How To Continue With Script Even If NoSuchElement Exception is Thrown

The Problem

If you selenium script fails to find element on page by provided locator, it throws NoSuchElement exception. NoSuchElement is an exception which is basically like crashing the program into a wall. Whenever this error comes, script execution gets stopped.

A Solution

As an automation developer, I can ensure uninterrupted script execution in two ways

1.       Using try/catch block

Let’s try to implement it in an example –

NoSuchElement error without Try/Catch Handling

     public static void main(String[] args) {

                                WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

                                driver.get("http://thebuddhatree.blogspot.in/");

                                driver.findElement(By.id("name")).click();

                }

Note – This program will generate error and script execution gets stopped if element with provided locator is not on page.

NoSuchElement error with Try/Catch Block

import org.openqa.selenium.By;

import org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException;

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;

import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;

public class NoSuchElementError {

                public static void main(String[] args) {

                                WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

                                driver.get("http://thebuddhatree.blogspot.in/");

                                try {

                                                driver.findElement(By.id("name")).click();

                                } catch (NoSuchElementException e) {

                                                System.out.println("In Catch Block");

                                }

                                System.out.println("Outside Block, resume executing other code");

                }

}

Note – This program will generate error but script execution will continue for remaining code.

2.       Using FindElements() method

Build into Selenium is an ability to search multiple elements using single action

findElements() method behavior can be summarized as follows  -

·         On Zero Match : return an empty list

·         On One Match : returns list of one WebElement only

·         On One+ Match : returns list with all matching elements

NoSuchElement error using FindElements()

public static void main(String[] args) {

                                WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

                                driver.get("http://google.in/");

                               

                                List <WebElement> elements  =driver.findElements(By.id("name"));

                                if (elements.size() == 0){

                                                System.out.println("Element Not Found");

                                }

                }

Expected Behavior

• ·         Open the Browser
• ·         Load the page
• ·         Search for an element
• ·         Fails to find element
• ·         Script execution continued

Conclusion

Happy Learning

Please ask questions on Testing Forum, in case of any issues or doubts or questions.