Exercise on safely waiting for unstable web elements with WebDriver.

endorsedmethod.java

// This is the official Selenium documention endorsed method of waiting for elements.
// This method is ineffective because it still suffers from
// the stale element exception.
public static void clickByLocator ( final By locator ) {
  WebElement myDynamicElement = ( new WebDriverWait(driver, 10))
    .until( ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated( locator ) );
  myDynamicElement.click();
}

method1.java

// This method is not effective.  The while loop wont throw an error but
// findElements is not guaranteed to return a non-stale element.
public static WebElement safeGetElementByLocator( By locator ) {
  int weWait = 10;
  int cycle = 1; // 10 cycles is 280
  List<WebElement> weList = driver.findElements( locator );
  while ( weList.size()==0 && weWait <= 280 ) {			
    staticlogger.info("DOM not ready.  Trying again for " + weWait + " more seconds.");
    staticlogger.info( "[" + cycle + "] Searching for element...");
    driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( weWait, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
    weList = driver.findElements( locator ); 
    weWait +=30;
    cycle +=1;
  }
  if ( weList.size() > 1 ) staticlogger.info("WARNING: Locator matched more elements than expected.");
  WebElement we = null;
  try {
    we = weList.get(0);
  } catch ( Exception e ) {
    staticlogger.info( e.getMessage() );
  }
  return we;
}

method2.java

// This method is not effective.   I had mixed results with this.
// I didn't stay with this long enough to determine the actual problem.
public static void clickByLocator( By locator ) {
  boolean search = true;
  int weWait = 30;
  int cycle = 1;
  while ( search && cycle <= 3 ) {			
    try {
      driver.findElement( locator ).click();
      search = false; // stop searching if no error
    } catch ( StaleElementReferenceException sere ) {
      staticlogger.info( "\n\n\nElement was stale.  Trying again.\n" + sere.getMessage() + "\n" + 
            sere.getCause().getLocalizedMessage() + "\n\n" );
      //sere.printStackTrace();				
    }
    weWait +=30; // increase wait value for next cycle
    cycle +=1;
    driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( weWait, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  }
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( DEFAULT_IMPLICIT_WAIT, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  staticlogger.info("Finished safe click.");
}

method3.java

// I gleamed this method from the Selenium Google forum.
// The .ignoring fluent method was a huge hint
// to the eventual solution I found but it still didn't work
// because I needed the ExpectedCondition apply method to give
// me some kind of message on failures.
public void waitForElementPresent(final By by, int timeout){ 
  WebDriverWait wait = (WebDriverWait)new WebDriverWait(driver,timeout)
                  .ignoring(StaleElementReferenceException.class); 
  wait.until(new ExpectedCondition<Boolean>(){ 
    @Override 
    public Boolean apply(WebDriver webDriver) { 
      WebElement element = webDriver.findElement(by); 
      return element != null && element.isDisplayed(); 
    } 
  }); 
}

method4.java

// This is the most effective method I could find for
// locating elements reliably.
public static void clickByLocator( final By locator ) {
  staticlogger.info( "Click by locator: " + locator.toString() );		
  final long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( 5, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  Wait<WebDriver> wait = new FluentWait<WebDriver>( driver )
        .withTimeout(90000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
        .pollingEvery(5500, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
        //.ignoring( StaleElementReferenceException.class );		
  wait.until( new ExpectedCondition<Boolean>() { 
    @Override 
    public Boolean apply( WebDriver webDriver ) {
      try {
        webDriver.findElement( locator ).click();
        return true;
      } catch ( StaleElementReferenceException e ) {						
        staticlogger.info( e.getMessage() + "\n");
        staticlogger.info("Trying again...");
        return false;
      }		
    } 
  } );		
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( DEFAULT_IMPLICIT_WAIT, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  long endTime   = System.currentTimeMillis();
  long totalTime = endTime - startTime;
  staticlogger.info("Finished click after waiting for " + totalTime + " milliseconds.");
}
  

method5.java

// an extension of method4 although I am unsure if I trust it
public static WebElement getElementByLocator( final By locator ) {
  staticlogger.info( "Get element by locator: " + locator.toString() );		
  final long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( 5, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  Wait<WebDriver> wait = new FluentWait<WebDriver>( driver )
    .withTimeout(90000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
    .pollingEvery(5500, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
  wait.until( new ExpectedCondition<Boolean>() { 
    @Override 
    public Boolean apply( WebDriver webDriver ) {
    try {
      webDriver.findElement( locator ).getTagName();
        return true;
      } catch ( StaleElementReferenceException e ) {						
        staticlogger.info( e.getMessage() + "\n");
        staticlogger.info("Trying again for availability of element...");
        return false;
      }		
    } 
  } );
  WebElement we = null;
  try {
    we = driver.findElement( locator ); // is this error prone?
  } catch ( StaleElementReferenceException e ) {						
    staticlogger.info( "Stale element: \n" + e.getMessage() + "\n");
  }	
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( DEFAULT_IMPLICIT_WAIT, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  long endTime   = System.currentTimeMillis();
  long totalTime = endTime - startTime;
  staticlogger.info("Finished click after waiting for " + totalTime + " milliseconds.");
  return we;
}

Wow.. it works awesome ..used method 5