Selenium send_keys hangs on Python

Question

I am currently programming the examples in "Test-Driven Development with Python", more specifically the first functional test. But for some weird reason, send_keys does not work properly. This is what I'm trying right now - and I changed the implicit wait for explicit waits, by the way!

    inputbox = self.browser.find_element_by_id('id_new_item')
    self.assertEqual( # This passes, it's here just for completeness
        inputbox.get_attribute('placeholder'),
        'Enter a To-Do item'
    )
    inputbox.send_keys('Buy peacock feathers')
    inputbox.send_keys(Keys.ENTER) # Everything okay up to here
    WebDriverWait(self.browser, 10).until(
        EC.text_to_be_present_in_element((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "table#id_list_table tr td"), "Buy peacock feathers")
    )
    table = self.browser.find_element_by_id('id_list_table')

    rows = table.find_elements_by_tag_name('tr')        
    self.assertIn('1: Buy peacock feathers', [row.text for row in rows])

    inputbox1 = self.browser.find_element_by_id('id_new_item') # Changed the variable only to test if it would hang too - and it does
    inputbox1.send_keys('Use peacock feathers to make a fly')
    inputbox1.send_keys(Keys.ENTER) # This hangs
    self.fail()
    WebDriverWait(self.browser, 10).until(
        EC.text_to_be_present_in_element((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "table#id_list_table tr td"), "Use peacock feathers to make a fly")
    )

It never reaches self.fail(). I tried moving it to the previous line, and the test fails, as it should. But inputbox1.send_keys(Keys.ENTER) never works, and when I see the browser as the test runs, inputbox1.send_keys('Use peacock feathers to make a fly') never writes "Use peacock feathers to make a fly" in the input box.

What is happening? I am using the latest Selenium (~~I think, I downloaded it a couple days ago~~ just checked, I do have the latest version), Python and Django versions, and this opens Firefox Developer Edition in my laptop. Thank you.

EDIT: I tried disabling multi-process in Firefox, but the outcome does not change - it still hangs when trying to write and press enter.

Just did that, same output. Firefox Developer Edition is version 46.0a2, and Selenium is 2.52.0. — Carlos Vergara
– Carlos Vergara, Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 5:31
Okay, I think it might be that the firefox is too new for this selenium version. Try downgrading firefox to the latest stable. Let me know, thanks. — alecxe
– alecxe, Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 5:32
You may also try with chrome so that we can say for sure this is firefox-specific. — alecxe
– alecxe, Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 5:38

Carlos Vergara · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-16 05:50:55Z

1

Thanks to alexce for helping me!

I changed the following in my test class:

from selenium.webdriver.firefox.firefox_binary import FirefoxBinary

def setUp(self):
    binary = FirefoxBinary('C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe')
    self.browser = webdriver.Firefox(firefox_binary=binary)

The issue? I was using Firefox Developer Edition, which apparently is not supported by Selenium entirely. So I just forced Selenium to load my regular Firefox and it does not hang anymore!

answered Feb 16, 2016 at 5:50

Carlos Vergara

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Lelouch · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-07 16:24:36Z

1

Oddly enough I couldn't get anything to run in my Ubuntu shell but it would run via IPython from Jupyter Notebook on the exact same server.

I had to add a virtual display into the code to make it run from the shell as a .py script...

If it helps anyone facing the similiar problem here are the lines of code I added to my script and the send keys start to work without an issue. Also seems that even if I leave the headless switch on for my chrome driver it is still needed.

from pyvirtualdisplay import Display

# Set screen resolution to 1366 x 768. This is needed 
# to run in the shell. Seems fine in iPython.
display = Display(visible=0, size=(1366, 768))
display.start()

edited Feb 7, 2019 at 16:24

answered Apr 24, 2018 at 6:03

Lelouch

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