Select iframe using Python + Selenium

Selenium’s selectFrame command accepts all the standard locators like css=, but it also has a an extra set of locators that work specifically with FRAME and IFRAME elements.

As the doc says:

selectFrame ( locator ) Selects a frame within the current window.
(You may invoke this command multiple times to select nested frames.)
To select the parent frame, use “relative=parent” as a locator; to
select the top frame, use “relative=top”. You can also select a frame
by its 0-based index number; select the first frame with “index=0”, or
the third frame with “index=2”.

You may also use a DOM expression to identify the frame you want
directly, like this: dom=frames["main"].frames["subframe"]

Arguments: locator – an element locator identifying a frame or iframe

In general, you’ll have better luck using the specialized locators, especially if you establish the right context first (e.g., select_frame("relative=top"); select_frame("id=upload_file_frame");).

You don’t need to use JavascriptExecutor. All you needed to do was switch into the frame and then switch back out, like so:

// do stuff on main window
driver.switch_to.frame(frame_reference)
// then do stuff in the frame
driver.switch_to.default_content()
// then do stuff on main window again

As long as you are careful with this, you will never have a problem. The only time I always use a JavascriptExecutor is to get window focus since I think using Javascript is more reliable in that case.

This worked for me with Python (v. 2.7), webdriver & Selenium when testing with iframes and trying to insert data within an iframe:

self.driver = webdriver.Firefox()

## Give time for iframe to load ##
time.sleep(3)
## You have to switch to the iframe like so: ##
driver.switch_to.frame(driver.find_element_by_tag_name("iframe"))
## Insert text via xpath ##
elem = driver.find_element_by_xpath("/html/body/p")
elem.send_keys("Lorem Ipsum")
## Switch back to the "default content" (that is, out of the iframes) ##
driver.switch_to.default_content()

If iframe is dynamic node, it’s also possible to wait for iframe appearence explicitly and then switch to it using ExpectedConditions:

from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait as wait

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get(URL)
wait(driver, 10).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it("iframe_name_or_id"))

If iframe doesn’t have @id or @name it can be found as common WebElement using driver.find_element_by_xpath(), driver.find_element_by_tag_name(), etc..:

wait(driver, 10).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it(driver.find_element_by_xpath("//iframe[@class='iframe_class']")))

To switch back from iframe:

driver.switch_to.default_content()

you can use this simple code to look for the iframe using xpath

sample use
set_iframe(“/html/body/div[2]/table/”)

def set_iframe(xpath):
    print('set_iframe')
    driver.switch_to.default_content()
    seq = driver.find_elements_by_tag_name('iframe')
    for x in range(0, len(seq)):
        driver.switch_to.default_content()
        print ("iframe-"+str(x))
        try:
            driver.switch_to.frame(int(x))
            driver.find_element_by_xpath(xpath)
            return str(x)
        except:
            continue

To shift Selenium‘s focus within the <iframe> you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

• Using ID:

  driver.switch_to.frame("upload_file_frame") 
  

• Using CSS_SELECTOR:

  driver.switch_to.frame(driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "iframe#upload_file_frame"))
  

• Using XPATH:

  driver.switch_to.frame(driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//iframe[@id='upload_file_frame']"))
  

Ideally, you have to induce WebDriverWait for the desired frame to be available and switch to it and you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

• Using ID:

  WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.ID,"upload_file_frame")))  
  

• Using CSS_SELECTOR:

  WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.CSS_SELECTOR,"iframe#upload_file_frame")))
  

• Using XPATH:

  WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.XPATH,"//iframe[@id='upload_file_frame']")))
  

• Note : You have to add the following imports :

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

Reference

You can find a couple of relevant discussions in:

• Ways to deal with #document under iframe
• Switch to an iframe through Selenium and python