How to click on hidden element in Selenium WebDriver?

In Selenium WebDriver, interacting with web elements is key to automating web applications. However, certain elements on a webpage might be hidden or obscured, making it challenging to interact with them directly. In such cases, developers and testers often need to use alternative methods, such as JavaScriptExecutor in Selenium, to click on these hidden elements.

This ensures that even elements that are not directly visible can be interacted with, enhancing the flexibility of test automation. In this guide, we will explore how to click on hidden elements in Selenium WebDriver using simple techniques

Understanding Hidden Elements in Selenium

Selenium WebDriver cannot see a hidden element on the web page but the implementation is present in the DOM structure. These elements could be styled as hidden, positioned off-screen or present in a collapsed. When you inspect these hidden elements you will find their attribute as visibility:hidden or display:none.

Following a sample code of a hidden element -

In the above sample code, you can see display is set to none. Hence, that element will not be visible on the web page and when you try to fetch such an element, WebDriver will return ElementNotVisible Exception.

How to click hidden elements in Selenium WebDriver?

Interacting with hidden elements in Selenium WebDriver can be challenging since standard actions like clicking or sending keys are generally not allowed on elements that are not visible. However, there are a few strategies you can use to interact with these elements.

1. Using JavaScript Executor

JavaScript works well to make element visible, it can manipulate the DOM directly. With the help of JavascriptExecutor we can interact with hidden elements and perform click. This approach is one of the common approach because it bypasses the visibility check.

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.JavascriptExecutor;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

public class ClickHiddenElement {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        // Set up ChromeDriver path (could be replaced with WebDriverManager for better flexibility)
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\chromedriver-win64\\chromedriver-win64\\chromedriver.exe");

        // Initialize WebDriver
        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

        // Maximize browser window
        driver.manage().window().maximize();

        try {
            // Step 1: Navigate to the target website
            driver.get("https://www.letskodeit.com/practice");

            // Step 2: Implicit wait to ensure elements load within 5 seconds
            driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

            // Step 3: Locate the hidden element using its ID
            WebElement hiddenElement = driver.findElement(By.id("displayed-text"));

            // Step 4: Use JavaScriptExecutor to click on the hidden element
            JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
            js.executeScript("arguments[0].click();", hiddenElement);

            // Confirmation message
            System.out.println("Hidden element clicked successfully!");

        } catch (Exception e) {
            // Handle any exceptions that occur during execution
            System.out.println("An error occurred: " + e.getMessage());

        } finally {
            // Step 5: Close the browser after execution
            driver.quit();
        }
    }
}

Output

2. Changing the Element's Style

Another approach involves modifying the hidden element's style to make it visible before performing the click. This can be done by changing the CSS properties using JavaScript.

Webment hiddenElement = driver.findElement(By.id("hiddenElementId"));

// Make the element visible first
JavascriptExecutor jsExecutor = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
jsExecutor.executeScript("arguments[0].style.display='block';", hiddenElement);

// Click on the element
hiddenElement.click();

Conclusion

Clicking on hidden elements in Selenium WebDriver can be effectively achieved by using JavaScriptExecutor, which bypasses the limitations of traditional WebDriver methods. This technique is particularly useful when elements are intentionally hidden for design or dynamic loading purposes.

By leveraging this approach, you can ensure robust and comprehensive automation of web applications, regardless of hidden elements. Integrating this method in your tests can significantly improve the flexibility and coverage of your Selenium automation framework.