selenium.common.exceptions.InvalidSelectorException: Message: An invalid or illegal selector was specified

Question

I am trying to write a script to handle web pages that has multiple elements. This element once clicked will lead to a new window. But my script has problem in identifying the element. I need help to locate element and handle multiple windows

I tried finding Xpath by using Chrome but it is not the same in Internet Explorer. I also tried using CSS selector it doesn't work. Says it is invalid.

Code for the function test_google_search_page: def test_google_search_page(self): driver=self.driver driver.get("http://xxxx.com") str1=driver.title print(str1)

    #get the window handles using window_handles
    window_before=driver.window_handles[0]
    print(window_before)

    #driver.find_element_by_xpath("//*                   [@id='2ccb50dfc61122820032728dcea648fe']/div/div")
    driver.find_element_by_css_selector("#\32  ccb50dfc61122820032728dcea648fe > div > div")
    window_after=driver.window_handles[1]

    driver.switch_to.window(window_after)
    str2=driver.title
    print(str2)
    print(window_after)

    self.assertNotEqual(str1,str2)
    print('This window has a different title')
    driver.switch_to.window(window_before)

    self.assertEqual(str1,driver.title)
    print('Returned to parent window. Title now match')



ERROR: test_google_search_page (__main__.GoogleOrgSearch)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\PSWN672P\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\Python programs\SNOW2.py", line 21, in test_google_search_page
    driver.find_element_by_css_selector("#\32 ccb50dfc61122820032728dcea648fe > div > div")
  File "C:\Users\PSWN672P\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 598, in find_element_by_css_selector
    return self.find_element(by=By.CSS_SELECTOR, value=css_selector)
  File "C:\Users\PSWN672P\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 978, in find_element
    'value': value})['value']
  File "C:\Users\PSWN672P\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 321, in execute
    self.error_handler.check_response(response)
  File "C:\Users\PSWN672P\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\errorhandler.py", line 242, in check_response
    raise exception_class(message, screen, stacktrace)
selenium.common.exceptions.InvalidSelectorException: Message: An invalid or illegal selector was specified

alecxe · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-24 01:29:42Z

2

Your #\32 ccb50dfc61122820032728dcea648fe > div > div CSS selector is indeed invalid. Please refer to the CSS selector grammar specification.

Did you mean: #2ccb50dfc61122820032728dcea648fe > div > div? Even though, it's impossible to give you a specific correct selector without seeing the HTML source of the page and element you are trying to locate.

The 2ccb50dfc61122820032728dcea648fe id itself though looks auto-generated, you should probably look for alternative locators to get to the desired element, this topic might help to get an idea of how to approach locating elements with selenium:

What makes a good selenium locator?

answered Jan 24, 2019 at 1:29

alecxe

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1 Comment

Nivetha Over a year ago

<a class="sn-widget-list-item sn-widget-list-item_hidden-action module-node" id="2ccb50dfc61122820032728dcea648fe" href="task_list.do?sysparm_userpref_module=2ccb50dfc61122820032728dcea648fe&sysparm_query=assignment_group=javascript:getMyGroups()^active=true^assigned_to=^sys_class_name!=cert_follow_on_task^sys_class_name!=sc_req_item^sys_class_name!=sc_request^EQ&sysparm_clear_stack=true" target="gsft_main"> <div class="sn-widget-list-content" data-id="2ccb50dfc61122820032728dcea648fe"> <div class="sn-widget-list-title">My Groups Work</div></div></a> I want to access My Groups Work

undetected Selenium · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-24 01:40:57Z

0

This error message...

driver.find_element_by_css_selector("#\32 ccb50dfc61122820032728dcea648fe > div > div")
.
selenium.common.exceptions.InvalidSelectorException: Message: An invalid or illegal selector was specified

...implies that the CssSelector wasn't a valid one.

It would been easier to construct the best fit CssSelector in presence of the relavent HTML. However as per your code trials:

\32 as the value of the Id looks incorrect.
ccb50dfc61122820032728dcea648fe is a dynamically generated content. So it can't be used as well.

Here you can find the CSS Selector Reference

answered Jan 24, 2019 at 1:40

undetected Selenium

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