how to wait for an element to be attached to DOM

Question

I used code:-

public Boolean RetryingFindClick(By by)
    {
        Boolean result = false;
        int attempts = 0;
        while (attempts < 4)
        {
            try
            {

                BrowserHelper.WebDriver.FindElement(by).Click();
                result = true;
                break;
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(e);
            }
            attempts++;
        }
        return result;
    }

But i have been told that this is not a best practice and many times it does not work.

HTML:

<div _ngcontent-c20="" class="col-lg-12 mb-3">
    <ng-select _ngcontent-c20="" id="UploaderName" class="ng-pristine ng-valid ng-touched">
        <!---->
        <div class="open below" tabindex="0">
            <!---->
            <div class="single">
                <!---->
                <!---->
                <div class="placeholder"> Uploader Name </div>
                <!---->
                <!---->
                <div class="toggle"> ▲ </div>
                <!---->
            </div>
            <!---->
        </div>
        <!---->
        <select-dropdown>
            <div class="below" style="width: 723px; top: 32px; left: 0px;">
                <!---->
                <div class="filter">
                    <input autocomplete="off" placeholder="">
                </div>
                <div class="options">
                    <ul>
                        <!---->
                        <!---->
                        <li class="message"> No results found </li>
                    </ul>
                </div>
            </div>
        </select-dropdown>

Answer 1

You can use the explicit wait condition in order to find the element as below.It will be waited until the element is clickable for the given time.If the element is not attached to the DOM/not clickable within the specified time, then it will throw TimeoutException. So, you can specify the required time in wait condition.

NuGet Package :

DotNetSeleniumExtras.WaitHelpers

Code:

public Boolean RetryingFindClick(By by){

    try
    {
        var  wait = new WebDriverWait(BrowserHelper.WebDriver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(20));
        wait.Until(ExpectedConditions.ElementToBeClickable(by))    
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(e);
        return false;//Element is not found until the specified time
    }
    return true;
}

Edit:

Please add the click action in your test method (removed from RetryingFindClick method)

BrowserHelper.WebDriver.FindElement(by).Click();