Automating button clicks with Python and Selenium (Updated for a different problem)

Question

Automating button clicks with Python and Selenium (Updated for a different problem)

After encountering ad pop-ups on a previous mp3 converter site, I decided to try using an alternative website, h2converter.com/tr/, for my script. However, this time the web driver had trouble finding the button and the program stopped due to a timeout exception. To address this issue, I implemented xpath in my script to locate the button accurately. Here is the updated version of my code:

driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="C:\chromedriver.exe")
driver.get("https://h2converter.com/tr/")
element = driver.find_element_by_name("video")
element.send_keys("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZobdNXT0Za0", Keys.ENTER)

downloadElem=WebDriverWait(driver, 
60).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH,"//*[@id=download']")))
downloadElem.click()

As someone new to Selenium, I am working on a script to automate the download process of converted MP3 files. Despite my use of driver.find_element_by_css_selector, I keep receiving a NoSuchElementException error. I have tried various solutions suggested in other posts without success. How can I overcome this challenge? Below is the current version of my code:

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

driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="C:\chromedriver.exe")

driver.get("https://www.onlinevideoconverter.com/mp3-converter")

element = driver.find_element_by_name("texturl")
element.send_keys("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZobdNXT0Za0", Keys.ENTER)
driver.find_element_by_css_selector("download-button").click()

python selenium

Answer 1

Answer №1

Two issues are present in this scenario: (1) the button is not specified correctly; and (2) the browser is not given time to wait for the button to appear.

Correctly Specifying the Button

In this case, the download-button should be referenced as class="download-button". When specifying a class in CSS selectors, it must be prefixed with a dot ., like so:

driver.find_element_by_css_selector("<b>.</b>start-button").click()
#                                    ^

Alternatively, you can use find_element_by_class_name(..):

# No dot prefix
driver.<b>find_element_by_class_name</b>("start-button").click()

Implementing a Wait Strategy

Since the button may not immediately appear, we need to introduce a wait time before locating it. One way to do this is by utilizing time.sleep(..). Here's how you can modify the script:

<b>from time import sleep</b>

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


driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="C:\chromedriver.exe")

driver.get("https://www.onlinevideoconverter.com/mp3-converter")

element = driver.find_element_by_name("texturl")
element.send_keys("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZobdNXT0Za0", Keys.ENTER)

<b>sleep(5)</b>
driver.find_element_by_class_name("download-button").click()

Continuous Polling Approach

The previous approach involved waiting for five seconds regardless of when the button actually appears. To optimize this, we can implement a polling mechanism that continuously checks for the button:

<b>from time import sleep</b>

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
<b>from selenium.common.exceptions import NoSuchElementException</b>


driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="C:\chromedriver.exe")

driver.get("https://www.onlinevideoconverter.com/mp3-converter")

element = driver.find_element_by_name("texturl")
element.send_keys("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZobdNXT0Za0", Keys.ENTER)

<b>while True:</b>
    sleep(0.5)
    try:
        button = driver.find_element_by_class_name("download-button")
    except NoSuchElementException:
        pass
    else:
        <b>button.click()</b>
        break

Answer 2

Two issues are present in this scenario: (1) the button is not specified correctly; and (2) the browser is not given time to wait for the button to appear.

Correctly Specifying the Button

In this case, the download-button should be referenced as class="download-button". When specifying a class in CSS selectors, it must be prefixed with a dot ., like so:

driver.find_element_by_css_selector("<b>.</b>start-button").click()
#                                    ^

Alternatively, you can use find_element_by_class_name(..):

# No dot prefix
driver.<b>find_element_by_class_name</b>("start-button").click()

Implementing a Wait Strategy

Since the button may not immediately appear, we need to introduce a wait time before locating it. One way to do this is by utilizing time.sleep(..). Here's how you can modify the script:

<b>from time import sleep</b>

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


driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="C:\chromedriver.exe")

driver.get("https://www.onlinevideoconverter.com/mp3-converter")

element = driver.find_element_by_name("texturl")
element.send_keys("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZobdNXT0Za0", Keys.ENTER)

<b>sleep(5)</b>
driver.find_element_by_class_name("download-button").click()

Continuous Polling Approach

The previous approach involved waiting for five seconds regardless of when the button actually appears. To optimize this, we can implement a polling mechanism that continuously checks for the button:

<b>from time import sleep</b>

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
<b>from selenium.common.exceptions import NoSuchElementException</b>


driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="C:\chromedriver.exe")

driver.get("https://www.onlinevideoconverter.com/mp3-converter")

element = driver.find_element_by_name("texturl")
element.send_keys("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZobdNXT0Za0", Keys.ENTER)

<b>while True:</b>
    sleep(0.5)
    try:
        button = driver.find_element_by_class_name("download-button")
    except NoSuchElementException:
        pass
    else:
        <b>button.click()</b>
        break

Answer 3

Answer №2

It is necessary to wait for the download button to become visible before proceeding, which may take some time in your situation. You have two options:
1. Set a manual sleep delay:

time.sleep(max_seconds_wait)

2. Wait for the download button to appear dynamically:

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


try:
    WebDriverWait(self.driver, delay).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, 'downloadq')))
except:
      .....

Answer 4

It is necessary to wait for the download button to become visible before proceeding, which may take some time in your situation. You have two options:
1. Set a manual sleep delay:

time.sleep(max_seconds_wait)

2. Wait for the download button to appear dynamically:

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


try:
    WebDriverWait(self.driver, delay).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, 'downloadq')))
except:
      .....

Automating button clicks with Python and Selenium (Updated for a different problem)

Answer №1

Correctly Specifying the Button

Implementing a Wait Strategy

Continuous Polling Approach

Answer №2

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