Interacting with web elements

A high-level instruction set for manipulating form controls.

There are only 5 basic commands that can be executed on an element:

  • click (applies to any element)
  • send keys (only applies to text fields and content editable elements)
  • clear (only applies to text fields and content editable elements)
  • submit (only applies to form elements)
  • select (see Select List Elements)

Additional validations

These methods are designed to closely emulate a user’s experience, so, unlike the Actions API, it attempts to perform two things before attempting the specified action.

  1. If it determines the element is outside the viewport, it scrolls the element into view, specifically it will align the bottom of the element with the bottom of the viewport.
  2. It ensures the element is interactable before taking the action. This could mean that the scrolling was unsuccessful, or that the element is not otherwise displayed. Determining if an element is displayed on a page was too difficult to define directly in the webdriver specification, so Selenium sends an execute command with a JavaScript atom that checks for things that would keep the element from being displayed. If it determines an element is not in the viewport, not displayed, not keyboard-interactable, or not pointer-interactable, it returns an element not interactable error.

Click

The element click command is executed on the center of the element. If the center of the element is obscured for some reason, Selenium will return an element click intercepted error.

        driver.get("https://www.selenium.dev/selenium/web/inputs.html");

	    // Click on the element 
        WebElement checkInput=driver.findElement(By.name("checkbox_input"));
        checkInput.click();
    # Navigate to URL
    driver.get("https://www.selenium.dev/selenium/web/inputs.html")

    # Click on the checkbox
    check_input = driver.find_element(By.NAME, "checkbox_input")
    check_input.click()
            // Navigate to Url
	            driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("https://www.selenium.dev/selenium/web/inputs.html");
	            // Click on the element 
	            IWebElement checkInput = driver.FindElement(By.Name("checkbox_input"));
	            checkInput.Click();
    driver.find_element(name: 'color_input').click
    // Navigate to Url
    driver.get("https://www.selenium.dev/selenium/web/inputs.html")

    // Click the element
    driver.findElement(By.name("color_input")).click();

Send keys

The element send keys command types the provided keys into an editable element. Typically, this means an element is an input element of a form with a text type or an element with a content-editable attribute. If it is not editable, an invalid element state error is returned.

Here is the list of possible keystrokes that WebDriver Supports.

        // Clear field to empty it from any previous data
        WebElement emailInput=driver.findElement(By.name("email_input"));
        emailInput.clear();
	    //Enter Text
        String email="admin@localhost.dev";
	    emailInput.sendKeys(email);
    # Handle the email input field
    email_input = driver.find_element(By.NAME, "email_input")
    email_input.clear()  # Clear field
    
    email = "admin@localhost.dev"
    email_input.send_keys(email)  # Enter text
            //SendKeys
	            // Clear field to empty it from any previous data
	            IWebElement emailInput = driver.FindElement(By.Name("email_input"));
	            emailInput.Clear();
	            //Enter Text
	            String email = "admin@localhost.dev";
	            emailInput.SendKeys(email);
    driver.find_element(name: 'email_input').send_keys 'admin@localhost.dev'
        await inputField.sendKeys('Selenium');
  
    // Navigate to Url
    driver.get("https://www.selenium.dev/selenium/web/inputs.html")

	//Clear field to empty it from any previous data
	driver.findElement(By.name("email_input")).clear()
	
    // Enter text 
    driver.findElement(By.name("email_input")).sendKeys("admin@localhost.dev")

Clear

The element clear command resets the content of an element. This requires an element to be editable, and resettable. Typically, this means an element is an input element of a form with a text type or an element with acontent-editable attribute. If these conditions are not met, an invalid element state error is returned.

        //Clear Element
        // Clear field to empty it from any previous data
        emailInput.clear();
    email_input.clear()
            //Clear Element
	            // Clear field to empty it from any previous data
	            emailInput.Clear();
	            data = emailInput.GetAttribute("value");
    driver.find_element(name: 'email_input').clear
        await inputField.clear();
  
    // Navigate to Url
    driver.get("https://www.selenium.dev/selenium/web/inputs.html")

	//Clear field to empty it from any previous data
	driver.findElement(By.name("email_input")).clear()

Submit

In Selenium 4 this is no longer implemented with a separate endpoint and functions by executing a script. As such, it is recommended not to use this method and to click the applicable form submission button instead.

Last modified November 30, 2024: chore: add `text=true` to the broken code examples (#2088)[deploy site] (3a3c6b9faa)