Protractor: Stale Element reference with using conditions

Question

I have a piece of code which is try to see if a text is not present in an element

browser.wait(protractor.ExpectedConditions.not(protractor.ExpectedConditions.textToBePresentInElement(self.btnDashboards(),dashboardName)));

where

self.btnDashboards = function() {
    return element(this.selectors.btnDashboards);
};
var dashboardName = 'foo';

However this occasionally returns

    Fatal error: 09:54:11.129 WARN - Exception thrown
org.openqa.selenium.StaleElementReferenceException: stale element reference: element is not attached to the page document
  (Session info: chrome=44.0.2403.155)
  (Driver info: chromedriver=2.15.322455 (ae8db840dac8d0c453355d3d922c91adfb61df8f),platform=Mac OS X 10.10.4 x86_64) (WARNING: The server did not provide any stacktrace information)
Command duration or timeout: 182 milliseconds
For documentation on this error, please visit: http://seleniumhq.org/exceptions/stale_element_reference.html
Build info: version: '2.45.0', revision: '5017cb8', time: '2015-02-26 23:59:50'
System info: host: 'Sujits-MacBook-Pro.local', ip: '10.80.132.90', os.name: 'Mac OS X', os.arch: 'x86_64', os.version: '10.10.4', java.version: '1.8.0_51'
Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver
Capabilities [{applicationCacheEnabled=false, rotatable=false, mobileEmulationEnabled=false, chrome={userDataDir=/var/folders/tc/89n0t1qs5p3fyw_n9hk1x7fc0000gn/T/.org.chromium.Chromium.QSwwCm}, takesHeapSnapshot=true, databaseEnabled=false, handlesAlerts=true, version=44.0.2403.155, platform=MAC, browserConnectionEnabled=false, nativeEvents=true, acceptSslCerts=true, locationContextEnabled=true, webStorageEnabled=true, browserName=chrome, takesScreenshot=true, javascriptEnabled=true, cssSelectorsEnabled=true}]
Session ID: bbd4b5004df6ff3855bccacf8d16e8c0
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:422)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler.createThrowable(ErrorHandler.java:204)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler.throwIfResponseFailed(ErrorHandler.java:156)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:599)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebElement.execute(RemoteWebElement.java:268)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebElement.getText(RemoteWebElement.java:152)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
    at org.openqa.selenium.support.events.EventFiringWebDriver$EventFiringWebElement$1.invoke(EventFiringWebDriver.java:331)
    at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy2.getText(Unknown Source)
    at org.openqa.selenium.support.events.EventFiringWebDriver$EventFiringWebElement.getText(EventFiringWebDriver.java:381)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.KnownElements$1.invoke(KnownElements.java:63)
    at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy3.getText(Unknown Source)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.handler.GetElementText.call(GetElementText.java:29)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.handler.GetElementText.call(GetElementText.java:1)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DefaultSession$1.run(DefaultSession.java:168)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

Is there a better way to code this so that it doesn't happen at all? Also Why is this happening occasionally rather than regularly?

How is btnDashboards() defined? Also, post the complete error traceback. — alecxe
It seems as issue with the selectors itself. Also I can't say, that I like the code. It is possible to declare some variables, so Protractor doesn't process everything at once. Protractor allows inserting magic in the code, but the result is not pleasant. — Dejan Toteff
@DejanToteff Could you explain the " It is possible to declare some variables, so Protractor doesn't process everything at once. Protractor allows inserting magic in the code, but the result is not pleasant" a bit more or link me to a doc. I'm new to protractor ( I came from a java background) so any tips would be nice. — user3626708
Sure thing- Protractor is not as stable, as it seems. Do everything possible to go away from complexity in your tests. For more - I wrote some tips on github.com/selfrefactor/Protractor-testing-patterns — Dejan Toteff
Thanks. For my current issue i should assign each function call as a variable to improve this? — user3626708

Chuck Brown Chuck Brown · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-30T16:53:03

Because browser.wait returns a promise you can use the .then({passed function}, {failed function}) to trap the error and try again. Here's what I used.

browser.prototype.wait2 = function (waitFunction, timeout, timeoutMessage) {
  var self = this;
  return browser.wait(waitFunction, timeout, timeoutMessage).then(function(pass){return pass}, function(error){
    //retry if the error is a stale element, half the timeout
    if(error.name == "StaleElementReferenceError") {
      return self.wait2(waitFunction, timeout/2, timeoutMessage);
    } else {
      throw error;
    }
  });
};

Protractor: Stale Element reference with using conditions

1 Answers