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

// 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(); 
    } 
  }); 
}

method2.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.");
}
  

method3.java

// An extension of method3 although I am unsure if I trust it
// because it re-gets the element AND the element gets assigned
// again after returning from the method. A few opportunities
// to go stale.
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;
}

method4.java

// I realized that the try-catch doesn't really need to be within
// the ExpectedCondition final block.  By moving the try-catch outside
// I would have access to the WebElement returned from findElement().
// So, I can create my own Boolean expected condition while loop to
// hopefully accomplish a similar thing as method3.
public static WebElement getElementByLocator( By locator ) {
  staticlogger.info( "Get element by locator: " + locator.toString() );  	
  long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( 5, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  WebElement we = null;
  boolean unfound = true;
  while ( unfound ) {
    try {
      we = driver.findElement( locator );
      unfound = false; // FOUND IT
    } catch ( StaleElementReferenceException e ) {						
      staticlogger.info( "Stale element: \n" + e.getMessage() + "\n");
      staticlogger.info("Trying again for availability of element...");
      unfound = true;
      try {
        Thread.sleep(4000);
      } catch (InterruptedException e1) {
        e1.printStackTrace();
      }
    }		
  } 
  // and finally the cleanup		  
  long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
  long totalTime = endTime - startTime;
  staticlogger.info("Finished click after waiting for " + totalTime + " milliseconds.");
  driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait( DEFAULT_IMPLICIT_WAIT, TimeUnit.SECONDS );
  return we;
 }

Wow.. it works awesome ..used method 5