Unable to make my script wait conditionally

Question

I've tried to write a script in python in combination with selenium to wait for a certain element to be available. The content I wish my script waits for is captcha protected. I do not want to set a fixed time. So, I need it to wait until I can solve myself.

I've tried like:

import time
from selenium import webdriver

URL = "https://www.someurl.com/"

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get(URL)
while not driver.find_element_by_css_selector(".listing-content"):
    time.sleep(1)

print(driver.current_url)
driver.quit()

But, the script throws an error:

selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchElementException: Message: no such element: Unable to locate element:

How can I make my script wait until the element is available no matter how long it takes?

Have you tried running the find_elment_by_css_selector function inside a try/except block inside your while-loop? — f.wue
– f.wue, Commented Feb 9, 2019 at 12:47
Yes, I tried that way @QHarr. The script throws an error as soon as I solve that captcha because that while loop no longer exists and this line driver.find_element_by_css_selector(".listing-content") throws the same error (cosider that the selector contains captcha element). — robots.txt
– robots.txt, Commented Feb 9, 2019 at 13:10
I can't organize that try/except block in the right way. How can try/except block run indefinitely? — robots.txt
– robots.txt, Commented Feb 9, 2019 at 13:16

JaSON · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-09 13:16:38Z

2

If you don't want to hardcode wait time you can use ExplicitWait along with float("inf") which in Python stands for INFINITY:

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait as wait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

wait(driver, float("inf")).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.CLASS_NAME, "listing-content")))

answered Feb 9, 2019 at 13:16

JaSON

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f.wue · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-09 13:56:19Z

2

As you've asked how to organize the try/except block, here is an idea. I would suggest to stick with the inf-wait method however.

while True:
    try:
        driver.find_element_by_css_selector(".listing-content")
        break
    except:
        time.sleep(0.1)

I would include the time.sleep() statement to minimize your number of function calls.

edited Feb 9, 2019 at 13:56

answered Feb 9, 2019 at 13:27

f.wue

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1 Comment

JaSON Over a year ago

if ret: is redundant here: break will be executed ONLY if ret = driver.find_element_by_css_selector(".listing-content") doesn't raise an exception

Jens Dibbern · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-09 13:10:41Z

1

You should use WebDriverWait:

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
...

element = WebDriverWait(driver, 10000).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, ".listing-content")))

It will not wait indefinitely, but you can set the timeout high. Otherwise you could try to use the WebDriverWait statement in a loop.

answered Feb 9, 2019 at 13:10

Jens Dibbern

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