How to download an image using Selenium (any version)?

Question

I was wondering, how can one use selenium/webdriver to download an image for a page. Assuming that the user session is required to download the image hence having pure URL i

Answer 1

How to download to a file, taking URL from element text or attribute

The complete extension code can be found here:

https://github.com/gravity-api/gravity-core/blob/master/src/csharp/Gravity.Core/Gravity.Core/Extensions/WebElementExtensions.cs

If you want to use this method without writing the code, use the NuGet https://www.nuget.org/packages/Gravity.Core/

Install-Package Gravity.Core -Version 2020.7.5.3

Usage

using OpenQA.Selenium.Extensions;
 
...
 
var driver = new ChromeDriver();
 
// from element attribute
var element = driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//img[@id='my_img']")).DownloadResource(path: @"C:\images\cap_image_01.png", attribute: "src");
 
// from element text
var element = driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//div[1]")).DownloadResource(path: @"C:\images\cap_image_01.png");

It is recommended to use the NuGet, since it contains a lot more tools and extension for Selenium

For using without the NuGet (implement on your own)

Extension Class

using System.IO;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
 
namespace Extensions
{
    public static class WebElementExtensions
    {
        public static IWebElement DownloadResource(this IWebElement element, string path)
        {
            return DoDownloadResource(element, path, "");
        }
 
        public static IWebElement DownloadResource(this IWebElement element, string path, string attribute)
        {
            return DoDownloadResource(element, path, attribute);
        }
 
        private static IWebElement DoDownloadResource(this IWebElement element, string path, string attribute)
        {
            // get resource address
            var resource = (string.IsNullOrEmpty(attribute))
                ? element.Text
                : element.GetAttribute(attribute);
 
            // download resource
            using (var client = new HttpClient())
            {
                // get response for the current resource
                var httpResponseMessage = client.GetAsync(resource).GetAwaiter().GetResult();
 
                // exit condition
                if (!httpResponseMessage.IsSuccessStatusCode) return element;
 
                // create directories path
                Directory.CreateDirectory(path);
 
                // get absolute file name
                var fileName = Regex.Match(resource, @"[^/\\&\?]+\.\w{3,4}(?=([\?&].*$|$))").Value;
                path = (path.LastIndexOf(@"\") == path.Length - 1)
                    ? path + fileName
                    : path + $@"\{fileName}";
 
                // write the file
                File.WriteAllBytes(path, httpResponseMessage.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync().GetAwaiter().GetResult());
            }
 
            // keep the fluent
            return element;
        }
    }
}

Usage

using Extensions;
 
...
 
var driver = new ChromeDriver();
 
// from element attribute
var element = driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//img[@id='my_img']")).DownloadResource(path: @"C:\images\cap_image_01.png", attribute: "src");
 
// from element text
var element = driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//div[1]")).DownloadResource(path: @"C:\images\cap_image_01.png");