Selenium WebDriver is the most popular open source package for Web UI test automation. It allows tests to interact directly with a web page in a live browser. However, using Selenium WebDriver can be very frustrating because basic interactions often lack robustness, causing intermittent errors for tests.

The Basics

One such vulnerable interaction is clicking elements on a page. Clicking is probably the most common interaction for tests. In C#, a basic click would look like this:

webDriver.FindElement(By.Id("my-id")).Click();

This is the easy and standard way to click elements using Selenium WebDriver. However, it will work only if the targeted element exists and is visible on the page. Otherwise, the WebDriver will throw exceptions. This is when programmers pull their hair out.

Waiting for Existence

To avoid race conditions, interactions should not happen until the target element exists on the page. Even split-second loading times can break automation. The best practice is to use explicit waits before interactions with a reasonable timeout value, like this:

const int timeoutSeconds = 15;
var ts = new TimeSpan(0, 0, timeoutSeconds);
var wait = new WebDriverWait(webDriver, ts);

wait.Until((driver) => driver.FindElements(By.Id("my-id")).Count > 0);
webDriver.FindElement(By.Id("my-id")).Click();

Other Preconditions

Sometimes, Web elements won’t appear without first triggering something else. Even if the element exists on the page, the WebDriver cannot click it until it is made visible. Always look for the proper way to make that element available for clicking. Click on any parent panels or expanders first. Scroll if necessary. Make sure the state of the system should permit the element to be clickable.

If the element is scrolled out of view, move to the element before clicking it:

new Actions(webDriver)
    .MoveToElement(webDriver.FindElement(By.Id("my-id")))
    .Click()
    .Perform();

Last Ditch Efforts

Nevertheless, there are times when clickable elements just don’t cooperate. They just can’t seem to be made visible. When all else fails, drop directly into JavaScript:

((IJavaScriptExecutor)webDriver).ExecuteScript(
    "arguments[0].click();",
    webDriver.FindElement(By.Id("my-id")));

Do this only when absolutely necessary. It is a best practice to use Selenium WebDriver methods because they make automated interaction behave more like a real user than raw JavaScript calls. Make sure to give good reasons in code comments whenever doing this, too.

Final Advice

This article was written specifically for clicks, but its advice can be applied to other sorts of interactions, too. Just be smart about waits and preconditions.

Note: Code examples on this page are written in C#, but calls are similar for other languages supported by Selenium WebDriver.