How to open a new tab using Selenium WebDriver?

Question

How to open a new tab in the existing Firefox browser using Selenium WebDriver (a.k.a. Selenium 2)?

Answer 1

I am using Selenium 2.52.0 in Java and Firefox 44.0.2. Unfortunately none of above solutions worked for me. The problem is if I a call driver.getWindowHandles() I always get 1 single handle. Somehow this makes sense to me as Firefox is a single process and each tab is not a separate process. But maybe I am wrong. Anyhow I try to write my own solution:

        // open a new tab
        driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("body")).sendKeys(Keys.CONTROL + "t");

        //url to open in a new tab
        String urlToOpen = "https://url_to_open_in_a_new_tab";

        Iterator windowIterator = driver.getWindowHandles()
                .iterator();
        //I always get handlesSize == 1, regardless how many tabs I have
        int handlesSize = driver.getWindowHandles().size();

        //I had to grab the original handle
        String originalHandle = driver.getWindowHandle();

        driver.navigate().to(urlToOpen);

        Actions action = new Actions(driver);
        // close the newly opened tab
        action.keyDown(Keys.CONTROL).sendKeys("w").perform();
        // switch back to original
        action.keyDown(Keys.CONTROL).sendKeys("1").perform();

        //and switch back to the original handle. I am not sure why, but
        //it just did not work without this, like it has lost the focus
        driver.switchTo().window(originalHandle);

I used Ctrl+t combination to open a new tab, Ctrl+w to close it, and to switch back to original tab I used Ctrl+1 (the first tab). I am aware that mine solution is not perfect or even good and I would also like to switch with driver's switchTo call, but as I wrote it was not possible as I had only one handle. Maybe this will be helpful to someone with the same situation.