How to click a specific button using selenium-python

Question

I'm working on Nytimes mini crossword puzzle (https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/mini) .

First I need to click the "OK" button when the page loads (I did this)

then "Reveal" then "Puzzle" from the menu at the right but the buttons has not specific ids itselves as you can see below.

<div class="Toolbar-expandedMenu--2s4M4"> <li class="Tool-button--39W4J Tool-tool--Fiz94 Tool-texty--2w4Br"><button>clear</button> <ul class="HelpMenu-menu--1Z_OA"> <li class="HelpMenu-item--1xl0_" style="display:list-item" title="Won’t clear letters that are part of completed crossing words"><a>Incomplete</a></li> <li class="HelpMenu-item--1xl0_" style="display:list-item"><a>Word</a></li> <li class="HelpMenu-item--1xl0_" style="display:list-item"><a>Puzzle</a></li> <li class="HelpMenu-item--1xl0_" style="display:list-item"><a>Puzzle &amp; Timer</a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="Tool-button--39W4J Tool-tool--Fiz94 Tool-texty--2w4Br Tool-open--1Moaq"><button>reveal</button> <ul class="HelpMenu-menu--1Z_OA"> <li class="HelpMenu-item--1xl0_" style="display:list-item"><a>Square</a></li> <li class="HelpMenu-item--1xl0_" style="display:list-item"><a>Word</a></li> <li class="HelpMenu-item--1xl0_" style="display:list-item"><a>Puzzle</a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="Tool-button--39W4J Tool-tool--Fiz94 Tool-texty--2w4Br"><button>check</button> <ul class="HelpMenu-menu--1Z_OA"> <li class="HelpMenu-item--1xl0_" style="display:list-item"><a>Autocheck</a></li> <li class="HelpMenu-item--1xl0_" style="display:list-item"><a>Square</a></li> <li class="HelpMenu-item--1xl0_" style="display:list-item"><a>Word</a></li> <li class="HelpMenu-item--1xl0_" style="display:list-item"><a>Puzzle</a></li> </ul> </li> </div>

Here is my python script

from selenium import webdriver import time driver_path = "/home/xperia/PycharmProjects/cs461-getinput/chromedriver" browser = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=driver_path) browser.get("https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/mini") time.sleep(5) browser.find_element_by_class_name("buttons-modalButton--1REsR").click() time.sleep(5) browser.find_element_by_class_name("Tool-button--39W4J Tool-tool--Fiz94 Tool-texty--2w4Br").click() 

Answer 1

You can click on an element using its text, rather than ID. In your case, this may help, since the elements do not have ID.

To click the reveal button:

# wait for reveal button to exist WebDriverWait(browser,10).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH,'//button[contains(text(), 'reveal')]'))).click() # click reveal button browser.find_element_by_xpath("//button[contains(text(), 'reveal')]").click() 

To click Puzzle, you can use this path:

# wait for puzzle button to exist WebDriverWait(browser,10).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH,'//li[button[contains(text(), 'reveal')]]/ul/li/a[text()='Puzzle']'))).click() # click the reveal button browser.find_element_by_xpath("//li[button[contains(text(), 'reveal')]]/ul/li/a[text()='Puzzle']").click() 

Answer 2

To click on puzzle under reveal menu induce WebDriverWait And element_to_be_clickable()

from selenium import webdriver from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC driver_path = "/home/xperia/PycharmProjects/cs461-getinput/chromedriver" browser = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=driver_path) browser.get("https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/mini") WebDriverWait(browser,10).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH,'//span[text()="ACCEPT AND CLOSE"]'))).click() WebDriverWait(browser,10).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.CLASS_NAME,'buttons-modalButton--1REsR'))).click() WebDriverWait(browser,10).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH,'//div[@class="Toolbar-expandedMenu--2s4M4"]//li/button[text()="reveal"]'))).click() WebDriverWait(browser,10).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH,'//button[text()="reveal"]/following::ul[1]//li/a[text()="Puzzle"]'))).click() 

Answer 3

I edited your script a little bit. I tested this on my end and it works up to the point of pressing the 'Puzzle' button. I recommend using xpath as well. You can get the xpath element by clicking inspect until the location of the element pops up, then right click and copy by xpath. This is what the code looks like

from selenium import webdriver import time driver_path = "/home/xperia/PycharmProjects/cs461-getinput/chromedriver" browser = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=driver_path) time.sleep(3) browser.find_element_by_class_name("buttons-modalButton--1REsR").click() time.sleep(2) browser.find_element_by_xpath('//*[@id="root"]/div/div/div[4]/div/main/div[2]/div/div/ul/div[2]/li[2]/button').click() browser.find_element_by_xpath('//*[@id="root"]/div/div/div[4]/div/main/div[2]/div/div/ul/div[2]/li[2]/ul/li[3]/a').click() 

Also important to note that if you get an error, it might be because there is another element blocking the button you want clicked.