element not visible: Element is not currently visible and may not be manipulated - Selenium webdriver

Question

Following is the html

<div id="form1:customertype" class="ui-selectonemenu ui-widget ui-state-default ui-corner-all ui-state-hover" style="width: 165px;">
   <div class="ui-helper-hidden-accessible">
      <select id="form1:customertype_input" name="form1:customertype_input" tabindex="-1">
         <option value="S">Staff</option>
         <option value="C">Customer</option>
         <option value="N">New To Bank</option></select></div>
  <div class="ui-helper-hidden-accessible"><input id="form1:customertype_focus" name="form1:customertype_focus" type="text" readonly="readonly"></div>
  <label id="form1:customertype_label" class="ui-selectonemenu-label ui-inputfield ui-corner-all" style="width: 149px;">Staff</label>
  <div class="ui-selectonemenu-trigger ui-state-default ui-corner-right ui-state-hover"><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-triangle-1-s ui-c"></span></div></div>

The stylesheet of class="ui-helper-hidden-accessible" is

ui-helper-hidden-accessible {
      border: 0;
      clip: rect(0 0 0 0);
      height: 0px;
      margin: -1px;
      overflow: hidden;
      padding: 0;
      position: absolute;
      width: 0px;
   }

Following is my code

    WebElement customerType = driver.findElement(By.id("form1:customertype_input"));
    Select select = new Select(customerType);
    select.selectByVisibleText("New To Bank");

When I try to select "New to Bank" from the dropdown I get exception element not visible: Element is not currently visible and may not be manipulated - Selenium webdriver

I have tried WebDriverWait technique but of no use, any ideas ?

Answer 1

I don't believe the text for that option is actually visible before you attempt to select it. Try selecting by value instead.

WebElement customerType = driver.findElement(By.id("form1:customertype_input"));
Select select = new Select(customerType);
select.selectByValue("N");

You may need to actually click the selector before being able to select an option, though.

WebElement customerType = driver.findElement(By.id("form1:customertype_input"));
new WebDriverWait(driver, 15).until(
            ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(customerType));
customerType.click();

Select select = new Select(customerType);
select.selectByValue("N");