Avoid download file dialog box in Python/selenium automation

Question

I am using this code to automate a flow which will download a Winzip file without prompt. But it does not seem to work

profile = webdriver.firefox.firefox_profile.FirefoxProfile()
profile.set_preference('browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk',("application/zip,
                                                   application/octet-stream"))
profile.set_preference('browser.download.folderList', 2)
profile.set_preference('browser.download.dir', '/home/jack/DOWNLOAD')
self.driver = webdriver.Firefox(firefox_profile=profile)

I still see the dialog box being opened while automation.

if you disable prompt manually on the first download, does it work correctly for the downloads after that? — root
– root, Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 7:08
@root No I am not able to do it manually as well. Also, browser.download.dir is not present in about:config — cppcoder
– cppcoder, Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 7:14
if you are on linux what does the following command give you curl -I https://www.downloadadress.com/ | grep Content-Type — root
– root, Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 7:22
Have you've tried application/x-zip-compressed and application/x-rar-compressed as MIME types as well? — RocketDonkey
– RocketDonkey, Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 7:29

cppcoder · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-05 07:14:57Z

3

I solved this situation by extracting the href of the download link and using the python urllib module.

Using the below code, one can download the file and save it in a different file name as well.

import urllib
url = driver.find_element_by_link_text("Download").get_attribute("href");
urllib.urlretrieve(url, "saveasfilename")

edited Dec 5, 2012 at 7:14

answered Dec 5, 2012 at 6:37

cppcoder

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1 Comment

R__raki__ Over a year ago

@cppcoder can we provide the destination folder as well?

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