Couldn't find the correct XPATH
Question:
I am currently finding the XPATH for the input area on twitter so that i could write smth on it using bot but i keep getting the wrong XPATH.However,i’ve seen the code from other ppl and they manage to get the correct XPATH eventhough we are getting from the same html element.
The XPATH I get is
//*[@id="reactroot"]/div/div/div[2]/main/div/div/div/div[1]/div/div[2]/div/div2/div1/div/div/div/div2/div1/div/div/div/div/div/div2/div/div/div/div/label/div1/div/div/div/div/div/div2/div
The correct XPATH they get is //div[contains(@aria-label, 'Tweet text')] and when I check the location of it in inspect , it appears to be the same element
Answers:
No, try to avoid very long CSS or very long XPath expressions. They are hard to read, not reliable and also makes your code ugly.
Try this:
my_element = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//div[contains(text(),"What's happening")]')
or:
my_element = driver.find_element(By.CSS, '//div[data-testid="tweetTextarea_0"]')
Using XPath is a bad practice because if the element will be moved to another div or span – your XPath will be broken. Always prefer working with:
- CSS and ID
- CSS and Class
- CSS and attibutes
- XPATH with text contains
- XPATH with match text (full match)
- If no other way possible – use only XPath
Using the XPath, you can find an element in different ways. It looks like you have copied the XPath generated by your browser. But it’s a bit massive.
HTML elements usually have unique parameters such as class, id, name, etc. So you need to find one to write a short relative XPath.
For example, this element is the only one on the page that has a class "notranslate public-DraftEditor-content." So, the XPath could be:
Xpath=//div[@class="notranslate public-DraftEditor-content"]
I am currently finding the XPATH for the input area on twitter so that i could write smth on it using bot but i keep getting the wrong XPATH.However,i’ve seen the code from other ppl and they manage to get the correct XPATH eventhough we are getting from the same html element.
The XPATH I get is
//*[@id="reactroot"]/div/div/div[2]/main/div/div/div/div[1]/div/div[2]/div/div2/div1/div/div/div/div2/div1/div/div/div/div/div/div2/div/div/div/div/label/div1/div/div/div/div/div/div2/div
The correct XPATH they get is //div[contains(@aria-label, 'Tweet text')] and when I check the location of it in inspect , it appears to be the same element
No, try to avoid very long CSS or very long XPath expressions. They are hard to read, not reliable and also makes your code ugly.
Try this:
my_element = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//div[contains(text(),"What's happening")]')
or:
my_element = driver.find_element(By.CSS, '//div[data-testid="tweetTextarea_0"]')
Using XPath is a bad practice because if the element will be moved to another div or span – your XPath will be broken. Always prefer working with:
- CSS and ID
- CSS and Class
- CSS and attibutes
- XPATH with text contains
- XPATH with match text (full match)
- If no other way possible – use only XPath
Using the XPath, you can find an element in different ways. It looks like you have copied the XPath generated by your browser. But it’s a bit massive.
HTML elements usually have unique parameters such as class, id, name, etc. So you need to find one to write a short relative XPath.
For example, this element is the only one on the page that has a class "notranslate public-DraftEditor-content." So, the XPath could be:
Xpath=//div[@class="notranslate public-DraftEditor-content"]