Handling Pop-Ups and Multiple Windows in Selenium

Introduction 

Pop-ups are a common element in modern web applications. They can appear as alerts, confirmation boxes, or new browser windows/tabs. Selenium provides robust methods to handle these scenarios effectively, enabling testers to switch between windows and interact with them seamlessly.

A pop-up is a window that appears on the screen after a specific action. It can happen in different situations depending on the event.

Types of Pop-Ups Pop-ups can be broadly categorized into:

1.JavaScript Alerts: Simple browser alerts triggered by JavaScript, such as alert(), confirm(), or prompt().

2.Browser Windows or Tabs: New browser windows or tabs opened due to user actions or application triggers.

This blog focuses on handling multiple browser windows or tabs using Selenium WebDriver

Working with Multiple Windows or Tabs

Selenium provides the getWindowHandle() and getWindowHandles() methods to manage multiple windows.

1.getWindowHandle() The method gets a unique ID for the current window. This ID helps you identify and switch back to this window later, especially when dealing with multiple windows or tabs. It returns the ID as a String.

Syntax:
Driver.getWindowHandle() 

2.getWindowHandles() The getWindowHandles() method retrieves a set of unique identifiers for all open windows or tabs. It is used to iterate through windows and switch between them.

Syntax:
driver.getWindowHandles()

How to Handle Multiple Windows in Selenium

Steps to Handle Multiple Windows

1.Store the Original Window Handle

Save the ID of the current window using getWindowHandle().

2. Perform Actions to Open a New Window

Trigger an action (e.g., clicking a button or link) to open a new window or tab.

3.Switch to the New Window Use getWindowHandles() to iterate through all open windows and switch to the new one.

4.Perform Actions in the New Window

Interact with elements within the new window.

5.Switch Back to the Original Window

Use the stored original window handle to return to the main window.

Example: Handling Multiple Windows

import org.openqa.selenium.By;  

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;  

import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;  

public class WindowHandleExample {  

    public static void main(String[] args) {  

        // Set up WebDriver  

        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "path_to_chromedriver");  

        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();  

        // Open a website  

        driver.get("https://example.com");  

        // Store the ID of the original window  

        String originalWindow = driver.getWindowHandle();  

        // Click a link that opens a new window  

        driver.findElement(By.id("openNewWindowButton")).click();  

        // Switch to the new window  

        for (String windowHandle : driver.getWindowHandles()) {  

            if (!windowHandle.equals(originalWindow)) {  

                driver.switchTo().window(windowHandle);  

                break;  

            }  

        }  

        // Perform actions in the new window  

        System.out.println("Title of the new window: " + driver.getTitle());  

        // Switch back to the original window  

        driver.switchTo().window(originalWindow);  

        // Perform actions in the original window  

        System.out.println("Title of the original window: " + driver.getTitle());  

        // Close the browser  

        driver.quit();  

    }  

}  

Conclusion

Handling multiple windows or tabs is a vital skill for Selenium testers. By using getWindowHandle() and getWindowHandles(), you can efficiently switch between windows and interact with elements in different contexts. Understanding and mastering these methods will help you write reliable and robust test scripts for applications with multiple windows.