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<div id="address" class="guideFieldDescription short" style="null;display:none">
<p>
    Enter home address for the contact person. Leave blank if you don't have one. Home Address and Mailing Address must be located in the United States. No international addresses will be accepted. If the home addresses and mailing addresses are different, you must fill out both sections.<br>
</p>

I'm trying to get the

tag content but I'm getting either null or empty using the script below 

WebElement WebElement = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id='address']"));     
List<WebElement> paras = WebElement.findElements(By.tagName("p"));

System.out.println("Size = " + paras.size() + "   " + paras.toString() );

for (WebElement para : paras) {
  System.out.println(para.getText());}

I get the size is = 1, but the getText() return empty.

Sherif Abdelzaher
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  • 4

1 Answers1

1

Selenium getText() can't get text from elements with display: none, which includes the div and its children p paragraphs. If the elements were visible (weren't set to display: none;), your code would be working.

Instead of using getText(), you can use a JavascriptExecutor to get the innerText of the element if it's invisible. See this possible duplicate question: Using selenium, can I get the text of an invisible element?

Here is a function which gets the inner text

/**
 * Get the innerText from an element.
 * @param driver    the WebDriver
 * @param element   the element to get innerText from
 * @return  the element's innerText
 */
public static String getInnerText(WebDriver driver, WebElement element) {
    JavascriptExecutor executor = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
    return (String) executor.executeScript("return arguments[0].innerText", element);
}

This function is used in the below code sample.

To see the difference between getText() and getting innerText for visible and invisible elements, here is a complete working example program (NOTE the step in the middle to debug and add the display: none manually):

import io.github.bonigarcia.wdm.WebDriverManager;
import java.util.List;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.JavascriptExecutor;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

class DemonstrateGetTextVsGetInnerTextForDisplayNoneElements {

    public static void main(final String[] args) {
        WebDriverManager.chromedriver().setup();
        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

        // Let's go to a page that mirrors the use case of a div container,
        // with children paragraphs.
        // The difference: this page doesn't have display: none set on the container.
        driver.get("https://www.google.com/intl/en/about/");
        final WebElement container = driver.findElement(By.className("home-hero-copy"));
        final List<WebElement> paragraphs = container.findElements(By.tagName("p"));

        System.out.println("getText() works as normal for *VISIBLE* containers and paragraphs.");

        System.out.println("CONTAINER: " + container.getText());
        System.out.println(
            "LIST OF PARAGRAPHS, Size = " + paragraphs.size() + "   " + paragraphs.toString());
        for (final WebElement paragraph : paragraphs) {
            System.out.println("PARAGRAPH: " + paragraph.getText());
        }

        System.out.println("SET THE JAVA DEBUGGER TO PAUSE RIGHT HERE, "
            + "GO INTO THE BROWSER AND INJECT \"display: none;\" "
            + "as a style on the div.home-hero-copy element to make"
            + "the div and its child paragraphs invisible. "
            + "You can do this by using the developer tools elements panel.");

        System.out.println("If you've made the container invisible, "
            + "you should notice that in the following block of printouts "
            + "that we've still got references to the WebElements (they aren't stale) "
            + "but when we try to getText() while they are invisible from 'display: none;', "
            + "we won't get any text back.");

        System.out.println("CONTAINER: " + container.getText());
        System.out.println(
            "LIST OF PARAGRAPHS, Size = " + paragraphs.size() + "   " + paragraphs.toString());
        for (final WebElement paragraph : paragraphs) {
            System.out.println("PARAGRAPH: " + paragraph.getText());
        }

        System.out.println("Now, let's try getting the text via 'innerText' with a Javascript Executor");

        System.out.println("CONTAINER: " + getInnerText(driver, container));
        System.out.println(
            "LIST OF PARAGRAPHS, Size = " + paragraphs.size() + "   " + paragraphs.toString());
        for (final WebElement paragraph : paragraphs) {
            System.out.println("PARAGRAPH: " + getInnerText(driver, paragraph));
        }

        System.out.println("As you can see, getting inner text works when the element is invisible!");

        driver.quit();
    }

    /**
     * Get the innerText from an element.
     * @param driver    the WebDriver
     * @param element   the element to get innerText from
     * @return  the element's innerText
     */
    public static String getInnerText(WebDriver driver, WebElement element) {
        JavascriptExecutor executor = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
        return (String) executor.executeScript("return arguments[0].innerText", element);
    }
}

The output of this program should look like this

Connected to the target VM, address: '127.0.0.1:62943', transport: 'socket'
Starting ChromeDriver 71.0.3578.33 (269aa0e3f0db08097f0fe231c7e6be200b6939f7) on port 15369
Only local connections are allowed.
Nov 13, 2018 11:07:46 AM org.openqa.selenium.remote.ProtocolHandshake createSession
INFO: Detected dialect: OSS
getText() works as normal for *VISIBLE* containers and paragraphs.
CONTAINER: Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
LIST OF PARAGRAPHS, Size = 1   [[[[[ChromeDriver: chrome on MAC (bbb9840f94250510047ac8e04b055d88)] -> class name: home-hero-copy]] -> tag name: p]]
PARAGRAPH: Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
SET THE JAVA DEBUGGER TO PAUSE RIGHT HERE, GO INTO THE BROWSER AND INJECT "display: none;" as a style on the div.home-hero-copy element to makethe div and its child paragraphs invisible. You can do this by using the developer tools elements panel.
If you've made the container invisible, you should notice that in the following block of printouts that we've still got references to the WebElements (they aren't stale) but when we try to getText() while they are invisible from 'display: none;', we won't get any text back.
CONTAINER: 
LIST OF PARAGRAPHS, Size = 1   [[[[[ChromeDriver: chrome on MAC (bbb9840f94250510047ac8e04b055d88)] -> class name: home-hero-copy]] -> tag name: p]]
PARAGRAPH: 
Now, let's try getting the text via 'innerText' with a Javascript Executor
CONTAINER: Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
LIST OF PARAGRAPHS, Size = 1   [[[[[ChromeDriver: chrome on MAC (bbb9840f94250510047ac8e04b055d88)] -> class name: home-hero-copy]] -> tag name: p]]
PARAGRAPH: Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
As you can see, getting inner text works when the element is invisible!
Disconnected from the target VM, address: '127.0.0.1:62943', transport: 'socket'

Process finished with exit code 0

And just in case Google ever changes their page, here is what the div and its children look like:

<div class="home-hero-copy center">
    <p>Our mission is to <span class="color-hero">organize</span> the world’s <span class="color-hero">information</span> and make it <span class="color-hero">universally accessible</span> and <span class="color-hero">useful</span>.</p>
</div>
George Pantazes
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