How to Handle Stale Element Reference Exceptions | Selenium 4 Tutorial With Java | LambdaTest

About The Video

In this Selenium 4 Java Tutorial, Anton Angelov (@angelovstanton), Co-founder & CTO of Automate The Planet Ltd., provides an in-depth analysis on how to handle a StaleElementReferenceException in Selenium using Java. The tutorial begins by thoroughly explaining the concept of a Stale Element Reference Exception (SERE), including examples to illustrate the concept. Additionally, the tutorial covers techniques for addressing the SERE within various tests.

Video Chapters

00:00 Introduction

02:09 What is Stale Element Reference Exception?

05:49 Demo

11:45 Ways to Handle Element Reference Exception

29:47 Closing words

Key Topics Covered

Understanding Stale Element Reference Exception: The video begins with an explanation of what Stale Element Reference Exception is, including its causes, such as when an element is no longer present in the DOM or has been detached from the DOM.

Common Selenium Exceptions: A brief overview of common Selenium exceptions is provided, including Element Click Intercepted Exception, Element Not Interactable Exception, NoSuchElement Exception, and others, to differentiate them from the Stale Element Reference Exception.

Solving Stale Element Reference Exception:

The video discusses five strategies to handle the Stale Element Reference Exception effectively:

Reinitializing Web Elements: Demonstrates how reinitializing or finding the web element again before interacting with it can resolve the exception.

Retry Logic with Loops: Introduces a technique to retry finding the web element multiple times using loops and try-catch blocks to handle exceptions dynamically.

Abstracting Retry Logic into a Utility Class: Suggests abstracting the retry logic into a utility class to make the code cleaner and more reusable across tests.

Using Selenium WebDriver Waits (Explicit and Fluent Waits): Explains how to use Selenium's built-in WebDriver Waits, such as Explicit Wait and Fluent Wait, to wait for certain conditions or elements to become available, thereby avoiding the exception.

Handling AJAX Requests and Dynamic Content: Discusses edge cases where web pages with AJAX requests and dynamic content can lead to Stale Element Reference Exceptions, and how to use JavaScript snippets in combination with WebDriver Waits to wait for AJAX requests to complete.

Code Examples and Demonstrations: The presenter provides detailed code examples and live demonstrations for each solution, using a sample application (Lambda Test Selenium Playground) to illustrate how the exception can occur and how each method effectively resolves it.

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