Web Scraping Using Selenium - Explicit Wait For Element Text

Selenium Wait - Explicit Wait For Element Text

Waiting in selenium can be done in different ways. In this tutorial, we will use the explicit wait functionality for waiting a text from innerHTML of an element.

But before that, please make sure you have read the first blog on this series to do the prerequisites.

Selenium Explicit Wait For a Element Text

1. Create a file seleniumwaittext.py and paste the following codes

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

   The codes above imports the required library that we will use.
2. Add this line

   driver = webdriver.Firefox(executable_path="geckodriver.exe")
   

   The code above will create a webdriver instance for Firefox.
3. Add this line

   driver.get("https://slackingslacker.github.io/seleniumindex#/seleniumwait")
   

   The line will got to the website (https://slackingslacker.github.io/seleniumindex#/seleniumwait).
4. Add this function as is

   def wait_for_text(wait_time: int, selector: str, text_value: str):
       try:
           print("[{}] Finding text {}".format(str(datetime.now()), selector))
           WebDriverWait(driver, wait_time).until(
               EC.text_to_be_present_in_element((By.CSS_SELECTOR, selector), text_value)
           )
           print("[{}] Text found".format(str(datetime.now())))
       except TimeoutException as e:
           print("[{}] Text did not load".format(str(datetime.now())))
   

   This method will wait for the elements innerHTML text. It will print a message if the element text loaded or not.
5. Add this line

   wait_for_text(3, "div#textExpectation > div:nth-of-type(1)", "Expected Text")
   

   This line will call the method we created and will display Text found.
6. Add this line

   wait_for_text(6, "div#textExpectation > div:nth-of-type(2)", "Expected Text"))
   

   This line will call the method we created and wait for 6 seconds until it gives an error.
7. Add this line

   wait_for_text(9, "div#textExpectation > div:nth-of-type(1)", "expected text")
   

   Again will call the method we created and wait for 9 seconds until it gives an error.

   <div id="textExpectation">
       <div>Expected Text</div>
       <div><input type="text" value="This is an input"></div>
   </div>
   

   The above HTML is taken from the website.
8. Add this line

   driver.close()
   

   The line will close the webdriver as well as the browser.
9. Run the seleniumwaittext.py. It should do the following:
   • Open the firefox browser
   • Browser goes to https://slackingslacker.github.io/seleniumindex#/seleniumwait
   • Call the Method 3 times which prints messages in the console
   • Closes the browser

 

Program Sample Output

[2020-06-04 13:44:09.697415] Finding text div#textExpectation > div:nth-of-type(1)
[2020-06-04 13:44:09.782072] Text found
[2020-06-04 13:44:09.782072] Finding text div#textExpectation > div:nth-of-type(2)
[2020-06-04 13:44:16.139792] Text did not load
[2020-06-04 13:44:16.139792] Finding text div#textExpectation > div:nth-of-type(1)
[2020-06-04 13:44:25.508062] Text did not load

Output explanations

1. The code looks for an element given the CSS selector div#textExpectation > div:nth-of-type(1) and checks the text for that element
2. The code found the text
3. The code looks for an element given the CSS selector div#textExpectation > div:nth-of-type(2) and checks the text for that element
4. The code does not find the element within 6 seconds
5. The code looks for an element given the CSS selector div#textExpectation > div:nth-of-type(1) checks the text for that element
6. The code does not find the element within 9 seconds

   <div>Expected Text</div>
   

   The matching of the text is case sensitive so the text does not match.

As you may have noticed that the waiting time varies to what you have supplied to the WebDriverWait class.

 

Final Selenium Code

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

driver = webdriver.Firefox(executable_path="geckodriver.exe")
driver.get("https://slackingslacker.github.io/seleniumindex#/seleniumwait")

def wait_for_text(wait_time: int, selector: str, text_value: str):
    try:
        print("[{}] Finding text {}".format(str(datetime.now()), selector))
        WebDriverWait(driver, wait_time).until(
            EC.text_to_be_present_in_element((By.CSS_SELECTOR, selector), text_value)
        )
        print("[{}] Text found".format(str(datetime.now())))
    except TimeoutException as e:
        print("[{}] Text did not load".format(str(datetime.now())))

wait_for_text(3, "div#textExpectation > div:nth-of-type(1)", "Expected Text")
wait_for_text(6, "div#textExpectation > div:nth-of-type(2)", "Expected Text")
wait_for_text(9, "div#textExpectation > div:nth-of-type(1)", "expected text")
driver.close()

 

Conclusion

Waiting time in selenium can be used for waiting elements innerHTML text.