How to send keys in an Ajax dropdown?

Question

I already got the Xpath, but when I'm trying send keys there is error :

 Error
 Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "C:\Users\Admin\PycharmProjects\Belajar1\Register.py", line 23, in test_register
self.email = self.driver.find_element_by_xpath(".//*[@id='email']").send_keys("dssdf")
 File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webelement.py", line 334, in send_keys
self._execute(Command.SEND_KEYS_TO_ELEMENT, {'value': typing})
 File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webelement.py", line 460, in _execute
return self._parent.execute(command, params)
 File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 201, in execute
self.error_handler.check_response(response)
 File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\errorhandler.py", line 188, in check_response
raise exception_class(message, screen, stacktrace)

Help please. I am new in selenium with python.

Answer 1

As @FDM mentioned the $x("//*[@id='email']") will find 2 matching elements. So you need to build a locator that is more unique/precise. If you search it in Firebug or any other console you'll notice that it yields two matching nodes.

I'm not sure in Python how it should be, but I tried this in Java using the following CSS selector and it worked.

driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("div[id=top-user-menu-wrapper] input[id=email]")).sendKeys("test");

Answer 2

Try executing the following command in Chrome (F12 < Console):

$x("//*[@id='email']")

You will see that the page has two elements with this identifier (which is, in fact, not conforming to the meaning of id).

When the email field is visible, as in your screenshot, it is actually the second email field that you see. But Selenium finds the first element which is invisible, and thus your code fails.

Solution: try making your XPath more specific.