Using Selenium with Python: Overcoming StaleElementReferenceException when selecting by class

Question

Using Selenium with Python: Overcoming StaleElementReferenceException when selecting by class

Attempting to create a basic Python script using Selenium, I encountered a StaleElementReferenceException after the loop runs once.

Check out the code snippet being executed:

from selenium import webdriver

browser = webdriver.Firefox()
type(browser)
browser.get('http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/Search.do?keyWord=&selectedProjects=27&pager.offset=50&viewType=1&maxPageItems=1000')
links = browser.find_elements_by_class_name('searchTitle')

for link in links:
    link.click()
    print("clicked!")
    browser.back()

As an attempted solution, I added browser.refresh() within the loop but unfortunately, it did not resolve the issue.

I'm fairly new to this, so please be patient and refrain from bombarding me with criticisms.

python selenium selenium-webdriver

Answer 1

Answer №1

Avoid clicking through links within a loop as it can lead to navigation issues. Once you click on a link, you navigate away from the page containing the links. Does that concept make sense to you?

To address this, remove the for loop and consider something like link = links[0] to select the first link or a more specific method to target the desired link accurately.

If your goal is to click on every link present on the page, you can utilize the following approach:

links = browser.find_elements_by_class_name('searchTitle')
for i in range(len(links)):  
    links = browser.find_elements_by_class_name('searchTitle')
    link = links[i]  # selecting the i'th link on the page
    link.click()
    print("clicked!")
    browser.back()

UPDATE: Enhancing the script might involve adding a pause after calling `browser.back()`. This can be achieved by inserting the following code snippet:

from time import sleep 
...
sleep(5) # defining a 5-second pause

Answer 2

Avoid clicking through links within a loop as it can lead to navigation issues. Once you click on a link, you navigate away from the page containing the links. Does that concept make sense to you?

To address this, remove the for loop and consider something like link = links[0] to select the first link or a more specific method to target the desired link accurately.

If your goal is to click on every link present on the page, you can utilize the following approach:

links = browser.find_elements_by_class_name('searchTitle')
for i in range(len(links)):  
    links = browser.find_elements_by_class_name('searchTitle')
    link = links[i]  # selecting the i'th link on the page
    link.click()
    print("clicked!")
    browser.back()

UPDATE: Enhancing the script might involve adding a pause after calling `browser.back()`. This can be achieved by inserting the following code snippet:

from time import sleep 
...
sleep(5) # defining a 5-second pause

Using Selenium with Python: Overcoming StaleElementReferenceException when selecting by class

Answer №1

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