How to upload a file in Selenium WebDriver with no 'input' element

Question

I have a HTML page with button named "Upload" and id: btn-import-questions. The element:

<button class="btn btn-success btn-sm col-lg-11" id="btn-import-questions" data-ts-file-selector="questions-import-init">  Upload&nbsp;<i class="fa fa-upload"></i></button>

I tried a Selenium Java code like this:

driver.findElement(By.id("btn-import-questions")).sendkeys("C:/path/to/file.xlsx");

But since this is an upload button and not an input-type element, the above code is not working.

Answer 1

Check the DOM because somewhere there must be an <input type="file">. The website's javascript will call the .click() of this element to pop up the file selector dialog and closing the dialog with a selection will provide the path. With Selenium the same can be achieved with the .sendkeys():

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[@type=\"file\"]")).sendkeys(localFilePath);