Iterate and open new browser pages causes StaleElementReferenceException

user_3925023 0
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I have a very simple script that find all HREF in a page and iterate and logs it:

Photo search scroll
    Go To   https://xxx
    ${elements}=    Get WebElements     xpath://a[contains(@href,'photo')]
    FOR    ${element}    IN    @{elements}
        Log    ${element.get_attribute('href')}
    END

It works perfectly fine. As I need to open a new browser for each of HREF I added Selenium Browser command:

Photo search scroll
    Go To   https://xxx
    ${elements}=    Get WebElements     xpath://a[contains(@href,'photo')]
    FOR    ${element}    IN    @{elements}
        Log    ${element.get_attribute('href')}
        Go To      ${element.get_attribute('href')}
        sleep   2s
        Capture Page Screenshot
        Go Back
    END

I always get this error after first iteration:

Resolving variable '${element.get_attribute('href')}' failed: StaleElementReferenceException: Message: stale element reference: element is not attached to the page document
  (Session info: chrome=86.0.4240.111)

I'm unable to figure out why this happen. Any help/comments is appreciated. Many Thanks

###UPDATE I've created a list varible and addedd additional loop:

@{hrefs} =  Create List
    FOR    ${element}    IN    @{elements}
        Log    ${element.get_attribute('href')}
        Append To List  ${hrefs}        ${element.get_attribute('href')}  
    END

    FOR     ${href}     IN      @{hrefs}
        Go To           ${href}
        sleep  2s
        Capture Page Screenshot
    END

now I obtain this error code:

Opening url 'Create List'   
20:08:36.739    FAIL    InvalidArgumentException: Message: invalid argument
  (Session info: chrome=86.0.4240.111)

enter image description here

robotframework selenium
1 Answers

why this happens

Because when you called Get WebElements you got references to objects in the current page & session; the browser also keeps the same references, to the current DOM elements.

When you go to a different page and then back, this is a different page for the browser. Visually it is the same; its html is the same.
But for the browser, this is a different page than the one you started from; its internal references to the elements in it are different (the "map" it builds for the page you're browsing). In the same time, you request from the browser to give you an object by a reference. But the browser doesn't have it - those objects are not called the same for it, the references are different. You've got a stale (expired, not valid, old) reference, not pointing to any DOM object it has in its "map". StaleElementReferenceException :)

The solution - open the target links in a new tab; thus your page will not refresh, and the references will be valid. Or better, get all links, and open them in a new loop.

user_34461260
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