CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonseleniumxpathpython-3.x
Phoenix
Phoenix

Reputation: 4656

Python - Selenium - implicit wait for multiple elements

Currently I use implicit wait to locate elements before issuing any action upon them. See example of implicit wait:

WebDriverWait(browser,10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located(By.XPATH(('xpath')))

This works fine when dealing with a single element. However, it appears that if the xpath relates to multiple elements then EC.presence_of_element_located() will time out. My question is, how do I do an implicit wait for multiple elements?

Clarification:

Single element -

WebDriverWait(browser,10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located(By.XPATH(('xpath')))
browser.find_element_by_xpath('xpath')

Multiple element -

??
browser.find_elements_by_xpath('xpath')

Note: Notice use of find_elements_by_xpath() in multiple element instance instead of using find_element_by_xpath()

Upvotes: 8

Views: 14110

Answers (2)

Imad Sawaya
Imad Sawaya

Reputation: 231

I'm over two years late but I want to post this in case someone googles their way here like I did. You can use

WebDriverWait(browser, 10).until(
    EC.presence_of_all_elements_located((By.XPATH, 'xpath'))
)

and that will return all of them. You don't need to do 

browser.find_element_by_xpath('xpath')

after your explicit wait because WebDriverWait(browser,10).until(...) will return the element(s) you are waiting for.

Upvotes: 23

Arran
Arran

Reputation: 25076

The problem here is that it is simpler for a single item. It just has to wait until your locator returns a single, or more, elements.

When you deal with multiple elements, WebDriver cannot possibly know how long to wait because it has no idea about how many elements you expect to be there.

So you'll have to use an explicit wait instead.

In this explicit wait, you should:

  1. Run find_elements_by_path
  2. Check the result from the step is a collection that contains the amount of elements you need. If this isn't equal to the number you expect, you can let the "waiter" fail fast and go round again.
  3. If the above is true, you can exit your "waiting", otherwise, let the "waiter" go round again.

http://docs.seleniumhq.org/docs/04_webdriver_advanced.jsp

Upvotes: 7

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