Can't click an inline <a> that contains a block element #653

juangj · 2017-04-18T20:18:07Z

Firefox Version

52.0 and 53.0b9 and 55.0a1

Platform

Linux (haven't tried others but it's probably the same)

Steps to reproduce -

This works with Chromedriver.

block.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
  <a href="http://www.example.com/">
    <div>Click me</div>
  </a>
</body>
</html>

block.py

import sys

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.desired_capabilities import DesiredCapabilities
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions
from selenium.webdriver.support import wait

caps = DesiredCapabilities().FIREFOX.copy()
caps['marionette'] = True
driver = webdriver.Remote(
    command_executor=sys.argv[1],
    desired_capabilities=caps)

try:
  driver.get('http://localhost/block.html')
  link = driver.find_element_by_css_selector('a')
  link.click()

  wait.WebDriverWait(driver, 3).until(
      expected_conditions.title_contains('Example Domain'))
  print 'ok'
finally:
  driver.quit()

Geckodriver log

geckodriver.log.txt

juangj · 2017-04-18T20:23:30Z

Clicking the <a> doesn't work, but asking WebDriver to click the <div> inside the <a> does work. The click also succeeds if the <a> has style="display: block".

This looks superficially similar to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1307760, though the <img> in that case is an inline element. However, I can't reproduce the exact problem in that bug (an <img> inside an <a>) with the example attached to the bug, or with my own HTML.

jochenberger · 2017-06-22T06:47:20Z

Looks quite similar to #322

njpearman · 2017-09-01T17:39:20Z

I'm experiencing the same problem still with the following:

System

Version: 0.18.0
Platform: macOS 10.12.6
Firefox: 55.0.3
Selenium: Ruby 3.5.1

snowymike · 2017-12-21T19:35:12Z

any update on this one?

i experience the exact same problem as the submitter reported. clicking the anchor doesn't work, but clicking the child div works, and changing the anchor style to display: block also fixes it. the Exception i get is

org.openqa.selenium.ElementNotInteractableException: Element <a href="http://www.example.com/"> could not be scrolled into view

i'm using
Geckodriver 0.19.1 64-bit Windows
Windows 10
Firefox beta 58 64-bit
Selenium 3.5.3
Java

clicking this anchor works fine with chromedriver 2.33 and ie driver 3.0.0.0

juangj · 2017-12-21T19:50:28Z

(Disclaimer: I don't speak for Mozilla)

AFAIU, that is indeed the same problem, even though it's a different error message. The new WebDriver-compliant click code in FF58 produces that error instead of silently failing to click.

I haven't checked again, but IIRC what was happening with that anchor is that Firefox thinks it has multiple client rects, and the first client rect isn't what you'd expect:
{bottom: 12, height: 19, left: 8, right: 8, top: -7, width: 0, x: 8, y: -7}

The center point is (8, 2.5), which ends up being "above" the link that we're trying to click.

snowymike · 2017-12-21T20:57:22Z

thanks for the reply @juangj . have you come up with a workaround you're satisfied with, or are you waiting on a geckodriver or firefox fix? clicking the anchor through selenium works great in firefox 47.0.1 and the latest versions of chrome and ie (and of course works if i manually click in the browser with firefox 58, not using selenium). i'm reluctant to change all the html to use display: block for the anchor in such situations, for a variety of reasons (including my not having control over all the html). and i don't love the idea of clicking the child of the anchor when it's the anchor itself that has all the click handlers configured on it and should be the right thing to click.

anyone on the mozilla side have info on when/if we could expect a fix for this issue, either in geckodriver or a new version of firefox? looks like this has been broken for 8 months, just with varying errors (click does nothing now replaced with ElementNotInteractableException). i'm surprised this issue only has a few comments on it, as it broke the first test i tried to run with geckodriver. maybe this use of anchors and divs in this fashion isn't that common, or perhaps lots of people are still sticking with 47.0.1, as we will continue to be until we can get our tests passing using geckodriver.

thanks.

juangj · 2017-12-21T21:12:14Z

I'd suggest just clicking the child div, even though, as you say, it's more logical to be clicking the anchor. It's a little annoying once, but it's straightforward and is simple enough to undo after this gets fixed. I think that's better than changing the HTML under test solely to work around an automation bug -- the explanatory comment that you leave in the code about this will make more sense if it's written in your test code rather than in your HTML templates.

This bug affects a relatively small fraction of tests in my codebase, but of course everybody's experience will vary, depending on the thing that you're testing.

Me-ion · 2018-04-11T18:55:40Z

Any updates on this? Still an issue with geckodriver 20.1 and FF 59. In my case, I have a dropdown with only anchor elements. They have no child elements I could use to click on, so this issue is a complete blocker for me. Works fine with chromedriver

slaout · 2018-08-09T15:06:10Z

Any news on it?

We have the problem with this sort of HTML:

<a ... style="display: table-footer-group; width: 100%;">
    <div>...</div>
</a>

andrewnicols · 2019-12-17T07:20:22Z

Just to confirm that this is still a bug in Geckodriver 0.26.0.

Is there any news on the resolution of this issue, is there anything that can be done to help with its resolution?

whimboo · 2019-12-23T13:31:42Z

Please note that work related to this problem is tracked on https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1374283. Sadly we don't have an ETA right now. Sorry.

There is a bug in Geckodriver which means that it is unable to click any link which contains a block level node. See mozilla/geckodriver#653. The workaround is to click on it's first descendant instead.

There is a bug in Geckodriver which means that it is unable to click any link which contains a block level node. See mozilla/geckodriver#653. The workaround is to click on it's first descendant instead. This is achieved thorugh finding it's first child and clicking that instead. Note: This is not a perfect workaround as the first child element may not be the one containing the block element, but normally this situation only occurs where the only immediate child is a block element.

AutomatedTester added the marionette label May 10, 2017

placetne mentioned this issue Dec 18, 2017

Clicking a link which has an image with display attribute set to block does not navigate to URL #1097

Closed

andrewnicols mentioned this issue Jan 12, 2021

Click an block <a> element (Geckodriver bug work around) php-webdriver/php-webdriver#854

Merged

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Can't click an inline <a> that contains a block element #653

Can't click an inline <a> that contains a block element #653

juangj commented Apr 18, 2017

juangj commented Apr 18, 2017 •

edited

Loading

jochenberger commented Jun 22, 2017

njpearman commented Sep 1, 2017

snowymike commented Dec 21, 2017 •

edited

Loading

juangj commented Dec 21, 2017

snowymike commented Dec 21, 2017

juangj commented Dec 21, 2017

Me-ion commented Apr 11, 2018

slaout commented Aug 9, 2018 •

edited

Loading

andrewnicols commented Dec 17, 2019

whimboo commented Dec 23, 2019

Can't click an inline <a> that contains a block element #653

Can't click an inline <a> that contains a block element #653

Comments

juangj commented Apr 18, 2017

Firefox Version

Platform

Steps to reproduce -

block.html

block.py

Geckodriver log

juangj commented Apr 18, 2017 • edited Loading

jochenberger commented Jun 22, 2017

njpearman commented Sep 1, 2017

System

snowymike commented Dec 21, 2017 • edited Loading

juangj commented Dec 21, 2017

snowymike commented Dec 21, 2017

juangj commented Dec 21, 2017

Me-ion commented Apr 11, 2018

slaout commented Aug 9, 2018 • edited Loading

andrewnicols commented Dec 17, 2019

whimboo commented Dec 23, 2019

juangj commented Apr 18, 2017 •

edited

Loading

snowymike commented Dec 21, 2017 •

edited

Loading

slaout commented Aug 9, 2018 •

edited

Loading