How to add text to a page using python selenium?

Question

I'm trying to enter text into a text box using python selenium.

The html looks like below:

<div class="sendBox placeholder" contenteditable="true" data-placeholder="Type a message or drop attachment..." id="sendMessage" style="height: 375px;"></div>

After manually typing 'TEST' into the text box, the html looks like this:

<div class="sendBox placeholder" contenteditable="true" data-placeholder="Type a message or drop attachment..." id="sendMessage" style="height: 375px;">TEST</div>

I've tried the following code, but there is no response

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//div[@id='sendMessage']").send_keys("testing")

However, if I manually click on the text box so that the cursor shows up and then enter in that code, it does work. I haven't been able to figure out how to make the curser show up via python selenium. I've tried the below though.

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//div[@id='sendMessage']").click()

What would happen if you first click the element and then send keys to it? Any errors? Thanks. — alecxe
– alecxe, Commented Oct 10, 2015 at 5:45
right, so if I do the following two lines successively, there is no error and nothing happens: driver.find_element_by_xpath("//div[@id='sendMessage']").click() driver.find_element_by_xpath("//div[@id='sendMessage']").send_keys("testing") — Chris
– Chris, Commented Oct 10, 2015 at 5:47
Thanks. Could you also look through the markup and see if there is an input or textarea which is, probably, hidden, but has the same value/innerHTML as your content editable div? — alecxe
– alecxe, Commented Oct 10, 2015 at 5:48

alecxe · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-10 05:49:29Z

3

It sounds like clicking and then sending keys to the element should help:

element = driver.find_element_by_xpath("//div[@id='sendMessage']")
element.click()
element.send_keys("testing")

You can also workaround it with setting the innerHTML via execute_script():

driver.execute_script("arguments[0].innerHTML = arguments[1];", element, "testing");

edited Oct 10, 2015 at 5:49

answered Oct 10, 2015 at 5:46

alecxe

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2 Comments

Chris Over a year ago

like I said, the first option you provided does not work. However, your second option is working kind of. For some reason, the text that shows up in the text box is 'arguments[1]'

alecxe Over a year ago

@Chris oops, check it out now, please :)

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