Exercise on safely waiting for unstable web elements with WebDriver.

endorsedmethod.java

// This is the official Selenium documention endorsed method of waiting for elements.
// This method is ineffective because it still suffers from
// the stale element exception.
public static void clickByLocator ( final By locator ) {
  WebElement myDynamicElement = ( new WebDriverWait(driver, 10))
    .until( ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated( locator ) );
  myDynamicElement.click();
}

method1.java

// I gleamed this method from the Selenium Google forum.
// The .ignoring fluent method was a huge hint
// to the eventual solution I found but it still didn't work
// because I needed the ExpectedCondition apply method to give
// me some kind of message on failures.
public void waitForElementPresent(final By by, int timeout){ 
  WebDriverWait wait = (WebDriverWait)new WebDriverWait(driver,timeout)
                  .ignoring(StaleElementReferenceException.class); 
  wait.until(new ExpectedCondition<Boolean>(){ 
    @Override 
    public Boolean apply(WebDriver webDriver) { 
      WebElement element = webDriver.findElement(by); 
      return element != null && element.isDisplayed(); 
    } 
  }); 
}

method2.java

// This was my breakthrough.  My first partially working code.
public static void clickByLocator( final By locator ) {
  staticlogger.info( "Click by locator: " + locator.toString() );		
  final long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( 5, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  Wait<WebDriver> wait = new FluentWait<WebDriver>( driver )
        .withTimeout(90000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
        .pollingEvery(5500, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
        //.ignoring( StaleElementReferenceException.class );		
  wait.until( new ExpectedCondition<Boolean>() { 
    @Override 
    public Boolean apply( WebDriver webDriver ) {
      try {
        webDriver.findElement( locator ).click();
        return true;
      } catch ( StaleElementReferenceException e ) {						
        staticlogger.info( e.getMessage() + "\n");
        staticlogger.info("Trying again...");
        return false;
      }		
    } 
  } );		
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( DEFAULT_IMPLICIT_WAIT, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  long endTime   = System.currentTimeMillis();
  long totalTime = endTime - startTime;
  staticlogger.info("Finished click after waiting for " + totalTime + " milliseconds.");
}
  

method3.java

// An extension of method3 although I am unsure if I trust it
// because it re-gets the element AND the element gets assigned
// again after returning from the method. A few opportunities
// to go stale.
public static WebElement getElementByLocator( final By locator ) {
  staticlogger.info( "Get element by locator: " + locator.toString() );		
  final long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( 5, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  Wait<WebDriver> wait = new FluentWait<WebDriver>( driver )
    .withTimeout(90000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
    .pollingEvery(5500, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
  wait.until( new ExpectedCondition<Boolean>() { 
    @Override 
    public Boolean apply( WebDriver webDriver ) {
    try {
      webDriver.findElement( locator ).getTagName();
        return true;
      } catch ( StaleElementReferenceException e ) {						
        staticlogger.info( e.getMessage() + "\n");
        staticlogger.info("Trying again for availability of element...");
        return false;
      }		
    } 
  } );
  WebElement we = null;
  try {
    we = driver.findElement( locator ); // is this error prone?
  } catch ( StaleElementReferenceException e ) {						
    staticlogger.info( "Stale element: \n" + e.getMessage() + "\n");
  }	
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( DEFAULT_IMPLICIT_WAIT, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  long endTime   = System.currentTimeMillis();
  long totalTime = endTime - startTime;
  staticlogger.info("Finished click after waiting for " + totalTime + " milliseconds.");
  return we;
}

method4.java

// I realized that the try-catch doesn't really need to be within
// the ExpectedCondition final block.  By moving the try-catch outside
// I would have access to the WebElement returned from findElement().
// So, I can create my own Boolean expected condition while I loop to
// hopefully accomplish a similar thing as method3.
public static WebElement getElementByLocator( By locator ) {
  staticlogger.info( "Get element by locator: " + locator.toString() );  	
  long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( 9, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  WebElement we = null;
  boolean unfound = true;
  int tries = 0;
  while ( unfound && tries < 20 ) {
    tries += 1;
    staticlogger.info("Locating remaining time: " + (180-(9*(tries-1) )) + " seconds." );
    try {
      we = driver.findElement( locator );
      unfound = false; // FOUND IT
    } catch ( StaleElementReferenceException ser ) {						
      staticlogger.info( "ERROR: Stale element. " + locator.toString() );
      unfound = true;
    } catch ( NoSuchElementException nse ) {						
      staticlogger.info( "ERROR: No such element. " + locator.toString() );
      unfound = true;
    } catch ( Exception e ) {
      staticlogger.info( e.getMessage() );
    }
  } 
  long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
  long totalTime = endTime - startTime;
  staticlogger.info("Finished click after waiting for " + totalTime + " milliseconds.");
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( DEFAULT_IMPLICIT_WAIT, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  return we;
}

method5.java

// Another approach, after everything I have learned, that might
// also be effective.  With this method, a wait timeout occurs 3 
// times within the 90 second limit.  So, the method will run 
// between 15-90 seconds, depending on the situation of failure.
public static WebElement getElementByLocator( final By locator ) {
  LOGGER.info( "Get element by locator: " + locator.toString() );  
  final long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
  Wait<WebDriver> wait = new FluentWait<WebDriver>( driver )
    .withTimeout(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
    .pollingEvery(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
    .ignoring( StaleElementReferenceException.class ) ;
  int tries = 0;
  boolean found = false;
  WebElement we = null;
  while ( (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime) < 91000 ) {
   LOGGER.info( "Searching for element. Try number " + (tries++) ); 
   try {
    we = wait.until( ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated( locator ) );
    found = true;
    break;
   } catch ( StaleElementReferenceException e ) {      
    LOGGER.info( "Stale element: \n" + e.getMessage() + "\n");
   }
  }
  long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
  long totalTime = endTime - startTime;
  if ( found ) {
   LOGGER.info("Found element after waiting for " + totalTime + " milliseconds." );
  } else {
   LOGGER.info( "Failed to find element after " + totalTime + " milliseconds." );
  }
  return we;
}

method6.java

// create a demonstration of using a Closure instead of the typical inner class
//  pattern for @Override that you see above in method #3

wait.until( webDriver -> webDriver.findElement( By.id( "foo" ) ) );

method7.java

Wait<WebDriver> wait = new FluentWait<WebDriver>(driver)
    .withTimeout( 30, TimeUnit.SECONDS )
    .pollingEvery( 5, TimeUnit.SECONDS )
    .ignoring( NoSuchElementException.class, StaleElementReferenceException.class );
// using a customized expected condition
WebElement foo1 = wait.until(new Function<WebDriver, WebElement>() {
    public WebElement apply(WebDriver driver) {
        return driver.findElement(By.id("foo1"));
    }
});
// using a built-in expected condition
WebElement foo2 = wait.until( ExpectedConditions
      .presenceOfElementLocated( By.id("foo2") ) );
// careful with this next one. it requires visibility attribute on html tag
WebElement foo3 = wait.until( ExpectedConditions
      .visibilityOfElementLocated( By.id("foo3") ) );

Wow.. it works awesome ..used method 5