How to address "WebDriverException: Message: TypeError: can't access dead object" and wait for a frame to be available using Selenium and Python

Question

I have a rather complex webpage setup I need to test, containing nested frames.

In the actual problem the selenium code is loading new webpage contents containing a frame, which I want to switch to. In order to avoid any explicit waits, I tried the following code snippet:

self.driver.switch_to_default_content()
WebDriverWait(self.driver, 300).\
        until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.ID, 'frame1')))
WebDriverWait(self.driver, 300).\
        until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.ID, 'frame2')))

However, this snippet always fails and results in the following error:

  ...
  File "/home/adietz/Projects/Venv/nosetests/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/support/wait.py", line 71, in until
    value = method(self._driver)
  File "/home/adietz/Projects/Venv/nosetests/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/support/expected_conditions.py", line 247, in __call__
    self.frame_locator))
  File "/home/adietz/Projects/Venv/nosetests/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/support/expected_conditions.py", line 402, in _find_element
    raise e
WebDriverException: Message: TypeError: can't access dead object

However, if I use a sleep in addition:

time.sleep(30)
self.driver.switch_to_default_content()
WebDriverWait(self.driver, 300).\
        until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.ID, 'frame1')))
WebDriverWait(self.driver, 300).\
        until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.ID, 'frame2')))

selenium is able to find the frame inside the frame and switch to it. It looks like in the error case selenium switches to 'frame1' while 'frame2' is not yet loaded, but 'frame2' gets loaded in some other instance of 'frame1', or not recognized by selenium (maybe a bug?). So now selenium is inside some 'frame1' and for some reasons does not realize that the 'frame2' has been loaded.

The only way I can fix this (without using a long sleep) is by using this ugly piece of code:

    mustend = time.time() + 300
    while time.time() < mustend:
        try:
            self.driver.switch_to_default_content()
            self.driver.switch_to.frame(self.driver.find_element_by_id("frame1"))
            self.driver.switch_to.frame(self.driver.find_element_by_id("frame2"))               
            break
        except WebDriverException as e:
            self.log("Sleeping 1 sec")
            time.sleep(1)
    if time.time() > mustend:
        raise TimeoutException

So whenever I get a WebDriverException (dead object), I go to the top-level frame and try to switch to the inner frame - frame by frame.

Is there any other approach I can try?

Additional information

The iframes are nested, i.e. 'frame2' is inside 'frame1'.

I will try to copy parts of the html, but not sure how I can do that easily... — Alex, Dec 14 '17 at 15:14

suit · Answer 1 · 2017-12-14T15:32:39.100

3

Better approach is to make your own expected_condition. For example:

class nested_frames_to_be_available_and_switch:
    def __init__(self, *args):
        """
        :param args: locators tuple of nested frames (BY.ID, "ID1"), (BY.ID, "ID2"), ...
        """
        self.locators = args

    def __call__(self, driver):
        try:
            for locator in self.locators:
                driver.switch_to.frame(driver.find_element(*locator))
        except WebDriverException:
            driver.switch_to_default_content()
            return False
        return True

WebDriverWait(driver, 300).until(nested_frames_to_be_available_and_switch((By.ID, 'frame1'), (By.ID, 'frame1')))

But maybe there is no need for that.. To tell so I need to see your html DOM.

edited Dec 14 '17 at 15:32

answered Dec 14 '17 at 13:48

suit

569
2
13

Its similar to my approach, but wrapped in some consistent naming. I like that... – Alex Dec 14 '17 at 14:26
@Alex, I have took another look at the EC.* classes and fixed my code – suit Dec 14 '17 at 15:34

undetected Selenium · Answer 2 · 2020-03-11T09:16:32.447

This error message...

WebDriverException: Message: TypeError: can't access dead object

...implies that there was an error while switching between <iframes>.

Some more information in terms of:

The relevant HTML
Presence of Frameset
Presence of Frames
Hierarchy of Nested Frames
Sequence of Frame Loading
Presence of JavaScript and AJAX Calls within the respective <iframe> tags

would have helped us to analyze the issue in a better way. However, at this point it is worth to mention that initially Selenium always gets the focus on the default_content. Here are a few approaches to work with nested <frames> and <framesets>:

If both frame1 and frame2 are at same level i.e. under the Top Level Browsing Context you need to:

self.driver.switch_to.frame(self.driver.find_element_by_id("frame1"))
self.driver.switch_to_default_content()
self.driver.switch_to.frame(self.driver.find_element_by_id("frame2"))

If frame2 is nested within frame1, to switch from frame1 to frame2 you need to:

self.driver.switch_to_default_content()
self.driver.switch_to.frame(self.driver.find_element_by_id("frame1"))
//code
self.driver.switch_to.frame(self.driver.find_element_by_id("frame2"))

If frame2 and frame3 is within frame1 then, to switch from frame2 to frame3 you need to:

self.driver.switch_to.frame(self.driver.find_element_by_id("frame2"))
self.driver.switch_to.frame(self.driver.find_element_by_id("frame1"))
self.driver.switch_to.frame(self.driver.find_element_by_id("frame3"))

If frame2 and frame3 is within a frameset23 which is within frame1 then, to switch from frame2 to frame3 you need to:

self.driver.switch_to.frame(self.driver.find_element_by_id("frame2"))
#ignore presence of frameset23
self.driver.switch_to.frame(self.driver.find_element_by_id("frame1"))
#ignore presence of frameset23
self.driver.switch_to.frame(self.driver.find_element_by_id("frame3"))

Better approach with proper WebDriverWait

While dealing with iframe and frameset you need to induce WebDriverWait inconjunction with expected_conditions:

frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it()

As an example to switch from Top Level Browsing Context to an <iframe> an effective line of code will be:

Using frame ID:

WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.ID,"frameID")))

Using frame NAME:

WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.NAME,"frameNAME")))

Using frame CLASS_NAME:

WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.frame_CLASS_NAME,"u_0_f")))

Using frame CSS_SELECTOR:

WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.CSS_SELECTOR,"frame_CSS_SELECTOR")))

Using frame XPATH:

WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.XPATH,"frame_XPATH")))

tl; dr

Ways to deal with #document under iframe

Tried it all including `WebDriverWait`. With that I get the same error (i.e. see question where I use `WebDriverWait`...) — Alex, Dec 14 '17 at 15:23
DebanjanB: Do you know of some documentation/book which explains in depth all of the HTML DOM, Framesets, Frame loading, interaction with javascript, AJAX calls etc etc etc? — Alex, Jul 05 '18 at 09:51

How to address "WebDriverException: Message: TypeError: can't access dead object" and wait for a frame to be available using Selenium and Python

2 Answers2

Better approach with proper WebDriverWait

tl; dr

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