url - How to Wait for a Redirect Chain to Settle using Selenium WebDriver where final page loaded is not predictable?

Question

I want to automate a script which verify certain contents in the webpage.

The login page redirected several times before landing on an application page and these redirects were causing issues occasionally. The issue was definately related to timing. So how can webdriver wait until the final page is fully loaded or settled ?

A typical solution is to wait for an element on the target page to become available. Unfortunately, we use 100+ unique urls therefore there is no predictable landing page.

So how can an ExpectedCondition be implemented, that waits for the application to stabilize with respect to redirects ?

The main agenda is, I have a set of URL's and i wanted to verify that all these URL's are valid by checking the content in it. All these are direct URL's of learning contents to which my organization has partnered eg Lynda, skillsoft,etc. So when we launch these URL through automated scrip first it will ask authentication(My organizational credential) and after that it will redirect to corresponding sites. During these redirect, in certain cases there is multiple redirection happening and finally the content page is loaded. This is the scenario. My script fails mainly due to the wait i guess

Answer 1

As you mentioned multiple redirection happening and finally the content page is loaded and the script fails mainly due to the wait is pretty much possible. In these cases we need to induce ExplicitWait i.e. WebDriverWait with expected_conditions clause set to either of the following :

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Java :

1. urlToBe: An expectation for checking the current url is an exact match.

   new WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(ExpectedConditions.urlToBe("https://www.facebook.com/"));
   

2. urlContains: An expectation for checking that the current url contains a case-sensitive substring.

   new WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(ExpectedConditions.urlContains("facebook"));
   

3. urlMatches: An expectation for checking the current url pattern is the expected pattern which must be an exact match.

   new WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(ExpectedConditions.urlMatches("my_regex"));
   

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Python :

1. url_to_be: An expectation for the URL of the current page to be a specific url.

   WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.url_to_be("https://www.google.co.in/"))
   

2. url_matches: An expectation for the URL to match a specific regular expression.

   WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.url_matches("my_regex"))
   

3. url_contains: An expectation for the URL of the current page to contain specific text.

   WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.url_contains("google"))
   

4. url_changes: An expectation for checking the current url which must not be an exact match.

   WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.url_changes("https://www.google.co.in/"))