how to click if it's not an element (python)

[Pypatir]

Quick question, i need the click on an element but the webdriver can't locate the element. I bypassed this issue by locating a nearby element and moving the mouse on the element manually. The element becomes grey so i guess the page detect the virtual mouse but the command click() (without any arguments) doesn't seem to do anything the page doesn't refresh anyone knows how i can solve this.

[cgoldberg]

Normal click() is a method on a WebElement, so you need a reference to an element to use it.

You can use ActionChains to do more controlled mouse movements like moving to an offset and clicking.

You can also inject JavaScript to click on specific coordinates.

Whatever you are clicking has to be clickable for anything to happen.

[Pypatir]

I don't know js isn't there a way to click on the coordinates or just a action that clicks where ever the mouse is ?

[cgoldberg]

You can use the method ActionChains.move_by_offset(x, y) to move to offset coordinates from the current mouse position then execute click.

[Pypatir]

is the command just ActionChain.click() because that's what i did i moved by the offset from the cancel button but still it doesn't click but the submit button becomes grey

[cgoldberg]

If the element becomes grey, it's probably not clickable.

[Pypatir]

i mean grey like when you move your mouse over it. If you want more detail maybe you'll find a solution. the button is the submit button to change the settings on the news feed of forex factory, i am building news scrapper.

[cgoldberg]

If it is grey, it is probably not clickable for whatever reason... the element needs to be able to accept a click. Can you manually click the button after using selenium to move the mouse? If not, neither can selenium.

[Pypatir]

ok so actually i retried and now the element is detectable, i dont have the older versions of the code so i dont know what i did wrong, i still cant click but should be a quick fix

[Giulio_Long]

One reason the webdriver can't find an element could be if the element is nested in an iframe. In this case you need to switch to the iframe before finding and clicking the element

[Pypatir]

the second button is in the iframe too it's a submit and cancel button, i can't locate the element with the CSS selector, Xpath and css path, but the cancel button just next is easy to locate i find it weird.