.scrollTo(0, document.body.scrollHeight);")
        time.sleep(1)

Any ideas? To me it seems as if the code should work, and as if there is something else which is preventing success. Maybe a bug or similar. Might mention that I'm rather new to all of this, and it's the first script I'm trying to make to manipulate a browser.

I'm using Firefox driver. Full script can be found here: http://pastebin.com/qtdNsRtz

Thanks in advance!

You can't use compound classes with by_class_name(). You are using a CSS selector in there and that's likely why it's not working. — JeffC
– JeffC, Commented Mar 26, 2017 at 1:48

Amit · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-26 01:03:12Z

14

You should use find_elements for finding all elements with same class Try this to get all elements:

elements = driver.find_elements_by_class_name("mn-person-card__person-btn-ext.button-secondary-medium")

then use a for loop to click each of them. For example:

for e in elements:
    e.click()

answered Mar 26, 2017 at 1:03

Amit

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3 Comments

JeffC Over a year ago

How is a for loop going to work when a while loop doesn't?

thecpaptain Over a year ago

Perfect! I had already tried that solution, but when reading your answer I realized that I was attempting to click the elements by (following your notation): for e in elements: browser.e.click() Your comment made me realize that the "browser" addition was not necessary. Of course, it should instead be as you suggested: for e in elements: e.click() Now it works perfectly! Thanks a lot!

Kathiravan Natarajan Over a year ago

What if elements in an empty list?

NarendraR · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-26 02:40:36Z

8

The way you are trying to use find_element_by_class_name locator is not correct as this locator doesn't support compound classes within.

You need to use either xpath or cssSelector if class attribute have more then one class name :

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//button[@class='mn-person-card__person-btn-ext button-secondary-medium']").click()

answered Mar 26, 2017 at 2:40

NarendraR

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Comments

Rock Pereira · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-09 04:03:29Z

0

This worked for me.

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
find_element(By.CLASS_NAME, "class name")

answered Sep 9, 2022 at 4:03

Rock Pereira

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