Unable to extract attribute value with selenium - python-3.x

Question

caller = driver.find_element_by_id("sys_display.new_call.caller")
print(caller.get_attribute('value'))
Hello running into issues when trying to extract a attribute value from a element.
I have tried using caller= driver.find_element_by_id("sys_display.new_call.caller").get_attribute('value')
but it doesnt seem to pull the value at all from HTML.
I am a noobie thanks for the help!

Answer 1

To print the value of the value attribute i.e. MyMercy User you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:
Using css_selector:
print(driver.find_element_by_css_selector("input[id^='sys_display'][id*='new_call'][id$='caller'][data-name='caller']").get_attribute("value"))
Using xpath:
print(driver.find_element_by_xpath("//input[#id='sys_display.new_call.caller' and #data-name='caller']").get_attribute("value"))
Ideally you need to induce WebDriverWait for the visibility_of_element_located() and you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:
Using CSS_SELECTOR:
print(WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "input[id^='sys_display'][id*='new_call'][id$='caller'][data-name='caller']"))).get_attribute("value"))
Using XPATH:
driver.get('https://www.temporary-mail.net/')
print(WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.XPATH, "//input[#id='sys_display.new_call.caller' and #data-name='caller']"))).get_attribute("value"))
Console Output:
MyMercy User
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

Answer 2

In selenium if the value is stored as innerText, you have to retrive it using .text method , this works only if the element is visible in the UI. Means if its hidden or out of view port .text method will return blank. In that case you could use get attribute "textContent" . But for testing textCOntent is not recommended as it won't validate if the text is displaye in UI. It is recommended only for web scraping
You can also wait for value field to have the text before printing you are indeed looking for value attribute
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 10)
caller = wait.until(EC.text_to_be_present_in_element_value((By.ID, 'sys_display.new_call.caller'),"MyMercy User"))
caller = driver.find_element_by_id("sys_display.new_call.caller")
print(caller.get_attribute('value'))
print(caller.text)
print(caller.get_attribute('textContent'))
Try printing the three values and see which one gives the result you want