python selenium to click a link

Question

since I updated my firefox to 49.02 and selenium to 3.0.1, my previous code to sign in to my bing account does not work.

there is a Sign in link in www.bing.com, I could successfully click this link by calling:

driver.get("http://www.bing.com")
driver.implicitly_wait(20)
driver.find_element_by_link_text('Sign in').click()

however, after the upgrade, I receive a strange error message which contains no message at all:

selenium.common.exceptions.ElementNotVisibleException: Message:

if I only call driver.find_element_by_link_text('Sign in'), I will receive no error message. This seems like selenium could successfully locate this link, but somehow it can not click this button.

I have also tried to locate Sign in by it class name or by clicking the icon instead, but all such efforts are useless.

I do not know if the error is caused by Microsoft to block automated logging in or the error in my code. Helps appreciated!

calling driver.find_element_by_xpath('//a[span = "Sign in"]').click() as suggested by alecxe still does not resolve the issue.

Do not use implicit wait as it's not working as expected, use explicit wait instead selenium-python.readthedocs.io/waits.html#explicit-waits — Andersson
– Andersson, Commented Oct 31, 2016 at 16:10
Just to be sure I tested it in Selenium 2 and Chrome and can confirm the script is all right and the targeted element does exist. — Bouke
– Bouke, Commented Oct 31, 2016 at 16:12
@Andersson, yes, you are correct! once I switch to explicit wait as the result from alecxe, the problem is resolved. — user6651227
– user6651227, Commented Oct 31, 2016 at 19:13

alecxe · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-31 19:15:42Z

2

Wait for the link to be clickable:

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

wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 10)
sign_in = wait.until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.LINK_TEXT, "Sign in")))
sign_in.click()

edited Oct 31, 2016 at 19:15

answered Oct 31, 2016 at 16:02

alecxe

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5 Comments

user6651227 Over a year ago

thanks for your answer, but I receive exactly the same error message

alecxe Over a year ago

@user6651227 alright, please check the update. Thanks.

user6651227 Over a year ago

I just tested, using XPATH is just one way, but using WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.LINK_TEXT, "Sign in"))).click() still gives me the expected result. So I am guessing there might be some other parts causes the problem. Do you have any idea? thanks

user6651227 Over a year ago

@alecex, I know the reason, I should switch from implicit way to explicit wait as you did.

alecxe Over a year ago

@user6651227 yeah, you are right, updated the answer accordingly. Thanks.

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