Python XPath selector not working with selenium

Question

I tried to automate some inputs. For this I need to input some text after the
tag. To identify the place where to input I tried XPath for fowlloing HTML code.

<span data-offset-key="1dq3m-0-0">
  <br data-text="true">
</span>

Here is what I wrote in python.

buf_comp_text = 'foobar'
el_xp_comp_text = '//*[@data-text]'

...

## create post in queue (comment)
print('create post in queue - text')
post_txt = driver.find_element_by_xpath(el_xp_comp_text).send_keys(buf_comp_text)

Unfortunately I alwas get error message:

selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchElementException: Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"//*[@data-text]"}

Any hint is appreciated.

Can you please share the HTML of the element?

Mate Mrše
– Mate Mrše

2021-01-08 10:38:36 +00:00
Commented Jan 8, 2021 at 10:38 — Mate Mrše
– Mate Mrše, Commented Jan 8, 2021 at 10:38

undetected Selenium · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-08 10:59:35Z

1

Instead of targetting the <br> tag you need to target the <span> tag you can use the following Locator Strategy:

Using css_selector:

buf_comp_text = 'foobar'
driver.find_element_by_css_selector("span[data-offset-key]").send_keys(buf_comp_text)

Using xpath:

buf_comp_text = 'foobar'
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//span[@data-offset-key][.//br[@data-text]]").send_keys(buf_comp_text)

Ideally, to send a character sequence to the element you need to induce WebDriverWait for the element_to_be_clickable() and you can use either of the following Locator Strategy:

Using CSS_SELECTOR:

buf_comp_text = 'foobar'
WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "span[data-offset-key]"))).send_keys(buf_comp_text)

Using XPATH:

buf_comp_text = 'foobar'
WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//span[@data-offset-key][.//br[@data-text]]"))).send_keys(buf_comp_text)

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

Reference

You can find a couple of relevant discussions in:

edited Jan 8, 2021 at 10:59

answered Jan 8, 2021 at 10:41

undetected Selenium

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7 Comments

MarkusF Over a year ago

Unfortunately, I still get the same error. selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchElementException: Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"//span[@data-offset-key][.//br[@data-text]]"}

undetected Selenium Over a year ago

@MarkusF Did you try with the CssSelector / WebDriverWait?

MarkusF Over a year ago

Also the CSS version creates the error. selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchElementException: Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"css selector","selector":"span[data-offset-key]"}

undetected Selenium Over a year ago

@MarkusF how about implementing the WebDriverWait?

MarkusF Over a year ago

found a solution. a simple wait solved it.Thank you @DebanjanB for the directions

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