Need Help with Selenium WebDriver: StaleElementReferenceException

Titan_S

Hi everyone,

I've been working on automating web testing using Selenium WebDriver, and I'm facing an issue with the StaleElementReferenceException. I've tried searching for a solution but haven't found anything that resolves my problem. I hope someone here can help me out.

Here's the scenario I'm dealing with:

I'm automating a test case where I need to click on a button that appears dynamically on the page. The button's HTML element remains the same, but it gets updated with new content and attributes whenever a certain event occurs on the page. 

Initially, I locate the button using its XPath:

java

WebElement button = driver.findElement(By.xpath("xpath_expression"));

Then I perform some actions on the page, which triggers the event and updates the button. After the update, when I try to click on the button again using the same reference, I encounter the StaleElementReferenceException.

Here's the code snippet that throws the exception:

java

button.click();

I've tried various approaches to handle this issue, but none of them have worked so far. Here are the methods I've attempted:

1. Waiting for the element to be clickable:

java

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 10);

WebElement button = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath("xpath_expression")));

button.click();

This approach didn't resolve the StaleElementReferenceException.

2. Refreshing the reference:

java

button = driver.findElement(By.xpath("xpath_expression"));

button.click();

Even after re-finding the element, the exception persists.

3. Using a try-catch block:

java

try {

  button.click();

} catch (StaleElementReferenceException e) {

  // Retry the click operation here

}

This approach results in an infinite loop of retries without successfully clicking the button.

I'm not sure what else I can try to handle this exception and successfully click the button after it gets updated. Any suggestions or alternative approaches would be greatly appreciated.

If needed, I can provide more code snippets or additional information to help diagnose the issue. Thank you in advance for your assistance!