Software testing | Selenium element can not interact abnormal ElementNotInteractableException problem analysis and solution

Introduction

When using Selenium for web automation testing, we may encounter various abnormal situations. One of these is ElementNotInteractableExceptionan exception, which usually means something went wrong while trying to interact with a page element. This article details the cause of this exception, possible solutions, and provides sample code to help you better understand and handle this situation.

problem causes

ElementNotInteractableExceptionExceptions usually occur under the following circumstances:

1. Elements are blocked: Page elements are blocked by other elements, making it impossible to perform interactive operations, such as clicking and inputting.
2. Element is not visible: A page element may exist in the DOM structure, but due to styling or other factors, it is not visible on the page.
3. Element is disabled: An element, although visible, may be set to a non-interactive state (such as a disabled button).
4. The element is in a frame: If the element is inside a <iframe>or <frame>tag, you need to switch to the correct frame before you can interact with the element.

Solution

For ElementNotInteractableExceptionexceptions, we can use the following workarounds:

1. Wait for an element to become interactive: Use an appropriate wait strategy to wait for an element to become interactive before attempting to interact with it. This can be achieved by using explicit waits WebDriverWaiin conjunction with conditional waits.
2. Make sure an element is visible: Before manipulating an element, make sure it is visible on the page. You can use ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocatedconditions to wait for an element to be visible.
3. Check element status: Before trying to interact with an element, check whether the element is in an interactive state, such as whether it is disabled.
4. Switch to the correct frame: If the element is <frame>inside, we need to switch to that frameinside before we can operate.

Solving example

The following is a sample code that demonstrates how to handle ElementNotInteractableExceptionexceptions. Let's say we want to click a button, but the button might not be visible until some time after the page loads.

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

# 创建浏览器实例
driver = webdriver.Chrome()

# 打开页面
driver.get("https://example.com")

try:
    # 使用等待策略等待按钮可见并可交互
    button = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(
        EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.ID, "my-button"))
    )
    
    # 确保按钮可见后再点击
    button.click()

except ElementNotInteractableException:
    print("按钮不可交互或不可见")

finally:
    driver.quit()

In this example, we use WebDriverWaitto wait for the button to be interactive, and then try to click the button. If the button is not interactive or visible, an exception is caught and an appropriate message is output.

Summarize

The element non-interactive exception ElementNotInteractableExceptionis one of the common problems in Selenium testing, usually because the interactive state of page elements does not meet expectations. With appropriate waiting strategies, ensuring elements are visible, and checking element status, we can better handle this exception, thereby improving the stability and reliability of automated testing.