Drag and drop local file in browser with Selenium WebDriver and JUnit?

Question

I'm willing to write an automated test in Selenium WebDriver + JUnit that drops a local file into a drag & drop area of the browser. I've looked at the html code, but there's no input area where I could inject the local path to my file.

I've found some interesting resources :

• How to drag and drop an element from the current browser https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egdUfivmm-k
• How to drag and drop a local file into the browser using Ruby (this thread also has a C# translation but I'm not used to these languages) : Using Selenium to imitate dragging a file onto an upload element

But none of these are appropriate for my special case. Can someone help?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Selenium WebDriver can't interact with anything outside of the browser. What you need is something like java's Robot class or something like sikuli.

Simple drag and drop example with robot:

Robot robot = new Robot ();
robot.mouseMove(350, 350);
robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
robot.mouseMove(250, 350);
robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);

There may also be a way to insert your path via javacsript.

Answer 2

Thank you for your kind answer. I tried the Robot class this morning, but it wasn't able to cope with local files. I eventually found this video, and I'm now working my problem out. Fortunately AutoIt (which is a little bit like Sikuli I guess) can be plugged in Selenium. Thanks anyway!