Using selenium (with python bindings), I'm dealing with a webpage that is almost entirely AJAX; including hyperlinks. Instead of using the element.click() method, I wish to execute the javascript in the "onclick" attribute of the tag:

The tag:

<a onclick="javascript:setEvent(event);requisition_openRequisitionDescription('requisitionListInterface','actOpenRequisitionDescription',_ftl_api.lstVal('requisitionListInterface', 'requisitionListInterface.listRequisition', 'requisitionListInterface.d327682e687', this),'requisitionList');return ftlUtil_followLink(this);" href="#" title="View this job description" id="requisitionListInterface.reqTitleLinkAction.row1">

The code:

from selenium import webdriver
firefox = webdriver.Firefox()
firefox.get("some_url")
elem = firefox.find_element_by_id("requisitionListInterface.reqTitleLinkAction.row1")
jcode = elem.get_attribute("onclick")
firefox.execute_script(jcode)

The Error:

WebDriverException: Message: u'event is not defined' ; Stacktrace:

Disclaimer:

I don't understand Javascript. As far as I can tell, it's expecting the 'event' variable, however I guess it has something to do with a callback ?

EDIT:

I've assumed that the javascript is modifying the href attribute but is it possible for javascript to redirect the browser without modifying the hyperlink?

Using selenium (with python bindings), I'm dealing with a webpage that is almost entirely AJAX; including hyperlinks. Instead of using the element.click() method, I wish to execute the javascript in the "onclick" attribute of the tag:

The tag:

<a onclick="javascript:setEvent(event);requisition_openRequisitionDescription('requisitionListInterface','actOpenRequisitionDescription',_ftl_api.lstVal('requisitionListInterface', 'requisitionListInterface.listRequisition', 'requisitionListInterface.d327682e687', this),'requisitionList');return ftlUtil_followLink(this);" href="#" title="View this job description" id="requisitionListInterface.reqTitleLinkAction.row1">

The code:

from selenium import webdriver
firefox = webdriver.Firefox()
firefox.get("some_url")
elem = firefox.find_element_by_id("requisitionListInterface.reqTitleLinkAction.row1")
jcode = elem.get_attribute("onclick")
firefox.execute_script(jcode)

The Error:

WebDriverException: Message: u'event is not defined' ; Stacktrace:

Disclaimer:

I don't understand Javascript. As far as I can tell, it's expecting the 'event' variable, however I guess it has something to do with a callback ?

EDIT:

I've assumed that the javascript is modifying the href attribute but is it possible for javascript to redirect the browser without modifying the hyperlink?

• javascript
• python
• selenium

3 Answers 3

You can just click it using this.

elem.click()

The onclick event will automatically get triggered.

Unless selenium does something crazy, which i doubt, onclick="javascript:setEvent(event) is not valid javascript. the rest of the string however is. When this code block gets executed, it tries to invoke a function called setEvent with the variable event, which remains undefined.

<a onclick="requisition_openRequisitionDescription('requisitionListInterface','actOpenRequisitionDescription',_ftl_api.lstVal('requisitionListInterface', 'requisitionListInterface.listRequisition', 'requisitionListInterface.d327682e687', this),'requisitionList');return ftlUtil_followLink(this);" href="#" title="View this job description" id="requisitionListInterface.reqTitleLinkAction.row1">

since event is nowhere else needed in your script, just remove it?

from selenium.webdriver.mon.action_chains import ActionChains
firefox = webdriver.Firefox()
# You need a mouse to hover the span elements here, and please try this way :)
self.mouse = webdriver.ActionChains(firefox)    

# You need get the span element from its xpath:
elem = firefox.find_element_by_id("requisitionListInterface.reqTitleLinkAction.row1")

# Then you hover on span element by mouse and click on it:
self.mouse.move_to_element(elem).click().perform()