Selenium C# WebDriver: Wait until element is present

I want to make sure that an element is present before the webdriver starts doing stuff.

I'm trying to get something like this to work:

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, new TimeSpan(0, 0, 5));
wait.Until(By.Id("login"));

I'm mainly struggling how to setup up the anonymous function...

Using the solution provided by Mike Kwan may have an impact in overall testing performance, since the implicit wait will be used in all FindElement calls.

Many times you'll want the FindElement to fail right away when an element is not present (you're testing for a malformed page, missing elements, etc.). With the implicit wait these operations would wait for the whole timeout to expire before throwing the exception. The default implicit wait is set to 0 seconds.

I've written a little extension method to IWebDriver that adds a timeout (in seconds) parameter to the FindElement() method. It's quite self-explanatory:

public static class WebDriverExtensions
{
    public static IWebElement FindElement(this IWebDriver driver, By by, int timeoutInSeconds)
    {
        if (timeoutInSeconds > 0)
        {
            var wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(timeoutInSeconds));
            return wait.Until(drv => drv.FindElement(by));
        }
        return driver.FindElement(by);
    }
}

I didn't cache the WebDriverWait object as its creation is very cheap, this extension may be used simultaneously for different WebDriver objects, and I only do optimizations when ultimately needed.

Usage is straightforward:

var driver = new FirefoxDriver();
driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("http://localhost/mypage");
var btn = driver.FindElement(By.CssSelector("#login_button"));
btn.Click();
var employeeLabel = driver.FindElement(By.CssSelector("#VCC_VSL"), 10);
Assert.AreEqual("Employee", employeeLabel.Text);
driver.Close();

Alternatively you can use an implicit wait:

driver.Manage().Timeouts().ImplicitWait = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10);

> An implicit wait is to tell WebDriver to poll the DOM for a certain > amount of time when trying to find an element or elements if they are > not immediately available. The default setting is 0. Once set, the > implicit wait is set for the life of the WebDriver object instance.

You can also use

ExpectedConditions.ElementExists

So you will search for an element availability like that

new WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(timeOut)).Until(ExpectedConditions.ElementExists((By.Id(login))));

[Source][1]

[1]: http://selenium.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/dotnet/src/WebDriver.Support/UI/ExpectedConditions.cs "Source"

Here's a variation of Loudenvier's solution that also works for getting multiple elements:

public static class WebDriverExtensions
{
    public static IWebElement FindElement(this IWebDriver driver, By by, int timeoutInSeconds)
    {
        if (timeoutInSeconds > 0)
        {
            var wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(timeoutInSeconds));
            return wait.Until(drv => drv.FindElement(by));
        }
        return driver.FindElement(by);
    }

    public static ReadOnlyCollection<IWebElement> FindElements(this IWebDriver driver, By by, int timeoutInSeconds)
    {
        if (timeoutInSeconds > 0)
        {
            var wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(timeoutInSeconds));
            return wait.Until(drv => (drv.FindElements(by).Count > 0) ? drv.FindElements(by) : null);
        }
        return driver.FindElements(by);
    }
}

Inspired by Loudenvier's solution, here's an extension method that works for all ISearchContext objects, not just IWebDriver, which is a specialization of the former. This method also supports waiting until the element is displayed.

static class WebDriverExtensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Find an element, waiting until a timeout is reached if necessary.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="context">The search context.</param>
    /// <param name="by">Method to find elements.</param>
    /// <param name="timeout">How many seconds to wait.</param>
    /// <param name="displayed">Require the element to be displayed?</param>
    /// <returns>The found element.</returns>
    public static IWebElement FindElement(this ISearchContext context, By by, uint timeout, bool displayed=false)
    {
        var wait = new DefaultWait<ISearchContext>(context);
        wait.Timeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(timeout);
        wait.IgnoreExceptionTypes(typeof(NoSuchElementException));
        return wait.Until(ctx => {
            var elem = ctx.FindElement(by);
            if (displayed && !elem.Displayed)
                return null;

            return elem;
        });
    }
}

Example usage:

var driver = new FirefoxDriver();
driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("http://localhost");
var main = driver.FindElement(By.Id("main"));
var btn = main.FindElement(By.Id("button"));
btn.Click();
var dialog = main.FindElement(By.Id("dialog"), 5, displayed: true);
Assert.AreEqual("My Dialog", dialog.Text);
driver.Close();

I confused an anonymous function with a predicate. Here's a little helper method:

   WebDriverWait wait;
    private void waitForById(string id)
    {
        if (wait == null)
            wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, new TimeSpan(0, 0, 5));

        //wait.Until(driver);
        wait.Until(d => d.FindElement(By.Id(id)));
    }

You can find out something like this in C#.

This is what I used in JUnit - Selenium

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 100);
WebElement element = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.id("submit")));

Do import related packages.

// Wait up to 5 seconds with no minimum for a UI element to be found
WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(_pagedriver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));
IWebElement title = wait.Until<IWebElement>((d) =>
{
    return d.FindElement(By.ClassName("MainContentHeader"));
});

public bool doesWebElementExist(string linkexist)
{
     try
     {
        driver.FindElement(By.XPath(linkexist));
        return true;
     }
     catch (NoSuchElementException e)
     {
        return false;
     }
}

The clickAndWait command doesn't get converted when you choose the Webdriver format in the Selenium IDE. Here is the workaround. Add the wait line below. Realistically, the problem was the click or event that happened before this one--line 1 in my C# code. But really, just make sure you have a WaitForElement before any action where you're referencing a "By" object.

HTML code:

<a href="http://www.google.com">xxxxx</a>

C#/NUnit code:

driver.FindElement(By.LinkText("z")).Click;
driver.WaitForElement(By.LinkText("xxxxx"));
driver.FindElement(By.LinkText("xxxxx")).Click();

Try this code:

 New WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10)).Until(Function(d) d.FindElement(By.Id("controlName")).Displayed)

Python:

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

driver.find_element_by_id('someId').click()

WebDriverWait(driver, timeout).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, 'someAnotherId'))

From EC (import of expected_conditions), you can choose other conditions as well. Try this: Expected conditions Support

Explicit Wait

public static  WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 60);

Example:

wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(UiprofileCre.UiaddChangeUserLink));

You do not want to wait too long before the element changes. In this code the webdriver waits for up to 2 seconds before it continues.

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(2000));
wait.Until(ExpectedConditions.VisibilityOfAllElementsLocatedBy(By.Name("html-name")));

Used Rn222's answer and aknuds1's answer to use an ISearchContext that returns either a single element, or a list. And a minimum number of elements can be specified:

public static class SearchContextExtensions
{
    /// <summary>
    ///     Method that finds an element based on the search parameters within a specified timeout.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="context">The context where this is searched. Required for extension methods</param>
    /// <param name="by">The search parameters that are used to identify the element</param>
    /// <param name="timeOutInSeconds">The time that the tool should wait before throwing an exception</param>
    /// <returns> The first element found that matches the condition specified</returns>
    public static IWebElement FindElement(this ISearchContext context, By by, uint timeOutInSeconds)
    {
        if (timeOutInSeconds > 0)
        {
            var wait = new DefaultWait<ISearchContext>(context);
            wait.Timeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(timeOutInSeconds);
            return wait.Until<IWebElement>(ctx => ctx.FindElement(by));
        }
        return context.FindElement(by);
    }
    /// <summary>
    ///     Method that finds a list of elements based on the search parameters within a specified timeout.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="context">The context where this is searched. Required for extension methods</param>
    /// <param name="by">The search parameters that are used to identify the element</param>
    /// <param name="timeoutInSeconds">The time that the tool should wait before throwing an exception</param>
    /// <returns>A list of all the web elements that match the condition specified</returns>
    public static IReadOnlyCollection<IWebElement> FindElements(this ISearchContext context, By by, uint timeoutInSeconds)
    {

        if (timeoutInSeconds > 0)
        {
            var wait = new DefaultWait<ISearchContext>(context);
            wait.Timeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(timeoutInSeconds);
            return wait.Until<IReadOnlyCollection<IWebElement>>(ctx => ctx.FindElements(by));
        }
        return context.FindElements(by);
    }
    /// <summary>
    ///     Method that finds a list of elements with the minimum amount specified based on the search parameters within a specified timeout.<br/>
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="context">The context where this is searched. Required for extension methods</param>
    /// <param name="by">The search parameters that are used to identify the element</param>
    /// <param name="timeoutInSeconds">The time that the tool should wait before throwing an exception</param>
    /// <param name="minNumberOfElements">
    ///     The minimum number of elements that should meet the criteria before returning the list <para/>
    ///     If this number is not met, an exception will be thrown and no elements will be returned
    ///     even if some did meet the criteria
    /// </param>
    /// <returns>A list of all the web elements that match the condition specified</returns>
    public static IReadOnlyCollection<IWebElement> FindElements(this ISearchContext context, By by, uint timeoutInSeconds, int minNumberOfElements)
    {
        var wait = new DefaultWait<ISearchContext>(context);
        if (timeoutInSeconds > 0)
        {
            wait.Timeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(timeoutInSeconds);
        }

        // Wait until the current context found the minimum number of elements. If not found after timeout, an exception is thrown
        wait.Until<bool>(ctx => ctx.FindElements(by).Count >= minNumberOfElements);

        // If the elements were successfuly found, just return the list
        return context.FindElements(by);
    }

}

Example usage:

var driver = new FirefoxDriver();
driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("http://localhost");
var main = driver.FindElement(By.Id("main"));
// It can be now used to wait when using elements to search
var btn = main.FindElement(By.Id("button"), 10);
btn.Click();
// This will wait up to 10 seconds until a button is found
var button = driver.FindElement(By.TagName("button"), 10)
// This will wait up to 10 seconds until a button is found, and return all the buttons found
var buttonList = driver.FindElements(By.TagName("button"), 10)
// This will wait for 10 seconds until we find at least 5 buttons
var buttonsMin = driver.FindElements(By.TagName("button"), 10, 5);
driver.Close();

Since I'm separating page elements definitions and page test scenarios using an already-found IWebElement for visibility, it could be done like this:

public static void WaitForElementToBecomeVisibleWithinTimeout(IWebDriver driver, IWebElement element, int timeout)
{
    new WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(timeout)).Until(ElementIsVisible(element));
}

private static Func<IWebDriver, bool> ElementIsVisible(IWebElement element)
{
    return driver => {
        try
        {
            return element.Displayed;
        }
        catch(Exception)
        {
            // If element is null, stale or if it cannot be located
            return false;
        }
    };
}

This is the reusable function to wait for an element present in the DOM using an explicit wait.

public void WaitForElement(IWebElement element, int timeout = 2)
{
    WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(webDriver, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(timeout));
    wait.IgnoreExceptionTypes(typeof(NoSuchElementException));
    wait.IgnoreExceptionTypes(typeof(StaleElementReferenceException));
    wait.Until<bool>(driver =>
    {
        try
        {
            return element.Displayed;
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            return false;
        }
    });
}

I see multiple solutions already posted that work great! However, just in case anyone needs something else, I thought I would post two solutions that I personally used in Selenium C# to test if an element is present!

public static class IsPresent
{
    public static bool isPresent(this IWebDriver driver, By bylocator)
    {

        bool variable = false;
        try
        {
            IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(bylocator);
            variable = element != null;
        }
        catch (NoSuchElementException){

        }
        return variable;
    }
}

Here is the second:

public static class IsPresent2
{
    public static bool isPresent2(this IWebDriver driver, By bylocator)
    {
        bool variable = true;
        try
        {
            IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(bylocator);
        }
        catch (NoSuchElementException)
        {
            variable = false;
        }
        return variable;
    }
}

We can achieve that like this:

public static IWebElement WaitForObject(IWebDriver DriverObj, By by, int TimeOut = 30)
{
    try
    {
        WebDriverWait Wait1 = new WebDriverWait(DriverObj, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(TimeOut));
        var WaitS = Wait1.Until(SeleniumExtras.WaitHelpers.ExpectedConditions.PresenceOfAllElementsLocatedBy(by));
        return WaitS[0];
    }
    catch (NoSuchElementException)
    {
        Reports.TestStep("Wait for Element(s) with xPath was failed in current context page.");
        throw;
    }
}

WebDriverWait won't take effect.

var driver = new FirefoxDriver(
    new FirefoxOptions().PageLoadStrategy = PageLoadStrategy.Eager
);
driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("xxx");
new WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(60))
    .Until(d => d.FindElement(By.Id("xxx"))); // A tag that close to the end

This would immediately throw an exception once the page was "interactive". I don't know why, but the timeout acts as if it does not exist.

Perhaps SeleniumExtras.WaitHelpers works, but I didn't try. It's official, but it was split out into another NuGet package. You can refer to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49866334.

I use FindElements and check Count == 0. If true, use await Task.Delay. It's really not quite efficient.

You can use the following

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, new TimeSpan(0,0,5));
wait.Until(ExpectedConditions.ElementToBeClickable((By.Id("login")));

Using C# Extension Method : we can solve the problem of wait until element to be visible.
Max reties for a particular element is 100.

public static bool WaitForElementToBeVisible(IWebDriver browser, By by)
        {
            int attemptToFindElement = 0;
            bool elementFound = false;
            IWebElement elementIdentifier = null;
            do
            {
                attemptToFindElement++;
                try
                {
                    elementIdentifier = browser.FindWebElement(by);
                    elementFound = (elementIdentifier.Displayed && elementIdentifier.Enabled) ? true : false;
                }
                catch (Exception)
                {
                    elementFound = false;
                }

            }
            while (elementFound == false && attemptToFindElement < 100);

            return elementFound;
        }

I'm using this and works very good:

public static bool elexists(By by, WebDriver driver)
    {
        try
        {
            driver.FindElement(by);
            return true;
        }
        catch (NoSuchElementException)
        {
            return false;
        }
    }
    public static void waitforelement(WebDriver driver, By by)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < 30; i++)
        {
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
            if (elexists(by, driver))
            {
                break;
            }


        }

    }

Of course you can add more than 30 attempts and shorten period than 1 second to check.

Usage:

waitforelement(driver, By.Id("login"));
IWebElement login= driver.FindElement(By.Id("login"));
login.Click();

You can use the following:

Use Namespace:

using SeleniumExtras.WaitHelpers;

In code:

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, new TimeSpan(0, 0, 5)); wait.Until(ExpectedConditions.ElementExists(By.Id("login")));

 new WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10)).
   Until(ExpectedConditions.PresenceOfAllElementsLocatedBy((By.Id("toast-container"))));

The first answer is good, but my problem was that unhandled exceptions didn't close web driver properly, and it kept the same first value I had used which was 1 second.

If you get the same problem, restart your Visual Studio and ensure that all the exceptions are handled properly.

Here is how to wait in Selenium for a condition:

    WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(m_driver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));
    wait.Until(d => ReadCell(row, col) != "");

ReadCell(row, col) != "" can be any condition. Like this way because:

• it's mine
• allows inlining