Question

sometimes when running tests on WebDriver with Javascript turned off, WebDriver crashes due to an ElementNotFound Error when it finds an element, and attempts to click it.

However, the element is clearly there !

After reading this : http://code.google.com/p/selenium/wiki/FrequentlyAskedQuestions#Q:_My_XPath_finds_elements_in_one_browser,_but_not_in_others._Wh

I came to the conclusion that webdriver must not be waiting until the web page has completed loaded. How do I use the Webdriver Wait class ? Can someone provide an example ?

Answer 1

This example was posted on Google Groups. According to Google developers:

1 Use implicit waits. Here the driver will wait up until the designated
timeout until the element is found. Be sure to read the javadoc for the
caveats. Usage:

driver.get("http://www.google.com"); 
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS); 
WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.name("q")); 
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(0, TimeUnit.SECONDS); 
// continue with test... 

2 Use the org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.WebDriverWait class. This will
poll until the expected condition is true, returning that condition’s result
(if it’s looking for an element). This is much more flexible than implicit
waits, as you can define any custom behavior. Usage:

Function<WebDriver, WebElement> presenceOfElementLocated(final By locator) { 
  return new Function<WebDriver, WebElement>() { 
    public WebElement apply(WebDriver driver) { 
      return driver.findElement(locator); 
    }
  };
}

// ... 
driver.get("http://www.google.com"); 
WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, /*seconds=*/3); 
WebElement element = wait.until(presenceOfElementLocated(By.name("q"));