send keys to text area not working using selenium in python

Question

im trying to learn selenium by making a bot that goes to an instagram account and comments on a post

this is my code:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

site = webdriver.Edge('C:\\P\\Automation\\MicrosoftWebDriver')
site.get('https://www.instagram.com/example_account/')

ref = site.find_element_by_xpath("//*[@id=\"reactroot\"]/section/main/div/div/article/div[1]/div/div[1]/div[1]/a")
site.get(ref.get_attribute('href'))

txt = site.find_element_by_xpath('//*[@id="react-root"]/section/main/div/div/article/div[2]/section[3]/form/textarea')
txt.send_keys('test')
txt.send_keys(Keys.ENTER)

the problem is that when i send keys to the comment element

<textarea aria-label="Add a comment…" placeholder="Add a comment…" class="Ypffh" autocomplete="off" autocorrect="off" style="height: 18px;"></textarea>

it does nothing the first i try to send keys time and the second time i run the command:

txt.send_keys('test')

it gives me an error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\Python\Python37-32\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webelement.py", line 479, in send_keys
'value': keys_to_typing(value)})
  File "C:\Python\Python37-32\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webelement.py", line 628, in _execute
    return self._parent.execute(command, params)
  File "C:\Python\Python37-32\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 320, in execute
    self.error_handler.check_response(response)
  File "C:\Python\Python37-32\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\errorhandler.py", line 242, in check_response
    raise exception_class(message, screen, stacktrace)
selenium.common.exceptions.StaleElementReferenceException: Message: Stale element reference

would love some help, thanks!

Why you are using send.Enter after sending text. in textarea — Ankur Singh
– Ankur Singh, Commented Jul 8, 2018 at 10:02
the idea is that after the code types the text in the textarea it will press the enter key to post the comment — Shay Lavi
– Shay Lavi, Commented Jul 8, 2018 at 10:05

Swaroop Humane · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-08 10:34:03Z

4

Before sendkeys() use click() method to click inside textarea and then try inserting text.

answered Jul 8, 2018 at 10:34

Swaroop Humane

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1 Comment

Shay Lavi Over a year ago

i tried it and the same things happen. i think that they might have done something that prevents bots from posting comments... maybe the element changes or something...

David Blanco · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-08 09:22:57Z

3

based in your solution what worked for me was calling the text area with a different selector:

            textarea = site.find_element_by_xpath('//textarea')
            textarea.click()
            textarea2 = site.find_element_by_tag_name('textarea')
            textarea2.send_keys('hi!')

(same selector didn't work)

answered Apr 8, 2020 at 9:22

David Blanco

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Comments

Shay Lavi · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-08 11:59:27Z

1

alright i found the problem, the problem was that when sending keys to the textarea the element changes from this:

<textarea class="Ypffh" aria-label="Add a comment…" placeholder="Add a comment…" autocomplete="off" autocorrect="off"></textarea>

to this:

<textarea class="Ypffh" style="height: 19px;" aria-label="Add a comment…" placeholder="Add a comment…" autocomplete="off" autocorrect="off"></textarea>

and thats why the

Stale element reference

error appeared.

my solution is to select the element, send keys and then select it again and send keys again like so:

txt = site.find_element_by_class_name('Ypffh')
txt.send_keys('test')
txt = site.find_element_by_class_name('Ypffh')
txt.send_keys('test')
txt.send_keys(Keys.ENTER)

(i changed the way to find the element because finding it by class name looks much better in the code)

if anyone has a better solution i will be happy to hear it!

answered Jul 8, 2018 at 11:59

Shay Lavi

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2 Comments

cruisepandey Over a year ago

yes, there are better ways to do it, could you please provide the navigation steps. I tried with your absolute xpath , but seems like I am struggling to perform navigation. after going to instagram.com/example_account , I am clicking on log in link , then I am lost.

Shay Lavi Over a year ago

well i wrote instagram.com/example_account just as an example haha. my intention was that it should work for any account. you can try with your own account for example or instagram.com/instagram for instance. now, my navigation steps are like so: i open the last photo of the account in a new tab, then i inspect the comment box. and you should see there a form element and inside it a textarea element. then i copied the elements xpath (or in my latest answer i searched it by class name). the first xpath in my code is for the latest post and the second for the comment area

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