How to click on an input element using Selenium and Python

Question

I'm trying to click on the tab with text as Python within the Selenium documentation website.

HTML:

<input type="radio" name="tabsetcode2" id="tab1code2" aria-controls="pythoncode2">

But I'm facing TimeoutException:

selenium.common.exceptions.TimeoutException: Message:

Code trials:

driver.get('https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/en/')
WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "input[aria-controls='pythoncode2']"))).click()

Can anyone help me out to click on the Python tab?

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 27 '20 at 23:43

1

You can click on the label instead and it works.

driver.get('https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/en/')
WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//label[@for='tab1code2']"))).click()

answered Dec 27 '20 at 23:43

Arundeep Chohan

9,779
5
15
32

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 27 '20 at 23:24

Try waiting by xpath

WebDriverWait(browser, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, '*//div[@class="tabset"]/label[2]'))).click()

If still doesn't work, try waiting till visible

WebDriverWait(browser, 20).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH, '*//div[@class="tabset"]/label[2]'))).click()

gordon so · Answer 3 · 2020-12-28T01:00:19.860

Firstly, there is a preference to use Id > Css selector > XPaths. So the example code could have been (By.CSS_SELECTOR, "#pythoncode2") or better (By.ID, "pythoncode2").

However, that is not a clickable the element anyway, so despite waiting 20 seconds, it would always reach timeout waiting for it to become 'clickable'. (the circle of the radio button has the styling of left -1704px which is off the screen if you go into "developer mode" on the browser via F12 and select that tab. The driver consider anything outside its viewport as unclickable)

The clickable element is the target label; there is no Id, but you can find it by CSS: (By.CSS_SELECTOR, "label[for=tab1code2]")

Here's my working code to prove it working:

from selenium import webdriver

if __name__ == '__main__':
    driver = webdriver.Chrome("./chromedriver")
    driver.get('https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/en/')
    driver.find_element_by_css_selector("label[for=tab1code2]").click()

_...clickable element is the target label..._ shouldn't `` be the clickable element? — undetected Selenium, Dec 27 '20 at 23:56
It would be relating to the clickable 'radio button circle' being off the screen. Go into "developer mode" on the browser via F12 and select that element, the styling is computed to be `left -1704px`. The selenium driver can only click on an element within the viewport. — gordon so, Dec 28 '20 at 00:55

Nic Laforge · Answer 4 · 2020-12-28T00:58:23.893

The element is indeed clickable. But it is bounded with a label tag.

For more information, about binding label and info here

Using EC.element_to_be_clickable also ensure that the element is visible which is not the case.

class element_to_be_clickable(object):
    """ An Expectation for checking an element is visible and enabled such that
    you can click it."""

You can confirm that it is clickable by calling is_enabled. This method only validate that the attribute disabled is not false.

driver.find_element_by_css_selector("input[aria-controls='pythoncode2']").is_enabled()

Or

driver.find_element_by_css_selector("input[aria-controls='pythoncode2']").get_attribute('disabled') != "true"

Result:

True

But the EC.element_to_be_clickable also calls to is_displayed to determine if the element is visible as well

driver.find_element_by_css_selector("input[aria-controls='pythoncode2']").is_displayed()

Result:

False

This is why, no matter how long you wait, it will never become true.

To click on the input element, you might target the label element instead. They are bound together with the attribute for=id

In your case

driver.find_element_by_css_selector('[for="tab1code2"]')

Also:

driver.find_element_by_css_selector('[for="tab1code2"]').is_enabled()
driver.find_element_by_css_selector('[for="tab1code2"]').is_displayed()

Both returns: True

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Dec 28 '20 at 01:32

If you try to click the element with the css selector you've chosen, the following exception is thrown:

ElementNotInteractableException: Message: element not interactable"

The reason why, is the fact the type="radio" attribute.

Instead of that, you should try to click the label element underneath with the following css selector:

("label[for=tab1code2]")

So, your code should look like:

WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "label[for=tab1code2]"))).click()

How to click on an input element using Selenium and Python

5 Answers5