Java and Selenium: Extreme StaleElementReferenceException

Question

I'm experiencing a StaleElementReferenceExpection that seems beyond all reason in an application. It involves absolutely no refreshing or reloading of the page, but just two consecutive actions of accessing the element - one click and one assertion that the element is not selected.

Java/Selenium code:

this.element.findElement(By.cssSelector("input[type='checkbox']")).sendKeys(Keys.SPACE);
(SPACE is used because when usng click, Selenium claims "ElementClickInterceptedExcpetion - other element would receive the click")

assertThat(this.element.findElement(By.cssSelector("input[type='checkbox']")).isSelected()).isFalse();

This results in:

org.openqa.selenium.StaleElementReferenceException: stale element reference: element is not attached to the page document

even when I use brake points int the code, and skip slowly through each step.

Markup:

<div class="hb-cell hb-cell--autoWidth">
 <input tusenskilletegn="" id="utgift-2-belop">
  <input type="checkbox" id="utgift-2-inkludert">
   <div class="hb-label>
    <label class="hb-label-tekst" for="utgift-2-inkludert"></label>
   </div>
  </div>

Also tried accessing the for" in the label, with no luck: (using partial match, in this example)

this.element.findElement(By.cssSelector("label[for$=-inkludert]")).click();

It results in

org.openqa.selenium.ElementNotInteractableException: element not interactable

Any ideas? Selenium seems to have become impossible for me to use lately, with this type of error occuring all "over the place".

after clicking (or sending space to select the checkbox) the DOM is updating.... during the updating you are trying to get the state of that checkbox, so you receive a stale element reference. Easy fix would be to just add a sleep after you send the space. Otherwise use a webdriverwait to find the element and catch Stale Element, re-getting the element if caught. (you need to re-find it since the reference is stale) — pcalkins, Jun 07 '22 at 20:52
Does `label[for$=-inkludert]` identifies the desired element uniquely? — undetected Selenium, Jun 07 '22 at 21:23

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 08 '22 at 10:37

If you have issues with the click() function you could always just click it using JS

public void clickWebElementUsingJS(WebElement element) {
    JavascriptExecutor executor = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
    executor.executeScript("arguments[0].click();", element);
}

As for the StaleElementReferenceExpection instead of adding an arbitrary Thread.sleep you could just write a little helper method using ExpectedConditions to click it and wait for the element to go stale, then just find the element again.

private WebElement clickCheckBoxAndWaitToGoStale() {
    final By byCSS = By.cssSelector("input#utgift-2-inkludert");
    // find the element
    WebElement checkbox = this.element.findElement(byCSS);

    // click it
    clickWebElementUsingJS(checkbox ); // or sendKeys(Keys.SPACE) if this doesn't work or you just prefer it

    // wait for the WebElement variable to go stale
    try {
        new FluentWait<>(driver)
                .withTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(5))
                .pollingEvery(Duration.ofSeconds(1))
                .ignoring(StaleElementReferenceException.class)
                .ignoring(NullPointerException.class)
                .until(ExpectedConditions.invisibilityOf(element));
    } catch (WebDriverException e) {
        // log
    }
    // re-find and return the checkbox to run the assert on
    return this.element.findElement(byCSS);
}

Java and Selenium: Extreme StaleElementReferenceException

1 Answers1