How do I switch to a frame and select an element in the frame?

Question

I am trying to select the frame 'mainFrame'.

The page source is :

<frameset rows="89,*" frameborder="NO" border="0" framespacing="0">
    <frame name="topFrame" scrolling="NO" noresize src="inc-webpage/b-topnav.asp">
        <frameset rows="*,20" frameborder="NO" border="0" framespacing="0">
            <frameset cols="175,*" frameborder="NO" border="0" framespacing="0">
                <frame name="leftFrame" scrolling="AUTO" noresize src="inc-webpage/b-sidenav-3.asp">
                <frame name="mainFrame" src="b-default.asp">
            </frameset>
            <frame name="bottomFrame" scrolling="NO" noresize src="inc-webpage/b-footer.asp">
        </frameset>
</frameset>
<noframes>

The element I wish to select is in 'mainFrame'. Therefore my code is:

time.sleep(5)    
driver.switch_to.frame("mainFrame");
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//a[contains(text(),'I Agree')]").click()

Yes. time.sleep() is not ideal so I'm just using it for the time being.

Here is the HTML for the element I wish to select within 'mainFrame':

<input type="button" value="I Agree" 
class="btn" onmouseover="blueBtnOver(this)" onmouseout="blueBtnOut(this)" 
onclick="javascript:location.href='b-3c-pLessonBooking.asp?limit=pl'" style="background: rgb(0, 102, 204);">

Currently getting this Error:

NoSuchFrameException(frame_reference) selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchFrameException: Message: mainFrame

I am an absolute beginner. The driver.find_element_by_xpath is probably wrong

Also why do some websites use frames//framesets while others use iframes and some don't use either?

Button `I Agree` is not inside the frame you have posted. You need to check in DOM and parent of that button if there any frame?? it should be like `#document button element` — KunduK, Mar 25 '21 at 17:05

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 25 '21 at 09:10

0

Basically wait for the frame switch to it and then click the input with matching value I agree.

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait 
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it("mainFrame"))
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//input[@value='I Agree']").click()

answered Mar 25 '21 at 09:10

Arundeep Chohan

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The code returns a time out error ; it probably couldn't find the frame – gabethechef Mar 25 '21 at 12:14
Is the page taking a long time to load> – Arundeep Chohan Mar 26 '21 at 03:05
nope; i have an ethernet connection and i even set the driver.sleep(30) just to make sure – gabethechef Mar 26 '21 at 08:16

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 29 '21 at 20:17

The desired element is nested within multiple <frame> elements so you have to:

Induce WebDriverWait for the parent frame to be available and switch to it.
Induce WebDriverWait for the child frame to be available and switch to it.
Induce WebDriverWait for the desired element to be clickable.

You can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

Using CSS_SELECTOR:

WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.CSS_SELECTOR,"frame[name='topFrame']")))
WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.CSS_SELECTOR,"frame[name='mainFrame']")))
WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "input.btn[value='I Agree']"))).click()

Using XPATH:

WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.XPATH,"//frame[@name='topFrame']")))
WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.frame_to_be_available_and_switch_to_it((By.XPATH,"//frame[@name='mainFrame']")))
WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//input[@class='btn' and @value='I Agree']"))).click()

Note : You have to add the following imports :

 from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
 from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
 from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

Reference

You can find a couple of relevant discussions in:

How do I switch to a frame and select an element in the frame?

2 Answers2

Reference