how to locate the input box with uncertain id

[Jason Zhao]

hey guys, I need to locate the input box and enter some text,but the id of it varies all the time ,so I can't use the format like "xpath =//input[@id=xxxx]". Any suggestion? thanks advance

the screenshot of the input box with firebugs

Jason 

[ChenJie|抽屉]

Hello Jason,

Can you try to use "xpath=//input[@class=xxxx]" if the class of this input box was certain and the only input box available at that moment.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Daniel Chan (Chan Jie)
E-mail cho...@gmail.com
Blog http://www.ialog.com
Twitter: @chouti
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jason 

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[Jason Zhao]

Hi Daniel,

  Unfortunately, it couldn't work either, with the error "WebDriverException: Message: u'Element must be user-editable in order to clear it."  I think the class is certain and only input box available, well, thanks for your post , it's  

still a nice try tough.

Jason

On Tuesday, June 18, 2013 11:18:54 AM UTC+8, Daniel Chen wrote:

Hello Jason,

Can you try to use "xpath=//input[@class=xxxx]" if the class of this input box was certain and the only input box available at that moment.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Daniel Chan (Chan Jie)
E-mail cho...@gmail.com
Blog http://www.ialog.com
Twitter: @chouti
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Jason Zhao <zhaoxu...@gmail.com> wrote:

hey guys, I need to locate the input box and enter some text,but the id of it varies all the time ,so I can't use the format like "xpath =//input[@id=xxxx]". Any suggestion? thanks advance

the screenshot of the input box with firebugs

Jason 

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[Tatu aalto]

Ugh

At least for me, picture is so blurred that I cannot read the dom tree. Could you copy/paste the relevant sections, so that one could take closwr look.

-Tatu

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[Jason Zhao]

Hi Tatu,

 Thanks for your post, the following might be the relevant section. please accept my apology if my ignorance disturbs you even in the slightest way,and I'm really new to this. I only have the basic knowledge of Xpath, but I have been  trying to learn.  

Jason

On Tuesday, June 18, 2013 1:24:53 PM UTC+8, Tatu aalto wrote:

Ugh

At least for me, picture is so blurred that I cannot read the dom tree. Could you copy/paste the relevant sections, so that one could take closwr look.

-Tatu

On 18 Jun 2013 06:05, "Jason Zhao" <zhaoxu...@gmail.com> wrote:

hey guys, I need to locate the input box and enter some text,but the id of it varies all the time ,so I can't use the format like "xpath =//input[@id=xxxx]". Any suggestion? thanks advance

the screenshot of the input box with firebugs

Jason 

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[Markus Bernhardt]

Hi Jason,

don't send screenshots, but copy and paste the relevant DOM elements as text to the mail.

As far as I can see the input is inside a iframe. Are you selecting that frame first?

Cheers,

Markus

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[Jason Zhao]

Hi Markus,

 thanks for your post, I did select the frame first. DOM elements is as follow:

<div class="ext-mb-fix-cursor">

<input id="ext-gen66" class="ext-mb-input" type="text" style="width: 218px;">

<textarea id="ext-gen68" class="ext-mb-textarea" style="display: none;"></textarea>

</div>

Jason

[Kevin O.]

Jason,

To make sure you aren't selecting an element earlier in the DOM than you think, put this statement in there:

${count}=    Get Matching Xpath Count    //input[@class='ext-mb-input']

Should get a 1.

I looked at Selenium's JS, and it throws the exception you are seeing if the element is not textual (it is) or it is readOnly.

Keep in mind your app may have the text box read-only until it is clicked on.

To see if it is the readOnly property causing the failure, put this in your code before the Input Text:

${readonly}=    xpath=//input[@class='ext-mb-input']@readOnly

Should be False.

Good Luck,

Kevin

[Kevin O.]

Oops...typo should be

${readonly}=    Get Element Attribute    xpath=//input[@class='ext-mb-input']@readOnly

[Jason Zhao]

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your post, I think I learned how to start to analyse the problem from your constructive suggestions, really appreciate it.

1.${count} =1

2.${readonly}=None. I thought the None could equal to False.

well,it seemed that everything turned into the dead end. therefore I retrospected all the suggestions, and tried them one by one over again. when I looked at Markus's post, it suddenly occurred to me that I might not have fully understood the meaning of frame. I used the firebug to check DOM again and found that iframe with certain id,which I selected first, under which lots of divisions. When I put the mouse cursor on one division, the input box just turned overshadowed. then I thought what if select the division, then I selected the division and tried again,and it turned out to be, Ta-Dah, SUCCESS. The Xpath was //div[@id="ext-comp-1128"]//input[@class='ext-mb-input']

thanks a lot, Daniel ,Tatu and Kevin for kindness ,patience and inspiration. Best wishes.

Jason

[Laurent Bristiel]

For future people beeing stuck on the "Element must be user-editable in order to clear it" issue when using "input text" keyword ,
I was facing it as well and the answer could be found in this thread: "your app may have the text box read-only until it is clicked on" => indeed!
Adding a "click element" just before my "input text" was the answer to my problem.
Thanks all,
Laurent