Interacting with web elements

A high-level instruction set for manipulating form controls.

There are only 5 basic commands that can be executed on an element:

  • click (applies to any element)
  • send keys (only applies to text fields and content editable elements)
  • clear (only applies to text fields and content editable elements)
  • submit (only applies to form elements)
  • select (see Select List Elements)

Additional validations

These methods are designed to closely emulate a user’s experience, so, unlike the Actions API, it attempts to perform two things before attempting the specified action.

  1. If it determines the element is outside the viewport, it scrolls the element into view, specifically it will align the bottom of the element with the bottom of the viewport.
  2. It ensures the element is interactable before taking the action. This could mean that the scrolling was unsuccessful, or that the element is not otherwise displayed. Determining if an element is displayed on a page was too difficult to define directly in the webdriver specification, so Selenium sends an execute command with a JavaScript atom that checks for things that would keep the element from being displayed. If it determines an element is not in the viewport, not displayed, not keyboard-interactable, or not pointer-interactable, it returns an element not interactable error.

Click

The element click command is executed on the center of the element. If the center of the element is obscured for some reason, Selenium will return an element click intercepted error.

Send keys

The element send keys command types the provided keys into an editable element. Typically, this means an element is an input element of a form with a text type or an element with a content-editable attribute. If it is not editable, an invalid element state error is returned.

Here is the list of possible keystrokes that WebDriver Supports.

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;

public class HelloSelenium {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
    try {
      // Navigate to Url
      driver.get("https://google.com");

      // Enter text "q" and perform keyboard action "Enter"
      driver.findElement(By.name("q")).sendKeys("q" + Keys.ENTER);
    } finally {
      driver.quit();
    }
  }
}

  
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
driver = webdriver.Firefox()

    # Navigate to url
driver.get("http://www.google.com")

    # Enter "webdriver" text and perform "ENTER" keyboard action
driver.find_element(By.NAME, "q").send_keys("webdriver" + Keys.ENTER)
  
using (var driver = new FirefoxDriver())
{
  // Navigate to Url
  driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("https://google.com");

  // Enter "webdriver" text and perform "ENTER" keyboard action
  driver.FindElement(By.Name("q")).SendKeys("webdriver" + Keys.Enter);
}
  
require 'selenium-webdriver'
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :firefox
begin
    # Navigate to URL
  driver.get 'https://google.com'

    # Enter "webdriver" text and perform "ENTER" keyboard action
  driver.find_element(name: 'q').send_keys 'webdriver', :return

ensure
  driver.quit
end
  
const {Builder, By, Key} = require('selenium-webdriver');

(async function example() {
  let driver = await new Builder().forBrowser('firefox').build();

  try {
    // Navigate to Url
    await driver.get('https://www.google.com');

    // Enter text "webdriver" and perform keyboard action "Enter"
    await driver.findElement(By.name('q')).sendKeys('webdriver', Key.ENTER);
  }
  finally {
    await driver.quit();
  }
})();
  

import org.openqa.selenium.By
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver

fun main() {
  val driver = FirefoxDriver()
  try {
    // Navigate to Url
    driver.get("https://google.com")

    // Enter text "q" and perform keyboard action "Enter"
    driver.findElement(By.name("q")).sendKeys("q" + Keys.ENTER)
  } finally {
    driver.quit()
  }
}

Clear

The element clear command resets the content of an element. This requires an element to be editable, and resettable. Typically, this means an element is an input element of a form with a text type or an element with acontent-editable attribute. If these conditions are not met, an invalid element state error is returned.

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

public class clear {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
    try {
      // Navigate to Url
      driver.get("https://www.google.com");
      // Store 'SearchInput' element
      WebElement searchInput = driver.findElement(By.name("q"));
      searchInput.sendKeys("selenium");
      // Clears the entered text
      searchInput.clear();
    } finally {
      driver.quit();
    }
  }
}
  
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
driver = webdriver.Chrome()

    # Navigate to url
driver.get("http://www.google.com")
    # Store 'SearchInput' element
SearchInput = driver.find_element(By.NAME, "q")
SearchInput.send_keys("selenium")
    # Clears the entered text
SearchInput.clear()
  
using OpenQA.Selenium;
using OpenQA.Selenium.Chrome;
using System;

namespace SnipetProjectDelete
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      IWebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
      try
      {
        // Navigate to Url
        driver.Navigate().GoToUrl(@"https://www.google.com");
        // Store 'SearchInput' element
        IWebElement searchInput = driver.FindElement(By.Name("q"));
        searchInput.SendKeys("selenium");
        // Clears the entered text
        searchInput.Clear();
      }
      finally
      {
        driver.Quit();
      }
    }
  }
}
  
require 'selenium-webdriver'
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :chrome
begin
    # Navigate to URL
  driver.get 'https://google.com'
    # store 'search_input' element
  search_input = driver.find_element(name: 'q')
  search_input.send_keys('selenium')
    # Clears the entered text
  search_input.clear
ensure
  driver.quit
end
  
        await driver.get('https://www.selenium.dev/selenium/web/inputs.html');
        let inputField = await driver.findElement(By.name('no_type'));
        await inputField.clear();
Check code on GitHub 
import org.openqa.selenium.By
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver
fun main() {
  val driver =  ChromeDriver()
  try {
    // Navigate to Url
    driver.get("https://www.google.com")
    // Store 'searchInput' element
    val searchInput = driver.findElement(By.name("q"))
    searchInput.sendKeys("selenium")
    // Clears the entered text
    searchInput.clear()
  } finally {
    driver.quit()
  }
}

Submit

In Selenium 4 this is no longer implemented with a separate endpoint and functions by executing a script. As such, it is recommended not to use this method and to click the applicable form submission button instead.

Last modified March 11, 2023: fix: fixes code render issue [deploy site] (1ee38d9fb9)