selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: unknown error: 'script' must be a string while using execute_script() through Selenium Python

Question

I've got an issue with browser.execute_script while using selenium with python. There is an element that i'd like to click (it's xpath below)

"//*[@id='listFav_FI410_23244709400000_FAGNNURROR_IPOF_APP_P43070_W43070A_CP000A001_40']/table/tbody/tr/td[1]"

I try to do it with:

navMenu = browser.find_element_by_xpath("//*[@id='listFav_FI410_23244709400000_FAGNNURROR_IPOF_APP_P43070_W43070A_CP000A001_40']/table/tbody/tr/td[1]")
time.sleep(3)
browser.execute_script(navMenu.click())

And it works (So it clicks desired element) but right after doing it it throws an error that terminates the script:

selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: unknown error: 'script' must be a string

What am I doing wrong? Is there a way to skip this error? Thx for wasting your time on helping me :)

You are passing a function call to .execute_script, you need to pass it a string, or just call navMenu.click() — Ryan Wilson
– Ryan Wilson, Commented Sep 5, 2018 at 14:14
replace browser.execute_script(navMenu.click()) with navMenu.click() — Nihal
– Nihal, Commented Sep 5, 2018 at 14:16
@Nihal - it doesn't work- it throws error "element is not visible" — ugabuga77
– ugabuga77, Commented Sep 5, 2018 at 14:17

undetected Selenium · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-06 05:41:05Z

This error message...

selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: unknown error: 'script' must be a string

...implies that the method execute_script() was invoked with wrong type of parameters.

The execute_script() method is defined as:

execute_script(script, *args)
    Synchronously Executes JavaScript in the current window/frame.

Where:
    script: The JavaScript to execute
    *args: Any applicable arguments for your JavaScript.

In your code trial executeScript() method will take the reference of the element as arguments[0] along with the method to be performed (in this case click()) and the reference should be provided thereafter. So @Andersson's solution should have worked.

navMenu = browser.find_element_by_xpath("//*[@id='listFav_FI410_23244709400000_FAGNNURROR_IPOF_APP_P43070_W43070A_CP000A001_40']/table/tbody/tr/td[1]")
browser.execute_script("arguments[0].click()", navMenu)

You can find a detailed discussion in What does argument [0] and argument [1] mean in javascriptexecutor in Selenium WebDriver?

The hint to your main issue is the error element not visible which implies either of the following cases:

You are trying to invoke click() even before the element is visible/clickable
Element is not within the Viewport when click() was invoked.

Solution

Two pottential solutions will be as follows:

Induce WebDriverWait for the element to be clickable as follows:

from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
# other lines of code
WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//*[@id='listFav_FI410_23244709400000_FAGNNURROR_IPOF_APP_P43070_W43070A_CP000A001_40']/table/tbody/tr/td[1]"))).click()

Use executeScript() method to bring the element within the Viewport and then invoke click() as follows:

navMenu = browser.find_element_by_xpath("//*[@id='listFav_FI410_23244709400000_FAGNNURROR_IPOF_APP_P43070_W43070A_CP000A001_40']/table/tbody/tr/td[1]")
browser.execute_script("arguments[0].scrollIntoView(true);",navMenu);
navMenu.click()

Thank you very much! WebDriverWait for the element to be clickable works perfectly.

Andersson · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-05 14:23:37Z

2

Instead of

browser.execute_script(navMenu.click())

try

browser.execute_script('arguments[0].click();', navMenu)

or

navMenu.click()

answered Sep 5, 2018 at 14:23

Andersson

52.8k18 gold badges83 silver badges132 bronze badges

8 Comments

ugabuga77 Over a year ago

It doesn't cause any errors now, but it doesn't actually click anything. I added simple print('ooo') right after browser.execute_script('arguments[0].click();', navMenu) and I get ooo in the Shell, but nothing happens on the website. I can't use navMenu.click() as webdriver doesn't see the element

Andersson Over a year ago

Share HTML or/and page URL

ugabuga77 Over a year ago

sorry but I can't share the link as this website contains condfidential information (you would have to log in and obviously I cannot give you credentials). I think that the root of this problem is that the entire website is generated by couple Java Script scripts. I've noticed that when I use navMenu.click() in shell (while script is running) it works, but first I have to actually click somewhere Is there a way to activate Java Script?

ugabuga77 Over a year ago

Or maybe there is a way to tell script not to terminate process after receiving error mentioned in my question? Simpy ignore it and go with another task because as I said- it works, script actually clicks desired element- the problem is that it crashes right after it (but the element that I wanted to be loaded is loaded)

Andersson Over a year ago

browser.execute_script(navMenu.click()) just executes navMenu.click(). It doesn't matter how you call the method. Using as browser.execute_script(navMenu.click()) make no sense. Try to implement proper ExplicitWait

|

Moshe Slavin · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-05 15:41:45Z

2

The correct way to execute a script is to actually write a JavaScript script!.

The click() function of selenium is on the element of the DOM you have located not a script.

As @Andersson suggested try browser.execute_script('arguments[0].click();', navMenu)

I can see you added a sleep for 3 seconds... Using Selenium we generally use WebDriverWait you can learn more about wait's here.

If it's too complicated you can just start with driver.implicitly_wait(3) instead of sleep.

Edit:

If the Element is not displayed yet you can just use navMenu.is_displayed()

Hope this helps you.

edited Sep 5, 2018 at 15:41

answered Sep 5, 2018 at 15:05

Moshe Slavin

5,2445 gold badges27 silver badges40 bronze badges

6 Comments

ugabuga77 Over a year ago

It doesn't cause any errors now, but it doesn't actually click anything. I added simple print('ooo') right after browser.execute_script('arguments[0].click();', navMenu) and I get ooo in the Shell, but nothing happens on the website. Thanks for advice (about using WebDriverWait).

Moshe Slavin Over a year ago

my recommendation is to use wait for element!

ugabuga77 Over a year ago

I did, and somehow it sees it but then cannot click on it as it is not visible:

try:#waits until element is prestent     element7_present = EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH, "//*[@id='listFav_FI410_23244709400000_FAGNNURROR_IPOF_APP_P43070_W43070A_CP000A001_40']/table/tbody/tr/td[1]"))#web element identification     WebDriverWait(browser, 30).until(element7_present)#max sleep time defined except TimeoutException:#error message definition     print('Timed out waiting for page to load')

ugabuga77 Over a year ago

I know that it sounds stupid- there is wait and script sees it as it goes to another action but then cannot perform the click as "element is not visible"

Moshe Slavin Over a year ago

see edit... if it does not help it may be because the site is built in Angular

|

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