Not informative 'Unable to locate the element' message

[yashaka]

If the element could not be find by locator (in the chromedriver case at least), The following exception is thrown:

org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException: Timed out after 5 seconds. Unable to locate the element
For documentation on this error, please visit: http://seleniumhq.org/exceptions/no_such_element.html
Build info: version: '2.31.0', revision: '1bd294d185a80fa4206dfeab80ba773c04ac33c0', time: '2013-02-27 13:51:26'
System info: os.name: 'Linux', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '3.8.0-27-generic', java.version: '1.7.0_25'
Driver info: driver.version: unknown
    at ru.yandex.qatools.htmlelements.pagefactory.AjaxElementLocator.findElement(AjaxElementLocator.java:73)
    at ru.yandex.qatools.htmlelements.loader.decorator.proxyhandlers.WebElementNamedProxyHandler.invoke(WebElementNamedProxyHandler.java:29)
    at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy11.isDisplayed(Unknown Source)
    at com.swisscom.stargate.staf.webui.PagesContentStaticTest.assertPageExpectedElementsAreDisplayed(PagesContentStaticTest.java:45)

Why not add additional info about the element (annotated with @FindBy) which was not find? At least something to identify it from the test result... The variable name, locator (xpath, css used in FindBy, etc.), etc...

[aik099]

:+1:

[yashaka]

If this would be interested for anybody... So far I am using the following workaround:

    public static void assertElementIsDisplayed(WebElement element, boolean expectedIsDisplayed) {
        //get '@FindBy' locator from the element
        By locatorBy = null;
        try {
            Field locatorField = null;
            InvocationHandler innerProxy = Proxy.getInvocationHandler(((Proxy) element));
            locatorField = innerProxy.getClass().getDeclaredField("locator");
            locatorField.setAccessible(true);
            AjaxElementLocator locator = (AjaxElementLocator) locatorField.get(innerProxy);
            Field byField = locator.getClass().getSuperclass().getDeclaredField("by");
            byField.setAccessible(true);
            locatorBy = (By) byField.get(locator);
        } catch (NoSuchFieldException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (ClassCastException e) { //TODO: refactor: why? somehow HtmlElement objects can't be cast to Proxy...
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        String errorMsg = element +  " element should be displayed? - " + expectedIsDisplayed +
                "\nElement locator: " + ((locatorBy != null) ? locatorBy : "Could not get, see sources...");

        try {
            assertEquals(element.isDisplayed(), expectedIsDisplayed, errorMsg);
        } catch (NoSuchElementException e) {
            fail(errorMsg + "\n" + e + "\n" + e.getStackTrace());
        }

[artkoshelev]

Can you provide the test reproducing the problem? Described behavior looks weird for me, cause we use @Name annotation to format pretty message when element is not found, and when there is no @Name annotation we use field name to create one.

[yashaka]

Thid is a test:

public class TempTest {
    @Test
    public void test(){
        class GooglePage {
            private WebDriver driver;

            @FindBy(name = ".gbqfif.WRONG")
            WebElement myWebElement;

            GooglePage(WebDriver driver) {
                this.driver = driver;
                driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(2, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
                HtmlElementLoader.populate(this, driver);
                driver.get("http://google.com");
            }
        }
        WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
        GooglePage page = new GooglePage(driver);
        try {
            page.myWebElement.isDisplayed();
        } catch (NoSuchElementException e) {
            System.out.println("\n*** With Firefox driver ***\n\n\n");
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "webdriver-webui-tests/webdriver/" + System.getProperty("os.name") + "/chromedriver");
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        page = new GooglePage(driver);
        try {
            page.myWebElement.isDisplayed();
        } catch (NoSuchElementException e) {
            System.out.println("\n\n*** With Chrome driver (latest version) ***\n\n");
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        driver.quit();
    }
}

And this is console output:

*** With Firefox driver ***

org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException: Timed out after 5 seconds. Unable to locate the element
For documentation on this error, please visit: http://seleniumhq.org/exceptions/no_such_element.html
Build info: version: '2.31.0', revision: '1bd294d185a80fa4206dfeab80ba773c04ac33c0', time: '2013-02-27 13:51:26'
System info: os.name: 'Linux', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '3.8.0-29-generic', java.version: '1.7.0_25'
Driver info: driver.version: unknown
    at ru.yandex.qatools.htmlelements.pagefactory.AjaxElementLocator.findElement(AjaxElementLocator.java:73)
    at ru.yandex.qatools.htmlelements.loader.decorator.proxyhandlers.WebElementNamedProxyHandler.invoke(WebElementNamedProxyHandler.java:29)
    at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy6.isDisplayed(Unknown Source)
    at com.swisscom.stargate.staf.webui.TempTest.test(TempTest.java:93)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    ...
Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException: Unable to locate element: {"method":"name","selector":".gbqfif.WRONG"}
Command duration or timeout: 2.07 seconds
For documentation on this error, please visit: http://seleniumhq.org/exceptions/no_such_element.html
Build info: version: '2.31.0', revision: '1bd294d185a80fa4206dfeab80ba773c04ac33c0', time: '2013-02-27 13:51:26'
System info: os.name: 'Linux', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '3.8.0-29-generic', java.version: '1.7.0_25'
Session ID: 740acdaf-4324-446a-a39a-6e7f4b2ed269
Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver
Capabilities [{platform=LINUX, databaseEnabled=true, cssSelectorsEnabled=true, javascriptEnabled=true, acceptSslCerts=true, handlesAlerts=true, browserName=firefox, browserConnectionEnabled=true, nativeEvents=false, webStorageEnabled=true, rotatable=false, locationContextEnabled=true, applicationCacheEnabled=true, takesScreenshot=true, version=23.0}]
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
    ...
Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler$UnknownServerException: Unable to locate element: {"method":"name","selector":".gbqfif.WRONG"}
Build info: version: '2.31.0', revision: '1bd294d185a80fa4206dfeab80ba773c04ac33c0', time: '2013-02-27 13:51:26'
System info: os.name: 'Linux', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '3.8.0-29-generic', java.version: '1.7.0_25'
Driver info: driver.version: unknown
    at <anonymous class>.FirefoxDriver.prototype.findElementInternal_(file:///tmp/anonymous8175408390086870472webdriver-profile/extensions/fxdriver@googlecode.com/components/driver_component.js:8281)
    at <anonymous class>.fxdriver.Timer.prototype.setTimeout/<.notify(file:///tmp/anonymous8175408390086870472webdriver-profile/extensions/fxdriver@googlecode.com/components/driver_component.js:382)
Started ChromeDriver (v2.1) on port 24962
org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException: Timed out after 5 seconds. Unable to locate the element

For documentation on this error, please visit: http://seleniumhq.org/exceptions/no_such_element.html

*** With Chrome driver (latest version) ***

Build info: version: '2.31.0', revision: '1bd294d185a80fa4206dfeab80ba773c04ac33c0', time: '2013-02-27 13:51:26'

System info: os.name: 'Linux', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '3.8.0-29-generic', java.version: '1.7.0_25'

Driver info: driver.version: unknown
    at ru.yandex.qatools.htmlelements.pagefactory.AjaxElementLocator.findElement(AjaxElementLocator.java:73)
    at ru.yandex.qatools.htmlelements.loader.decorator.proxyhandlers.WebElementNamedProxyHandler.invoke(WebElementNamedProxyHandler.java:29)
    at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy6.isDisplayed(Unknown Source)
    at com.swisscom.stargate.staf.webui.TempTest.test(TempTest.java:103)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    ...
Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException: no such element
  (Session info: chrome=29.0.1547.57)
  (Driver info: chromedriver=2.1,platform=Linux 3.8.0-29-generic x86_64) (WARNING: The server did not provide any stacktrace information)
Command duration or timeout: 2.03 seconds
For documentation on this error, please visit: http://seleniumhq.org/exceptions/no_such_element.html
Build info: version: '2.31.0', revision: '1bd294d185a80fa4206dfeab80ba773c04ac33c0', time: '2013-02-27 13:51:26'
System info: os.name: 'Linux', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '3.8.0-29-generic', java.version: '1.7.0_25'
Session ID: 315dbf800f3308b5213ba58b88bad1c1
Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver
Capabilities [{platform=LINUX, acceptSslCerts=true, javascriptEnabled=true, browserName=chrome, chrome={chromedriverVersion=2.1}, rotatable=false, locationContextEnabled=true, version=29.0.1547.57, cssSelectorsEnabled=true, databaseEnabled=true, handlesAlerts=true, browserConnectionEnabled=false, webStorageEnabled=true, nativeEvents=true, applicationCacheEnabled=false, takesScreenshot=true}]
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
    ...

===============================================
Custom suite
Total tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Skips: 0
===============================================

As you can see there is a locator info in case of Firefox driver:

Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException: Unable to locate element: {"method":"name","selector":".gbqfif.WRONG"}

And there is no any info in case of Chrome driver:

Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException: no such element
  (Session info: chrome=29.0.1547.57)
  (Driver info: chromedriver=2.1,platform=Linux 3.8.0-29-generic x86_64) (WARNING: The server did not provide any stacktrace information)

In both cases I did not find any 'pretty print' of the name of my element. I would expect something like: 'My Web Element' what is the output of the

myWebElement.toString();

Maybe something is wrong with my environment... It would be great if you try to reproduce the issue on your env.

[olionajudah]

just encountered this myself.

the lack of locator info using the chrome driver was sufficient motivation to download firefox and switch my testing there.

chrome driver: selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchElementException: Message: 'no such element\n (Session info: chrome=36.0.1985.125)\n (Driver info: chromedriver=2.10.267517,platform=Mac OS X 10.8.5 x86_64)'

firefox driver: selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchElementException: Message: 'Unable to locate element: {"method":"id","selector":"id_new_item"}' ;

[aik099]

What you actually posted looks like log of Selenium server. It's up to Selenium server whatever or not to display used selector.

What @artkoshelev meant is that in your Java test suite you'll get nice exception back (when element location failed by given @FindBy annotation) and in there you'll see it's name and actual locator.

Selenium server isn't displaying any test suite exception except ones that it generates by itself.

[olionajudah]

you're right. sorry for the confusion

[lanwen]

Will be added cause info with selector in #75. Can i close this issue for now? @olionajudah