javaautomated-testswebdriverselenium-webdriver

Reputation: 6414

WebDriver open new tab

I have trawled the web and the WebDriver API. I don't see a way to open new tabs using WebDriver/Selenium2.0 .

Can someone please confirm if I am right?

Thanks, Chris. P.S: The current alternative I see is to either load different urls in the same window or open new windows.

Upvotes: 27

Answers (17)

Shrikant Khadilkar

Reputation: 350

I would prefer opening a new window. Is there really a difference in opening a new window vs opening a new tab from an automated solution perspective ?

you can modify the anchors target property and once clicked the target page would open in a new window.

Then use driver.switchTo() to switch to the new window. Use it to solve your issue

Upvotes: 0

anuja jain

Reputation: 1387

@Test
 public void openTab() {
  //Open tab 2 using CTRL + t keys.
  driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("body")).sendKeys(Keys.CONTROL +"t");


 //Open URL In 2nd tab.
  driver.get("http://www.qaautomated.com/p/contact.html");

  //Call switchToTab() method to switch to 1st tab
  switchToTab(); 
}

public void switchToTab() {
  //Switching between tabs using CTRL + tab keys.
  driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("body")).sendKeys(Keys.CONTROL +"\t");
  //Switch to current selected tab's content.
  driver.switchTo().defaultContent();  
 }

we can use keyboard events and automate opening and switching between multiple tabs very easily. This example is refered from HERE

Upvotes: 1

Boni García

Reputation: 4868

Java Robot can be used to send Ctrl+t (or Cmd+t if MAC OS X) as follows:

int vkControl = IS_OS_MAC ? KeyEvent.VK_META : KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL;
Robot robot = new Robot();
robot.keyPress(vkControl);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_T);
robot.keyRelease(vkControl);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_T);

A complete running example using Chrome as browser can be forked here.

Upvotes: 0

Jay Byford-Rew

Reputation: 6024

Do this

_webDriver.SwitchTo().Window(_webDriver.WindowHandles.Where(x => x != _webDriver.CurrentWindowHandle).First());

or Last() etc.

PS there is no guarantee that the WindowHandles are in the order displayed on your browser, therefore, I would advise you keep some history of current windows before you do the command to that caused a new tab to open. Then you can compare your stored window handles with the current set and switch to the new one in the list, of which, there should only be one.

Upvotes: 1

Md. Nazmul Haque Sarker

Reputation: 1051

For MAC OS

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

driver = webdriver.Firefox()
driver.get("http://google.com")
body = driver.find_element_by_tag_name("body")
body.send_keys(Keys.COMMAND + 't')

Upvotes: 0

bugCracker

Reputation: 3796

Instead of opening new tab you can open new window using below code.

for(String childTab : driver.getWindowHandles())
    {
        driver.switchTo().window(childTab);
    }

Upvotes: -2

Li Liu

Reputation: 1

You can try this way, since there is action_chain in the new webdriver. I'm using Python, so please ignore the grammar:

act = ActionChains(driver)
act.key_down(Keys.CONTROL)
act.click(link).perform()
act.key_up(Keys.CONTROL)

Upvotes: 0

Khaled Nakawa

Reputation: 35

Hey @Paul and who ever is having issue opening a second tab in python. Here is the solution

I'm not sure if this is a bug within the webdriver or because it isn't compatible yet with mutlitab but it is definitely acting wrong with it and I will show how to fix it.

Issue: well I see more than one issue.

First issue has to do that when you open a 2nd tab you can only see one handle instead of two.

2nd issue and here is where my solution comes in. It seems that although the handle value is still stored in the driver the window has lost sync with it for reason.

Here is the solution by fixing the 2nd issue:

elem = browser.find_element_by_xpath("/html/body/div[2]/div[4]/div/a") #href link
time.sleep(2) 
elem.send_keys(Keys.CONTROL + Keys.RETURN + "2") #Will open a second tab

#solution for the 2nd issue is here    
for handle in browser.window_handles:
        print "Handle is:" + str(handle) #only one handle number
        browser.switch_to_window(handle)

time.sleep(3)

#Switch the frame over. Even if you have switched it before you need to do it again
browser.switch_to_frame("Frame") 


"""now this is how you handle closing the tab and working again with the original tab"""

#again switch window over
elem.send_keys(Keys.CONTROL + "w")
for handle in browser.window_handles:
    print "HandleAgain is:" + str(handle) #same handle number as before
    browser.switch_to_window(handle)

#again switch frame over if you are working with one
browser.switch_to_frame("Frame") 

time.sleep(3)
#doing a second round/tab
elem = browser.find_element_by_xpath("/html/body/div[2]/div[4]/div/a") #href link
time.sleep(2) 
elem.send_keys(Keys.CONTROL + Keys.RETURN + "2") #open a 2nd tab again

"""Got it? find the handle, switch over the window then switch the frame"""

It is working perfectly for me. I'm open for questions...

Upvotes: 1

user2283070

Reputation: 177

        var windowHandles = webDriver.WindowHandles;
        var script = string.Format("window.open('{0}', '_blank');", url);
        scriptExecutor.ExecuteScript(script);
        var newWindowHandles = webDriver.WindowHandles;
        var openedWindowHandle = newWindowHandles.Except(windowHandles).Single();
        webDriver.SwitchTo().Window(openedWindowHandle);

Upvotes: 9

deactivate

Reputation: 71

I had the same issue and found an answer. Give a try.

Robot r = new Robot(); 
r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL); 
r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_T); 
r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL); 
r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_T);

It will open a new tab you can perform your actions in the new tab.

Upvotes: 4

Anand

Reputation: 1

IJavaScriptExecutor is very useful class which can manipulate HTML DOM on run time through JavaScript, below is sample code on how to open a new browser tab in Selenium through IJavaScriptExecutor:

IJavaScriptExecutor js = (IJavaScriptExecutor)driver;
                object linkObj = js.ExecuteScript("var link = document.createElement('a');link.target='_blank';link.href='http://www.gmail.com';link.innerHTML='Click Me';document.getElementById('social').appendChild(link);return link");
                /*IWebElement link = (IWebElement)linkObj;
                link.Click();*/
                browser.Click("//*[@id='social']/a[3]");

Just to give an insight, there are no methods in Selenium which would allow you to open new tab, the above code would dynamically create an anchor element and directs it open an new tab.

Upvotes: 0

Mayur Shah

Reputation: 279

There's no way we can create new TAB or handle tabs using web driver / selenium 2.0

You can open a new window instead.

Upvotes: 1

bbbco

Reputation: 1540

Thanks for the great idea @Jonathan Azoff !

Here's how I did it in Ruby:

def open_new_window(url)
  a = @driver.execute_script("var d=document,a=d.createElement('a');a.target='_blank';a.href=arguments[0];a.innerHTML='.';d.body.appendChild(a);return a", url)
  a.click
  @driver.switch_to.window(@driver.window_handles.last)
end

Upvotes: 1

Pa_

Reputation: 531

I must say i tried this as well, and while it seemingly works with some bindings (Java, as far as Jonathan says, and ruby too, apparently), with others it doesnt: selenium python bindings report just one handle per window, even if containing multiple tabs

Upvotes: 0

Jonathan Azoff

Reputation: 676

There is totally a cross-browser way to do this using webdriver, those who say you can not are just too lazy. First, you need to use WebDriver to inject and anchor tag into the page that opens the tab you want. Here's how I do it (note: driver is a WebDriver instance):

/**
 * Executes a script on an element
 * @note Really should only be used when the web driver is sucking at exposing
 * functionality natively
 * @param script The script to execute
 * @param element The target of the script, referenced as arguments[0]
 */
public void trigger(String script, WebElement element) {
    ((JavascriptExecutor)driver).executeScript(script, element);
}

/** Executes a script
 * @note Really should only be used when the web driver is sucking at exposing
 * functionality natively
 * @param script The script to execute
 */
public Object trigger(String script) {
    return ((JavascriptExecutor)driver).executeScript(script);
}

/**
 * Opens a new tab for the given URL
 * @param url The URL to 
 * @throws JavaScriptException If unable to open tab
 */
public void openTab(String url) {
    String script = "var d=document,a=d.createElement('a');a.target='_blank';a.href='%s';a.innerHTML='.';d.body.appendChild(a);return a";
    Object element = trigger(String.format(script, url));
    if (element instanceof WebElement) {
        WebElement anchor = (WebElement) element; anchor.click();
        trigger("var a=arguments[0];a.parentNode.removeChild(a);", anchor);
    } else {
        throw new JavaScriptException(element, "Unable to open tab", 1);
    }       
}

Next, you need to tell webdriver to switch its current window handle to the new tab. Here's how I do that:

/**
 * Switches to the non-current window
 */
public void switchWindow() throws NoSuchWindowException, NoSuchWindowException {
    Set<String> handles = driver.getWindowHandles();
    String current = driver.getWindowHandle();
    handles.remove(current);
    String newTab = handles.iterator().next();
    locator.window(newTab);
}

After this is done, you may then interact with elements in the new page context using the same WebDriver instance. Once you are done with that tab, you can always return back to the default window context by using a similar mechanism to the switchWindow function above. I'll leave that as an exercise for you to figure out.

Upvotes: 35

Ola Ajibode

Reputation: 11

Though there is no API for opening a new tab, you can just create a new instance of WebDriver calling it something slightly different and passing the URL you want in the new tab. Once you have done all you need to do, close that tab and make the new driver NULL so that it does not interfere with the original instance of Webdriver. If you need both tabs open, then ensure you refer to the appropriate instance of WebDriver. Used this for Sitecore CMS automation and it worked.

Upvotes: 1

JimEvans

Reputation: 27496

The Selenium WebDriver API does not support managing tabs within the browser at present.

Upvotes: 30

WebDriver open new tab

Answers (17)

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