Couldn't find the correct XPATH

Question

I am currently finding the XPATH for the input area on twitter so that i could write smth on it using bot but i keep getting the wrong XPATH.However,i've seen the code from other ppl and they manage to get the correct XPATH eventhough we are getting from the same html element.

The XPATH I get is

//*[@id="reactroot"]/div/div/div[2]/main/div/div/div/div[1]/div/div[2]/div/div2/div1/div/div/div/div2/div1/div/div/div/div/div/div2/div/div/div/div/label/div1/div/div/div/div/div/div2/div

Element chosen

The correct XPATH they get is //div[contains(@aria-label, 'Tweet text')] and when I check the location of it in inspect, it appears to be the same element

other's XPATH

Answer 1

No, try to avoid very long CSS or very long XPath expressions. They are hard to read, not reliable and also makes your code ugly.

Try this:

my_element = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//div[contains(text(),"What\'s happening")]')

or:

my_element = driver.find_element(By.CSS, '//div[data-testid="tweetTextarea_0"]')

Using XPath is a bad practice because if the element will be moved to another div or span - your XPath will be broken. Always prefer working with:

1. CSS and ID
2. CSS and Class
3. CSS and attibutes
4. XPATH with text contains
5. XPATH with match text (full match)
6. If no other way possible - use only XPath

Answer 2

Using the XPath, you can find an element in different ways. It looks like you have copied the XPath generated by your browser. But it's a bit massive. HTML elements usually have unique parameters such as class, id, name, etc. So you need to find one to write a short relative XPath.

For example, this element is the only one on the page that has a class "notranslate public-DraftEditor-content." So, the XPath could be:

Xpath=//div[@class="notranslate public-DraftEditor-content"]