WebDriver Selenium API: ElementNotFoundErrorException when Element is clearly there !

Question

sometimes when running tests on WebDriver with Javascript turned off, WebDriver crashes due to an ElementNotFound Error when it finds an element, and attempts to click it.

Answer 1

Fluent Wait - Best approach as it's the most flexible and configurable on the fly (has ignore exceptions option, polling every, timeout):

public Wait getFluentWait() {
    return new FluentWait<>(this.driver)
            .withTimeout(driverTimeoutSeconds, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
            .pollingEvery(500, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
            .ignoring(StaleElementReferenceException.class)
            .ignoring(NoSuchElementException.class)
            .ignoring(ElementNotVisibleException.class)
}

Use like so:

WebElement webElement = getFluentWait().until(x -> { return driver.findElement(elementBy); } );

Explicit Wait - Well it's the same as FluentWait but with pre-configured pollingEvery and the type of Wait e.g. FluentWait (faster to use):

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 30000);
WebElement item = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(yourBy));

ImplicitWait - Not recommended as it is configured once for all your session. This also is used for every find element and waits for presence only (no ExpectedConditions etc...):

driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);