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I tried to automate some inputs. For this I need to input some text after the
tag. To identify the place where to input I tried XPath for fowlloing HTML code.

<span data-offset-key="1dq3m-0-0">
  <br data-text="true">
</span>

Here is what I wrote in python.

buf_comp_text = 'foobar'
el_xp_comp_text = '//*[@data-text]'

...

## create post in queue (comment)
print('create post in queue - text')
post_txt = driver.find_element_by_xpath(el_xp_comp_text).send_keys(buf_comp_text)

Unfortunately I alwas get error message:

selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchElementException: Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"//*[@data-text]"}

Any hint is appreciated.

DebanjanB
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MarkusF
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1 Answers1

1

Instead of targetting the <br> tag you need to target the <span> tag you can use the following Locator Strategy:

  • Using css_selector:

    buf_comp_text = 'foobar'
driver.find_element_by_css_selector("span[data-offset-key]").send_keys(buf_comp_text)

  • Using xpath:

    buf_comp_text = 'foobar'
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//span[@data-offset-key][.//br[@data-text]]").send_keys(buf_comp_text)

Ideally, to send a character sequence to the element you need to induce WebDriverWait for the element_to_be_clickable() and you can use either of the following Locator Strategy:

  • Using CSS_SELECTOR:

    buf_comp_text = 'foobar'
WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "span[data-offset-key]"))).send_keys(buf_comp_text)

  • Using XPATH:

    buf_comp_text = 'foobar'
WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//span[@data-offset-key][.//br[@data-text]]"))).send_keys(buf_comp_text)

  • 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

Reference

You can find a couple of relevant discussions in:

DebanjanB
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  • Unfortunately, I still get the same error. selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchElementException: Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"//span[@data-offset-key][.//br[@data-text]]"} – MarkusF Jan 08 '21 at 10:55
  • @MarkusF Did you try with the _CssSelector_ / _WebDriverWait_? – DebanjanB Jan 08 '21 at 10:56
  • Also the CSS version creates the error. selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchElementException: Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"css selector","selector":"span[data-offset-key]"} – MarkusF Jan 08 '21 at 10:58
  • @MarkusF how about implementing the _WebDriverWait_? – DebanjanB Jan 08 '21 at 11:00
  • Tried it: Different error message.Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\MFE\python\py_social_bot\py_buffer_bot.py", line 55, in WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//span[@data-offset-key][.//br[@data-text]]"))).send_keys(buf_comp_text) File "C:\Users\markusf\AppData\Local\Packages\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.9_qbz5n2kfra8p0\LocalCache\local-packages\Python39\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\support\wait.py", line 80, in until raise TimeoutException(message, screen, stacktrace) selenium.common.exceptions.TimeoutException: – MarkusF Jan 08 '21 at 11:03
  • Same for the CSS version. – MarkusF Jan 08 '21 at 11:07
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    found a solution. a simple wait solved it.Thank you @DebanjanB for the directions – MarkusF Jan 08 '21 at 11:12