Running this code gives me a timeout exception error, why? - python-3.x

Question

I'm trying to build a script to automate filling in a textbox with selenium, but I cant seem to get it to work.
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as ec
import time
browser =
webdriver.Chrome('C:/Users/xiang/PycharmProjects/testo/chromedriver.exe')
browser.get('https://zbib.org/')
wait = WebDriverWait(browser, 10)
name = "form-control form-control form-control-lg id-input"
try:
input = wait.until(ec.presence_of_element_located((By.CLASS_NAME,
name)))
finally:
browser.quit()
I expected there to be no error and the browser/driver doesn't quit, but I get this error in the terminal and the browser/driver quits:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:/Users/xiang/PycharmProjects/testo/bib.py", line 14, in
<module>
input = wait.until(ec.presence_of_element_located((By.CLASS_NAME,
name)))
File "C:\Users\xiang\PycharmProjects\testo\venv\lib\site-
packages\selenium\webdriver\support\wait.py", line 80, in until
raise TimeoutException(message, screen, stacktrace)
selenium.common.exceptions.TimeoutException: Message:
Please help, thanks!

Answer 1

Your code can definitely throw an Exception.
WebDriverWait will throw a TimeoutException if it does not meet the request after the timeout set time.
You can ignore the exception by adding this:
from selenium.common.exceptions import TimeoutException
try:
input = wait.until(ec.presence_of_element_located((By.CLASS_NAME,
name)))
except TimeoutException:
pass
finally:
browser.quit()
Since your className has spaces you should be using css selector. Your name variable would be:
name = ".form-control.form-control.form-control-lg.id-input"
Your code would then be:
from selenium.common.exceptions import TimeoutException
try:
input = wait.until(ec.presence_of_element_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR,
name)))
except TimeoutException:
pass
finally:
browser.quit()
To ensure your browser will be closed you can also use the context manager like this:
name = ".form-control.form-control.form-control-lg.id-input"
chromedriver = 'C:/Users/xiang/PycharmProjects/testo/chromedriver.exe'
with webdriver.Chrome(chromedriver) as browser:
browser.get('https://zbib.org/')
wait = WebDriverWait(browser, 10)
try:
input = wait.until(ec.presence_of_element_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, name)))
except TimeoutException:
pass