Unable to locate elements in Selenium (Python)

Question

I tried to use Selenium with Chrome but was unable to find elements on the page, I tried it with link text, XPath, full XPath but there was just one error and it wasn't clicking on the element.

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
driver= webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("https://www.youtube.com/")
print(driver.title)
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//*[@id='search']").click()

Output:

 UserWarning: find_element_by_* commands are deprecated. Please use find_element() instead
  warnings.warn("find_element_by_* commands are deprecated. Please use find_element() instead")

@Pete The first code you gave worked fine but I am still getting the error. — Amaan001, Apr 20 '20 at 07:43
@DipakBachhav I'm using ChromeDriver 81.0.4044.69 and version 81.0.4044.113 of the browser. — Amaan001, Apr 20 '20 at 07:50
i am asking you web driver not chrome driver and secondly find_element_by_* should not deprecated if you use latest stable version 3.141.59 of webdriver (https://www.selenium.dev/downloads/) — SeleniumUser, Apr 20 '20 at 08:12
@DipakBachhav I used the command: from selenium import webdriverprint, print ("Selenium webdriver Version: %s" % (webdriver.__version__)) And the version was: 4.0.0a5 — Amaan001, Apr 20 '20 at 09:00
@DipakBachhav I downgraded the driver to 3.141.59 and it is working fine now, thank you 3000. — Amaan001, Apr 20 '20 at 10:59

undetected Selenium · Answer 1 · 2021-12-01T18:04:05.700

This error message...

 UserWarning: find_element_by_* commands are deprecated. Please use find_element() instead
  warnings.warn("find_element_by_* commands are deprecated. Please use find_element() instead")

...implies that the find_element_by_* commands are now associated with a deprecation warning in the latest Selenium Python libraries.

This change is inline with the Selenium 4 Release Candidate 1 changelog which mentions:

Specify that the "find_element_by_* ..." warning is a deprecation warning (#9700)

Solution

Instead of find_element_by_* you have to use find_element(). As an example:

You need to add the following import:
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

Using xpath:

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//*[@id='search']").click()

Needs be replaced with:

driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//*[@id='search']").click()

Likewise you also have to consider the following changes:

Using class_name:

element = find_element_by_class_name("element_class_name")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.CLASS_NAME, "element_class_name")

Using id:

element = find_element_by_id("element_id")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.ID, "element_id")

Using name:

element = find_element_by_name("element_name")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.NAME, "element_name")

Using link_text:

element = find_element_by_link_text("element_link_text")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "element_link_text")

Using partial_link_text:

element = find_element_by_partial_link_text("element_partial_link_text")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT, "element_partial_link_text")

Using tag_name:

element = find_element_by_tag_name("element_tag_name")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "element_tag_name")

Using css_selector:

element = find_element_by_css_selector("element_css_selector")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "element_css_selector")

tl; dr

You can find a couple of relevant detailed discussion in:

Thank you, just need to mention that you have to import By [from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By] — Mhd O., Nov 22 '21 at 10:12
In case of replacing find_elements_by_tag_name don't forget the 's'. Use find_elements to get iterable as a result — Al Martins, Jan 11 '22 at 18:39

SeleniumUser · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-20T09:42:54.653

As per your comment you are using selenium webdriver version 4.0.0a5 which is not stable though. There is the potential that features may be added/removed between this release. Can you switch back to 3.141.59 and give a try :

driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="C:\New folder\chromedriver.exe",chrome_options=chrome_options)
url = 'http://www.youtube.com'
driver.get(url)
driver.maximize_window()
wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 20)

element = wait.until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH, "//form[@id='search-form']//div[@id='container']//div[@id='search-input']//input")))

actionChains = ActionChains(driver)
actionChains.move_to_element(element).click().perform()
actionChains.move_to_element(element).send_keys("Test",Keys.RETURN).perform()

Note : please add below imports to your solution

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

Peter · Answer 3 · 2020-04-19T17:59:24.077

I changed the xpath of the search box to (there are multiple elements with id 'search'): driver.find_element_by_xpath("//input[@id='search']").click()

I then ran your code and it worked with no errors or warnings. Do this fix it for you?

Also, I don't know what you're trying to accomplish overall, but if you want to search something then you don't need to click the search bar first, you could just do.

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//input[@id='search']").send_keys("Your search query")
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//button[@id='search-icon-legacy']").click()

As for the warning: "find_element_by_* commands are deprecated. Please use find_element() instead" I believe that is because selenium is wanting you to use:

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//input[@id='search']')

score 0 · Answer 4 · 2020-04-19T19:00:29.440

0

I just found something on selenium documentation. Try use this:

driver.findElement(By.id("search"))

I hope it works.

edited Apr 19 '20 at 19:00

answered Apr 19 '20 at 17:54

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 19 '20 at 21:19

0

You can just use:

driver.find_element_by_id('search')

For more info read the doc

answered Apr 19 '20 at 21:19

rafalou38

540
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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 27 '21 at 04:42

0

It just because of the version.

pip install selenium==3.14.0

answered Oct 27 '21 at 04:42

Turbo -V9

11
2

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Oct 27 '21 at 06:17

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Oct 29 '21 at 09:12

0

You would have to first import the By from selenium

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By 

driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//input[@id='search']')

This would work.

edited Oct 29 '21 at 09:12

Suraj Rao

28,850
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answered Oct 29 '21 at 08:11

oluwaseyi oyewunmi

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Unable to locate elements in Selenium (Python)

7 Answers7

Solution

tl; dr

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