5 Best Ways to Perform Double Click on an Element in Selenium with Python

💡 Problem Formulation: When automating browser interactions using Selenium with Python, one might need to simulate a double click action on a webpage element. For instance, double-clicking a table row to view detailed information. This article provides various methods to achieve a double click on an element effectively within a Selenium-driven Python script.

Method 1: Using ActionChains

The ActionChains class in Selenium provides a way to queue up a series of actions to perform, including double clicking. By instantiating an object of ActionChains, we can use its double_click() method, passing the web element we want to interact with.

Here’s an example:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.action_chains import ActionChains
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

# Setup the driver
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("http://example.com")

# Locate the element
element_to_double_click = driver.find_element(By.ID, "double-clickable-element")

# Perform double click
actions = ActionChains(driver)
actions.double_click(element_to_double_click).perform()

When executed, this code snippet will open up the specified URL and double click on the element with the ID ‘double-clickable-element’.

This code snippet sets up a selenium webdriver, navigates to a webpage, locates an element by its ID, and then uses an ActionChains object to perform a double click on it. The perform() method at the end is crucial as it executes the series of actions queued up in the ActionChains object.

Method 2: Double Click Using JavaScript

Another way to double click an element is by executing JavaScript on the web page. Selenium’s execute_script method allows us to run custom JavaScript, which can create a double click event and dispatch it on a specified element.

Here’s an example:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

# Setup the driver
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("http://example.com")

# Locate the element
element_to_double_click = driver.find_element(By.ID, "double-clickable-element")

# Execute JavaScript to double click
double_click_script = """var event = new MouseEvent('dblclick', {
  bubbles: true,
  cancelable: true,
  view: window
});
arguments[0].dispatchEvent(event);"""
driver.execute_script(double_click_script, element_to_double_click)

The JavaScript snippet here will create a ‘dblclick’ event and dispatch it to the target element resulting in a double-click action.

In this code snippet, we begin by setting up the driver and navigating to a web page. We locate a desired element by ID and then run a JavaScript command to simulate a double click on that element. This method is particularly useful if for some reason the ActionChains approach is not suitable or does not work as expected.

Method 3: Using PyAutoGUI

PyAutoGUI is a Python module for programmatically controlling the mouse and keyboard. Although not part of Selenium, it can be used in conjunction with it to perform a double click using the absolute coordinates of the element on the screen.

Here’s an example:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
import pyautogui

# Setup the driver
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("http://example.com")

# Locate the element and get its coordinates
element_to_double_click = driver.find_element(By.ID, "double-clickable-element")
x, y = element_to_double_click.location['x'], element_to_double_click.location['y']

# Move to the element's coordinates and perform double click
pyautogui.doubleClick(x, y)

The output would be PyAutoGUI moving the mouse to the specified coordinates and performing a double click.

After initializing the driver and navigating to the page, we find the element by its ID. We retrieve the element’s coordinates on the screen and pass those to PyAutoGUI’s doubleClick() function, which moves the cursor to the location and performs a double click. However, this method may not always be reliable if the web page layout changes or other elements overlap with the target.

Method 4: Custom Action Chain

For a more granular control, you can build a custom action chain using Selenium’s ActionChains class that includes a series of click actions and appropriate pauses to mimic a double click.

Here’s an example:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.action_chains import ActionChains
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
import time

# Setup the driver
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("http://example.com")

# Locate the element
element_to_double_click = driver.find_element(By.ID, "double-clickable-element")

# Perform custom double click
actions = ActionChains(driver)
actions.click(element_to_double_click).pause(0.1).click(element_to_double_click)
actions.perform()

The button will be clicked twice quickly, simulating a manual double click.

This snippet sets up the driver, finds the element, then constructs a custom action chain. The pause() method adds a short delay between clicks to more accurately simulate the timing of a human double click. As with previous examples, perform() actually carries out the action chain.

Bonus One-Liner Method 5: Using WebDriver’s Built-In Method

A lesser-known functionality of Selenium’s WebDriver is that it sometimes provides direct methods for interacting with elements, including double clicking, depending on the WebDriver in use and the method versions.

Here’s an example:

from selenium import webdriver

# Setup the driver
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("http://example.com")

# Use WebDriver's built-in double click method
driver.double_click("double-clickable-element")

The output of this code would be the same as the other methods: a double click is performed on the element with ID ‘double-clickable-element’.

This simplified code example assumes the WebDriver in use includes a double_click() method for elements, which would make the process even more straightforward. However, this functionality might not be available in all WebDrivers or may behave differently across various browser implementations.

Summary/Discussion

• Method 1: ActionChains. Reliable within Selenium. May not work with JavaScript-heavy web applications.
• Method 2: JavaScript Execution. Can bypass some Selenium limitations. Requires knowledge of JavaScript and could be more complex to debug.
• Method 3: PyAutoGUI. Useful for desktop automation beyond the browser. Not recommended for dynamic web pages and influenced by display resolution and window placement.
• Method 4: Custom Action Chain. Customizable. Requires fine-tuning of timing and may not work perfectly on all browsers.
• Bonus Method 5: WebDriver’s Built-In Method. Easy if available. Limited support and may lack consistency across different WebDrivers.