selenium cant find the element

Question

im trying to write a code to automatically create a gmail using selenium. the item im trying to find is the firstname input in the url below:

https://accounts.google.com/signup/v2/webcreateaccount?service=mail&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2Fmail%2F&flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=SignUp

i used wait but it returns a TimeoutException error. also, say i want to use implicit wait, how can i do that?

thanks

class BotCreator:

    def __init__(self, firstname, lastname):
        self.firstname = firstname
        self.lastname = lastname
        self.driver = webdriver.Firefox(executable_path=r'A:\Python Projects\The InstaBOT/geckodriver')

    def shutdown(self):
        self.driver.close

    def gmail_creator(self, n_bots):
        for n in range(n_bots):
            global email
            email = {}
            driver = self.driver
            wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 10)
            driver.get('https://www.google.com/intl/en-GB/gmail/about/')
            driver.find_element_by_xpath('//a[@title="Create an account"]').click()
            wait.until(ec.new_window_is_opened(driver.window_handles))
            after = driver.window_handles[1]
            driver.switch_to.window(after)
            element = wait.until(ec.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, '//input[@id="firstName"]')))
            element.send_keys('awsd')

        return email

gmail_t = BotCreator('John', 'Hoffinsky')
gmail_t.gmail_creator(1)

Can you confirm that once you click on create account are you on same page or it opens a new window? — KunduK
– KunduK, Commented Sep 24, 2019 at 14:32
it opens a new tap in firefox. since the new tab is the one that is open, i figured its not the problem. is it? — John smith
– John smith, Commented Sep 24, 2019 at 14:39
Yes you need to switch to that window to access the element.I have added the code. — KunduK
– KunduK, Commented Sep 24, 2019 at 14:41

terroruser · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-24 14:20:21Z

2

There are actually several (4) elements with the same XPath on that page. Try to use a specific one with following XPath:

(//a[@title="Create an account"])[1]

Your XPath returns 4 elements with the Chrome extension ChroPath.

Regarding your question about implicit wait: You are already using implicit wait. The implicit wait setting tells Selenium to poll for the specified amount of time until an element is available. You can change the timeout if needed:

driver.implicitly_wait(15)

This link could be helpful.

answered Sep 24, 2019 at 14:20

terroruser

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5 Comments

John smith Over a year ago

thanks for answering. im trying to input my firstname not to create an account. i have already clicked on the create an account

John smith Over a year ago

also, the wait in my code, webdriverwait; whats the difference of it with implicitwait

terroruser Over a year ago

Implicit wait does not need any additional code. It is used always. Explicit wait like in your code is an additional wait. You use it for one specific action.

John smith Over a year ago

didn't know that. so i just change the time of the waiting. i cant still locate the element though. i also updated the code.

John smith Over a year ago

element = wait.until(ec.element_to_be_clickable((... @KunduK suggested that i remove the for loop and now it works but i dont know why!

KunduK · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-24 14:49:21Z

1

Once you click on the create Account button it opens a new window for user details.You need to Switch to that window to access the element.Try below code.

wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 10)
driver.get('https://www.google.com/intl/en-GB/gmail/about/')
driver.find_element_by_xpath('//a[@title="Create an account"]').click()
wait.until(ec.new_window_is_opened(driver.window_handles))
after=driver.window_handles[1]
driver.switch_to.window(after)
element = wait.until(ec.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, '//input[@id="firstName"]')))
element.send_keys('awsd')

Browser snapshot:

edited Sep 24, 2019 at 14:49

answered Sep 24, 2019 at 14:41

KunduK

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5 Comments

John smith Over a year ago

still gives the error: selenium.common.exceptions.TimeoutException: Message:

John smith Over a year ago

yeah i did. im really confused too

KunduK Over a year ago

@Johnsmith : whats the for loop?

John smith Over a year ago

im using the loop to be able to create more than 1 gmail. n_bots is the number of gmails

KunduK Over a year ago

Just try to create single account first with given code and check if you get any error?

stacktome · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-24 14:27:41Z

0

Is always good to use ID than XPath/CSS

Example

driver.find_element_by_id("FirstName").send_keys("email")

answered Sep 24, 2019 at 14:27

stacktome

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1 Comment

stacktome Over a year ago

this link might help you .. screenster.io/…,

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