在python中使用Selenium定位Web元素

Question

I am trying to find an element in the web page using selenium. when I "right click" on the web element and inspect, I can find the html code in the console. However when I copy the xpath of the same element from the console and try to execute it in firepath, it says "No matching nodes". Why is it so and how can I fix this ?

Here is the HTML of the element.

<input id="mobile" type="text" onchange="javascript:dispLocMob(this);
"onkeydown="javascript:dispLocMob(this);
"onkeyup="javascript:dispLocMob(this);" value="" maxlength=
"10" placeholder="Mobile Number" name="mobile">

And this is what I am doing:

receiverMobileElement = browser.find_element_by_xpath('//*[@id="mobile"]')

Please help.

Answer 1

Why using xpath when you can find the element by unique id ?

from selenium import webdriver

browser = webdriver.Firefox()
browser.get('http://example.com')

target_element = browser.find_element_by_id('mobile')

Answer 2

I always say screw firebug, use the Chrome console..

From the looks of it, the best way to get this particular element would be one of the following two options (given that 'id=mobile' is unique)..

By.cssSelector("#mobile");
By.xpath("//input[@id = 'mobile']");

To use the chrome console -->

1. Start Chrome
2. Right click and inspect your element.
3. You should see the html code and the console appear below it. (If you can not see the console, click the three vertical dots and select 'Show Console'
4. Now, from here you can do some awesome stuff! You can search for the elements that you are trying to identify and see if they can be found. for example, to see if the By.cssSelector("#mobile"); will work type this

document.querySelectorAll("#mobile")

for the xpath, type this

$xBy.xpath("//input[@id = 'mobile']");

Just a suggestion... dont be concerned about firebug if your code works, and seriously try out this way in chrome!!