Typing the Enter/Return key in Selenium

I'm looking for a quick way to type the Enter or Return key in Selenium.

Unfortunately, the form I'm trying to test (not my own code, so I can't modify) doesn't have a Submit button. When working with it manually, I just type Enter or Return. How can I do that with the Selenium type command as there is no button to click?

import org.openqa.selenium.Keys

WebElement.sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);

---

The import statement is for Java. For other languages, it is maybe different. For example, in Python it is from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

Java

driver.findElement(By.id("Value")).sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);

OR,

driver.findElement(By.id("Value")).sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);

---

Python

from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
driver.find_element_by_name("Value").send_keys(Keys.RETURN)

OR,

driver.find_element_by_name("Value").send_keys(Keys.ENTER)

OR,

element = driver.find_element_by_id("Value")
element.send_keys("keysToSend")
element.submit()

---

Ruby

element = @driver.find_element(:name, "value")
element.send_keys "keysToSend"
element.submit

OR,

element = @driver.find_element(:name, "value")
element.send_keys "keysToSend"
element.send_keys:return

OR,

@driver.action.send_keys(:enter).perform
@driver.action.send_keys(:return).perform

---

C#

driver.FindElement(By.Id("Value")).SendKeys(Keys.Return);

OR,

driver.FindElement(By.Id("Value")).SendKeys(Keys.Enter);

You can use either of Keys.ENTER or Keys.RETURN. Here are the details:

Usage:

• Java:

  • Using Keys.ENTER:

    import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
    driver.findElement(By.id("element_id")).sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);
    

  • Using Keys.RETURN:

    import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
    driver.findElement(By.id("element_id")).sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);
    

• Python:

  • Using Keys.ENTER:

    from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
    driver.find_element_by_id("element_id").send_keys(Keys.ENTER)
    

  • Using Keys.RETURN:

    from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
    driver.find_element_by_id("element_id").send_keys(Keys.RETURN)
    

Keys.ENTER and Keys.RETURN both are from org.openqa.selenium.Keys, which extends java.lang.Enum<Keys> and implements java.lang.CharSequence.

---

Enum Keys

Enum Keys is the representations of pressable keys that aren't text. These are stored in the Unicode PUA (Private Use Area) code points, 0xE000-0xF8FF.

Key Codes:

The special keys codes for them are as follows:

• RETURN = u'\ue006'
• ENTER = u'\ue007'

The implementation of all the Enum Keys are handled the same way.

Hence these is No Functional or Operational difference while working with either sendKeys(Keys.ENTER); or WebElement.sendKeys(Keys.RETURN); through Selenium.

---

Enter Key and Return Key

On computer keyboards, the Enter (or the Return on Mac OS X) in most cases causes a command line, window form, or dialog box to operate its default function. This is typically to finish an "entry" and begin the desired process and is usually an alternative to pressing an OK button.

The Return is often also referred as the Enter and they usually perform identical functions; however in some particular applications (mainly page layout) Return operates specifically like the Carriage Return key from which it originates. In contrast, the Enter is commonly labelled with its name in plain text on generic PC keyboards.

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References

• Enter Key
• Carriage Return

Now that Selenium 2 has been released, it's a bit easier to send an Enter key, since you can do it with the send_keys method of the selenium.webdriver.remote.webelement.WebElement class (this example code is in Python, but the same method exists in Java):

>>> from selenium import webdriver
>>> wd = webdriver.Firefox()
>>> wd.get("http://localhost/example/page")
>>> textbox = wd.find_element_by_css_selector("input")
>>> textbox.send_keys("Hello World\n")

In Python

Step 1. from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

Step 2. driver.find_element_by_name("").send_keys(Keys.ENTER)

Note: you have to write Keys.ENTER

When writing HTML tests, the ENTER key is available as ${KEY_ENTER}.

You can use it with sendKeys, here is an example:

sendKeys | id=search | ${KEY_ENTER}

selenium.keyPress("css=input.tagit-input.ui-autocomplete-input", "13");

You just do this:

final private WebElement input = driver.findElement(By.id("myId"));
input.clear();
input.sendKeys(value); // The value we want to set to input
input.sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);

For those folks who are using WebDriverJS Keys.RETURN would be referenced as

webdriver.Key.RETURN

A more complete example as a reference might be helpful too:

var pressEnterToSend = function () {
    var deferred = webdriver.promise.defer();
    webdriver.findElement(webdriver.By.id('id-of-input-element')).then(function (element) {
        element.sendKeys(webdriver.Key.RETURN);
        deferred.resolve();
    });

    return deferred.promise;
};

For Selenium Remote Control with Java:

selenium.keyPress("elementID", "\13");

For Selenium WebDriver (a.k.a. Selenium 2) with Java:

driver.findElement(By.id("elementID")).sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);

Or,

driver.findElement(By.id("elementID")).sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);

Another way to press Enter in WebDriver is by using the Actions class:

Actions action = new Actions(driver);
action.sendKeys(driver.findElement(By.id("elementID")), Keys.ENTER).build().perform();

driver.findElement(By.id("Value")).sendKeys(Keys.RETURN); or driver.findElement(By.id("Value")).sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);

search = browser.find_element_by_xpath("//*[@type='text']")
search.send_keys(u'\ue007')

#ENTER = u'\ue007'

Refer to Selenium's documentation 'Special Keys'.

I just like to note that I needed this for my Cucumber tests and found out that if you like to simulate pressing the enter/return key, you need to send the :return value and not the :enter value (see the values described here)

You can call submit() on the element object in which you entered your text.

Alternatively, you can specifically send the Enter key to it as shown in this Python snippet:

from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
element.send_keys(Keys.ENTER) # 'element' is the WebElement object corresponding to the input field on the page

Try to use an XPath expression for searching the element and then, the following code works:

driver.findElement(By.xpath(".//*[@id='txtFilterContentUnit']")).sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);

If you are looking for "how to press the Enter key from the keyboard in Selenium WebDriver (Java)",then below code will definitely help you.

// Assign a keyboard object
Keyboard keyboard = ((HasInputDevices) driver).getKeyboard();

// Enter a key
keyboard.pressKey(Keys.ENTER);

To enter keys using Selenium, first you need to import the following library:

import org.openqa.selenium.Keys

then add this code where you want to enter the key

WebElement.sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);

You can replace RETURN with any key from the list according to your requirement.

There are the following ways of pressing keys - C#:

Driver.FindElement(By.Id("Value")).SendKeys(Keys.Return);

OR

OpenQA.Selenium.Interactions.Actions action = new OpenQA.Selenium.Interactions.Actions(Driver);
action.SendKeys(OpenQA.Selenium.Keys.Escape);

OR

IWebElement body = GlobalDriver.FindElement(By.TagName("body"));
body.SendKeys(Keys.Escape);

object.sendKeys("your message", Keys.ENTER);

It works.

When you don't want to search any locator, you can use the Robot class. For example,

Robot robot = new Robot();
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);

If you just want to press the Enter key (python):

from selenium.webdriver.common.action_chains import ActionChains
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

action = ActionChains(driver)
action.send_keys(Keys.ENTER)
action.perform()

It could be achieved using Action interface as well. In case of WebDriver -

WebElement username = driver.findElement(By.name("q"));
username.sendKeys(searchKey);
Actions action = new Actions(driver);
action.sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);
action.perform();

You can try:

selenium.keyPress("id="", "\\13");

For Ruby:

driver.find_element(:id, "XYZ").send_keys:return

For Selenium WebDriver using XPath (if the key is visible):

driver.findElement(By.xpath("xpath of text field")).sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);

or,

driver.findElement(By.xpath("xpath of text field")).sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);

I had to send the Enter key in the middle of a text. So I passed the following text to send keys function to achieve 1\n2\n3:

1\N{U+E007}2\N{U+E007}3

If you are in this specific situation:

a) want to just press the key, but you not have a specific webElement to click on

b) you are using Selenium 2 (WebDriver)

Then the solution is:

	Actions builder = new Actions(webDriverInstance);
	builder.sendKeys(Keys.RETURN).perform();

Java/JavaScript:

You could probably do it this way also, non-natively:

public void triggerButtonOnEnterKeyInTextField(String textFieldId, String clickableButId)
{
    ((JavascriptExecutor) driver).executeScript(
        "   elementId = arguments[0];
            buttonId = arguments[1];
            document.getElementById(elementId)
                .addEventListener("keyup", function(event) {
                    event.preventDefault();
                    if (event.keyCode == 13) {
                        document.getElementById(buttonId).click();
                    }
                });",

        textFieldId,
        clickableButId);
}

Actions action = new Actions(driver);
action.sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);

For everyone using JavaScript / Node.js, this worked for me:

driver.findElement(By.xpath('xpath')).sendKeys('ENTER');