Css Selector button click with selenium (python)

Question

I am trying to click on a button using selenium. My code states it is unable to find the css_selector with said class name. The class name has spaces in it, which lead me to use the css_selector object. When I try to pass the class name in the 'css_selector' object, it fails since the class name is a string, which is not callable. The website is password protected otherwise I would share the full code. This is what I have so far.

# Button I wish to click <a href="#" class="btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn">See Full List</a> # Once button is clicked, it changes to: <a href="#" class="btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn" style="display: none;">See Full List</a> 

What I have tried:

driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR("btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn")) # str object not callable driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR,"btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn") # Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"css selector","selector":"btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn"} 

Answer 1

As you've mentioned

The class name has spaces in it, which lead me to use the css_selector

this is right approach, however you should also make sure that one

1. One should remove the space and put a .
2. . represent class in CSS.

So the below code should work:

driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, ".btn.btn-alt.see-full-list-btn") 

or you can even use it with the tag a

driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "a.btn.btn-alt.see-full-list-btn") 

or the recommended solution would be to use with explicit waits:

see_full_list_button = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "a.btn.btn-alt.see-full-list-btn"))) see_full_list_button.click() 

Imports:

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

Answer 2

There is no necessity to focus on the element HTML after the click is already invoked.

As per the HTML

<a href="#" class="btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn">See Full List</a> 

you can use either of the following locator strategies:

• Using link_text:

  driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "See Full List").click() 

• Using css_selector:

  driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "a.btn.btn-alt.see-full-list-btn").click() 

• Using xpath:

  driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//a[@class='btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn' and text()='See Full List']").click() 

Ideally to click on the clickable element you need to induce WebDriverWait for the element_to_be_clickable() and you can use either of the following locator strategies:

• Using LINK_TEXT:

  WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.LINK_TEXT, "See Full List"))).click() 

• Using CSS_SELECTOR:

  WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "a.btn.btn-alt.see-full-list-btn"))).click() 

• Using XPATH:

  WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//a[@class='btn btn-alt see-full-list-btn' and text()='See Full List']"))).click() 

• Note: You have to add the following imports :

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