Debugging StaleElementReference exception - Selenium WebDriver

Question

I am in some kind of situation here.

I have a function editNewUser().

public void editNewUser() throws Exception
    {
        driver.findElement(adminModuleDD).click();
        wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(searchRes));
        List<WebElement> elements = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfAllElementsLocatedBy(uNames));
        for(WebElement el : elements)
        {
            if(el.getText().equals(UserName))
            {
                el.click();
                wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(editUserHeading));
                driver.findElement(editUser).click();
                WebElement status_Dropdown = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//select[@id='systemUser_status']"));
                Select status = new Select(status_Dropdown);
                status.selectByVisibleText("Enabled");
            }
        }   
    }

The UserName is a public string variable that gets value in another function, during creation of user.

In this script, I am navigating to a page that contains list of users, I am storing all user names in List 'elements' and then iterating over each element in the list whose text matches with user name.

Now, in my test_run script, I have some other methods calling after editNewUser().

The thing happens is, this method executes the following commands in if block.

if(el.getText().equals(UserName))
    {
        el.click();
        wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(editUserHeading));
        driver.findElement(editUser).click();
        WebElement status_Dropdown = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//select[@id='systemUser_status']"));
        Select status = new Select(status_Dropdown);
        status.selectByVisibleText("Enabled");
    }

But as soon as next method is called, it stops the execution and throws org.openqa.selenium.StaleElementReferenceException: Element not found in the cache - perhaps the page has changed since it was looked up

Stack Trace refers to the line if(el.getText().equals(UserName)).

Can you tell me why am I receiving this exception, event though the commands inside if block are executed.

when el.getText().equals(UserName) condition true you are doing action to navigate.. so after that remaining elements from list change their position or may be page has changed which is not found in the selenium cache as exception occurred.. If you are achieving this you should break the loop if condition is true.. — Saurabh Gaur, Jun 01 '16 at 05:43

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 31 '16 at 16:03

0

The error message is telling you the problem. The page has changed once you edit the first "el" in your for loop, the page has been updated, so Selenium has lost track of the remaining elements in the "elements" list.

You'll need to find another way to track the elements that you are looping through. a technique that I've used in the past is create a custom object to represent the items, in your case perhaps "User". that object is then smart enough that it can re-find itself on the page.

answered May 31 '16 at 16:03

Breaks Software

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Can you give me a small example scenario and its working? – Uziii May 31 '16 at 16:09
It would be straightforward if your code is written in an object oriented manner, and uses the Page Object Model. the page that has the new users listed would have a method which would return a list of "User" objects. Each "User" object recognizes the user object using some unique locator, perhaps an ID number. the "User" class also has a method to find the anchor for that user...a parent div or something that wraps the user record in the page. all methods start by looking for that anchor first. – Breaks Software Jun 01 '16 at 12:03

Debugging StaleElementReference exception - Selenium WebDriver

1 Answers1