How to get rid of the hardcoded sleep()?

Question

def textfield(boxid,textadded):
    project = driver.find_element_by_id(boxid)
    project.send_keys(textadded)
    sleep(3)

def dropdown(dropdownid, dropdownvalue):
    select = Select(driver.find_element_by_id(dropdownid))
    select.select_by_visible_text(dropdownvalue)
    sleep(5)

These 2 functions are functional however i'm using sleep() which is a bad practice since some my drop-downs and text fields will take longer than others to fill so i have to put the longest sleep value not to get errors, how can i fix these 2 functions using wait.

Answer 1

As you are invoking send_keys() on the WebElement project, ideally you should invoke WebDriverWait with EC as element_to_be_clickable, so you have to:

• Replace:

  def textfield(boxid,textadded):
      project = driver.find_element_by_id(boxid)
      project.send_keys(textadded)
      sleep(3)
  

• with:

  def textfield(boxid,textadded):
      WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.ID, "boxid"))).send_keys(textadded)
  

As the drop-down take longer to fill so you should invoke WebDriverWait with EC as visibility_of_element_located, so you have to:

• Replace:

  def dropdown(dropdownid, dropdownvalue):
      select = Select(driver.find_element_by_id(dropdownid))
      select.select_by_visible_text(dropdownvalue)
      sleep(5)
  

• with:

  def dropdown(dropdownid, dropdownvalue):
      select = Select(WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.ID, "dropdownid"))))
      select.select_by_visible_text(dropdownvalue)
  

Note : You have to add the following imports :

from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

Answer 2

You can explicitly wait for the element. Read more about waits here. Please note that this is not the official documentation.

#.....
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
#......
select=WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID ,dropdownid)))
#....

Answer 3

You should use WebDriverWait!

You can use presence_of_all_elements_located on the list of select items...

An example:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

WebDriverWait(driver, 10).wait.until(EC.presence_of_all_elements_located((By.ID, dropdownid))) 

Hope this helps!