Selenium Click method not working on an Xpath locator

Question

Folks,

My first time on Stack Overflow. Hope y'all can help ...

I'm trying to use Selenium to click on the 'Buy Now' button on an html page. Here's the HTML snippet:

</div>
    <a href="javascript:void(0)" class="buttonCheckout">Buy Now</a>
    <a href="#" class="buttonSoldout">Sold Out</a>
</div>

I used the Selenium IDE to get the correct Xpath locator but the click event always fails.

>> chk = "id('yui-gen2')/x:div[3]/x:div/x:a[1]"
=> "id('yui-gen2')/x:div[3]/x:div/x:a[1]"
>> @selenium.get_xpath_count(chk)
=> "1"

>> @selenium.click(chk)
**Error**

>> chk = "xpath = " + chk
=> "xpath = id('yui-gen2')/x:div[3]/x:div/x:a[1]"
>> @selenium.click(chk)
**Error**

The **Error** is:
selenium-client received failure from selenium server:
requested:
 cmd=click
 1=xpath = id('yui-gen2')/x:div[3]/x:div/x:a[1]
 sessionId=d4d6796b3c9749139621cd0cbcde80b2
received:
 "ERROR: Element xpath = id('yui-gen2')/x:div[3]/x:div/x:a[1] not found"
 called from C:/Ruby187/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:67:in `timeout'
 enium::CommandError: ERROR: Element xpath = id('yui-gen2')/x:div[3]/x:div/x:a[1] not  found

I've tried some of the other suggestions on the forum - @selenium.double_click(chk), @selenium.fire_event(chk, 'click') - but those give the same Element not found error.

I've also tried all kinds of permutations of the above, tried others Xpaths (chk = "//a[@class='buttonCheckout']", chk = "/descendant::a[@class='buttonCheckout']", chk = "//a[@href='javascript:void(0)']".

In all of these cases, I believe I have found the right locator since the get_xpath_count method works but click always fails.

Any suggestions here? Thanks in advance!

You haven't shown the complete XHTML document and thus there is no way for anyone to verify that the XPath expressions would select the desired node. Please edit your question and provide all the necessary information. — Dimitre Novatchev
– Dimitre Novatchev, Commented Oct 24, 2010 at 15:36

Kel · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-24 07:05:23Z

1

Error message "Element xpath = ... not found" clearly states the real problem - so double click and fire event won't help.

You may try to install Selenium IDE plugin of Firefox, start recording and click on "Buy Now" button. Selenium IDE will automatically find some way to locate element. Also, it usually suggests several locator variants in drop-down list.

Also, you may try to use XPather / XPath checker plugins to find and check suitable xpath locators variants.

answered Oct 24, 2010 at 7:05

Kel

7,8103 gold badges32 silver badges39 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

tdesikan · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-24 20:16:00Z

0

This is embarrassing but I figured it out ... the XPath locator was fine.

The issue was with the spaces in the statement:

chk = "xpath = " + chk

It should be:

chk = "xpath=" + chk

And then everything works nicely.

Newbies hah.

Thanks all.

answered Oct 24, 2010 at 20:16

tdesikan

5131 gold badge4 silver badges11 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Selenium Click method not working on an Xpath locator

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related