Selecting Dynamic Element in Drop Down Menu, Selenium Python

Question

I am trying to select an input box in a drop down menu. The input box itself, however, appears to be dynamic. I've looked through similar posts, but they seem to be issue specific. I've had this problem a few times now with dynamic elements, and I'm hoping to understand a general approach to working with dynamic elements.

Here are the details of the element I seek to select:

<input class="lui-search__input ng-pristine ng-valid ng-empty ng-valid-maxlength ng-touched" maxlength="5000" q-placeholder="Object.Listbox.Search" ng-model="query" ng-disabled="disabled" autocomplete="" spellcheck="false" ng-trim="false" type="text" qva-blur="blurred()" qva-focus="autoFocus" qv-escape="escape($event)" qv-enter="enter($event)" placeholder="Search in listbox" aria-invalid="false" xpath="1">

(if this isn't helpful information, please let me know and I will update).

The relative xpath changes:

//body/div[8]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/ng-transclude[1]/div[1]/div[3]/div[1]/article[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/input[1]

in one instance

Another instance of the relative xpath:

//body/div[7]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/ng-transclude[1]/div[1]/div[3]/div[1]/article[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/input[1]

I have tried to select by class and css selector with no luck. I'd really like to understand how to approach this specific issue, and also a general idea of where in an element I should play around with for future instances of dynamic elements.

Thanks!

(If the element details I provided are not helpful, the element can also be accessed with the below code:)

driver.get("https://bi.prozorro.org/sense/app/fba3f2f2-cf55-40a0-a79f-b74f5ce947c2/sheet/NFTrm/state/analysis")

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//thead/tr[1]/th[2]").click()

#the input box I am attempting to select to no avail:
while True:
        try:
            WebDriverWait(driver, 25).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH, "//body/div[7]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/ng-transclude[1]/div[1]/div[3]/div[1]/article[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/input[1]")))
            break
        except TimeoutException:
            print("Loading took too much time!")

undetected Selenium · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-07 21:40:18Z

1

+50

The WebElement is an Angular element. So ideally to click on the element you need to induce WebDriverWait for the element_to_be_clickable() and you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

Using XPATH:

driver.get('https://bi.prozorro.org/sense/app/fba3f2f2-cf55-40a0-a79f-b74f5ce947c2/sheet/NFTrm/state/analysis')
WebDriverWait(driver, 60).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//th[@tid='st.header']//span[@title='Учасник']//following::th[@tid='st.header.search']"))).click()
WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//input[@placeholder='Search in listbox']"))).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

Browser Snapshot:

edited Dec 7, 2020 at 21:40

answered Dec 6, 2020 at 16:53

undetected Selenium

194k44 gold badges304 silver badges387 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

5 Comments

Yu Na Over a year ago

Thank you for the reply! I receive a Timeout exception error upon running the second command. I put the command in a while True, try, except loop, except the element for the search box never seems to find the element

Yu Na Over a year ago

Ah! I got it to work with this xpath //input[@placeholder='Search in listbox']. Not sure why this one worked instead of the one you provided though, do you know why?

undetected Selenium Over a year ago

@YuNa Targetting the placeholder attribute seems to be a better option. Updated the answer.

Yu Na Over a year ago

Great, thanks! Do you know why that is the case?

undetected Selenium Over a year ago

@YuNa At this point I must admit automating PowerBI based web applications posses the toughest challenge. The code needs to be fine tuned optimally which would require some more R&D.

Arundeep Chohan · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-06 01:29:12Z

1

You can use one of it's attributes to find it.

XPATH:

//input[@placeholder='Search in listbox']

edited Dec 6, 2020 at 1:29

answered Dec 1, 2020 at 21:15

Arundeep Chohan

9,9895 gold badges17 silver badges36 bronze badges

4 Comments

Yu Na Over a year ago

Ah interesting idea. When I try this though, I receive error message Message: no such element: Unable to locate element. Are there some attributes that are better than others?

Yu Na Over a year ago

Just want to followup on this!

Arundeep Chohan Over a year ago

Not really as long as it's unique to the element.

Yu Na Over a year ago

This is helpful to know, but still struggling with the error that the element can't be located

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Selecting Dynamic Element in Drop Down Menu, Selenium Python

2 Answers 2

5 Comments

4 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

5 Comments

4 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related