Selenium - iterate over elements

Question

My goal is:

Iterate on WebElements in a webpage
Click on all elements founded and open link in same session
Parse the new page with some other logic
Return back to prev page and continue the loop for all prev matched id

I have this code:

List<WebElement> links = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("div[data-sigil='touchable']"));

// this will display list of all images exist on page
for(WebElement ele:links)
{
    System.out.println("test->"+ele.getAttribute("id"));
    ele.click();
    Thread.sleep(500);
    System.out.println("URI->"+driver.getCurrentUrl());
    js.executeScript("window.history.go(-1)");
} 

return "ok";

Which is working fine and it finds correct elements id, "ele.click()" is actually working, but I'm always failing when I execute js.executeScript("window.history.go(-1)")

This is my error message:

org.openqa.selenium.StaleElementReferenceException: stale element reference: element is not attached to the page document
  (Session info: chrome=73.0.3683.103)
  (Driver info: chromedriver=2.40.565498 (ea082db3280dd6843ebfb08a625e3eb905c4f5ab),platform=Windows NT 10.0.17134 x86_64) (WARNING: The server did not provide any stacktrace information)
Command duration or timeout: 0 milliseconds

So basically I'm not able to continue the loop. Is it there any useful technique to "click into new tab" and manage different Selenium driver session?

Thanks a lot in advance for any suggestion.

I believe your js variable is an WebElement and has changed because the page has changed, you need to re-lookup the element. — Vincent P
– Vincent P, Commented Apr 18, 2019 at 8:54
thx, but how do I mark webelements ID that I've already processed? — user3925023
– user3925023, Commented Apr 18, 2019 at 9:29
Thats a different question. You would need to find something unique about each link (like the url), add it to a dictionary or list and then lookup the whole list and remove ones that are in the dictionary / list. — Vincent P
– Vincent P, Commented Apr 18, 2019 at 9:32

S A · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-18 14:08:08Z

1

What is happening is that when you proceed to another page it makes all the elements in the list stale. Those elements are not attached to the page when you come back to the page again. You need to find the elements every time you load the page.

Try this:

List<WebElement> links = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("div[data-sigil='touchable']"));
        // this will display list of all images exist on page
String address;
        for(int i=0; i<links.size(); i++){
            address = driver.getCurrentUrl();
            links = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("div[data-sigil='touchable']"));
            System.out.println("size: "+links.size());
            WebElement ele = links.get(i);
            System.out.println("test->"+ele.getAttribute("id"));
            ele.click();
            Thread.sleep(500);
            System.out.println("URI->"+driver.getCurrentUrl());
            //js.executeScript("window.history.go(-1)");
            //driver.navigate().back();
            driver.get(address);
        }

Edit:

Try the driver.get() as it waits for the page to load. Or you can directly add another sleep as you used after the click.

edited Apr 18, 2019 at 14:08

answered Apr 18, 2019 at 10:26

S A

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7 Comments

user3925023 Over a year ago

Thanks, I got this error: ava.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 2, Size: 0 at java.util.ArrayList.rangeCheck(Unknown Source) at java.util.ArrayList.get(Unknown Source) at

user3925023 Over a year ago

hello, even with driver.get() is returning same error. where should I check for explicit wait exactly? sorry i'm bit puzzled on this - Thanks a lot

S A Over a year ago

Since it returned size 0, I'm assuming it didn't wait for the page to load. I've edited the answer. Could you try this again? Also, is there any chance to change the number of elements on reload? If it changes then the solution will not work.

user3925023 Over a year ago

Hi, same error, but I was thinking: is there a way to open a new tab? or new session in selenium? like I got all the elements id, click it and open in a new session , do the stuff and kill it. thx

S A Over a year ago

Hi, I've edited with the driver.get() code. could you please use this and let me know if it is working or not? Also please check if the size of the list remains the same.

|

Vincent P · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-18 09:28:15Z

1

I think you need to create the js object, like so.

Reason being that you "lost" the reference to the JavascriptExecutor

List<WebElement> links = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("div[data-sigil='touchable']"));
// this will display list of all images exist on page
for(WebElement ele:links){
    System.out.println("test->"+ele.getAttribute("id"));
    ele.click();
    Thread.sleep(500);
    System.out.println("URI->"+driver.getCurrentUrl());
    // Re initialise js executor
    JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
    js.executeScript("window.history.go(-1)");
} 
return "ok";

answered Apr 18, 2019 at 9:28

Vincent P

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1 Comment

Vincent P Over a year ago

I dont think the error is occurring when you run the following line (as per OP) js.executeScript("window.history.go(-1)"); I suspect its when the for loop tries to iterate to the next item in links.

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