Scrape a lightbox overlay using Selenium, Beautiful Soup in Python

Question

I'm having a bit of trouble getting my code to work out. I'm trying to scrape the contents of an overlay or lightbox using selenium, beautiful soup and python. I'm not exactly sure how the overlay is created but I think its ajax

When I run the following python 2.7 code the firefox browser opens, navigates to the page, the correct link is clicked and shows the overlay to the user, I can inspect its tags and markup using Firefox but I can't figure out how to get python to access the overlay.

Any help would be appreciated by this novice

#Import the beautiful soup library 
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
# import urllib2 library to actually go get the webpage for Beautiful Soup
import urllib2

#Import Selenium and the code needed to wait for the page to load
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
from selenium.common.exceptions import NoSuchElementException
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC


URLToParse ='http://courses.it-tallaght.ie/'

#Open the webpage using Soup to get the list of departments so we can iterate on them 
soup = BeautifulSoup(urllib2.urlopen(URLToParse))
#Open the webpage using selenium
driver = webdriver.Firefox()
driver.get(URLToParse)
subset = driver.find_element_by_id('homeProgrammes')


#Just get the part of the document that contains the list of department 
Depts = soup.find(id="homeProgrammes")
# For all the links in the div with id homeProgrammes 
for links in Depts.findAll('a'): 
    #Using selenium find the link to the depts list of courses that matches the link string from beautiful soup and click it
    FollowLink = subset.find_element_by_link_text(links.string)
    FollowLink.click()
    # Try waiting 10 seconds for the element with ID 'ProgrammeListForDepartment' becomes available and print the contents using prettify
    try: 
        element = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, 'ProgrammeListForDepartment')))
        Overlay = BeautifulSoup(driver.find_element_by_id('ProgrammeListForDepartment'))
        print(Overlay.prettify())
    except NoSuchElementException as e: 
            print(NoSuchElementException.msg())

Answer 1

You don't need BeautifulSoup at all. Selenium itself is quite powerful in locating elements.

Here is the working code that iterates over all departments, click each of them, extracts list of courses and closes the overlay window. Results are collected into a dictionary:

from pprint import pprint

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC


url ='http://courses.it-tallaght.ie/'

driver = webdriver.Firefox()
driver.get(url)

courses = {}
for department_link in driver.find_elements_by_css_selector("div#homeProgrammes a[onclick]"):
    department = department_link.text

    # open department
    department_link.click()

    # grab a list of courses
    overlay = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, 'ProgrammeListForDepartment')))
    courses[department] = [course_link.text for course_link in overlay.find_elements_by_css_selector("ol > li > a")]

    # close department
    overlay.find_element_by_link_text("close").click()

pprint(courses)

driver.close()

It prints:

{u'Accounting & Prof. Studies': [u'Accounting Technician (ATI)',
                                 u'APICS Certificate in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM)',
                                 u'APICS Certified Supply Chain professional (CSCP)',
                                 u'Bachelor of Business (Honours) in Accounting & Finance',
                                 u'Bachelor of Business (Honours) in Accounting & Finance',
                                 u'Bachelor of Business in Accounting & Finance',
                                 u'Bachelor of Business in Accounting & Finance',
                                 u'Foundation Certificate in Personnel Practice (CIPD)',
                                 u'Foundation Diploma in Human Resource Practice (CIPD)',
                                 u'Higher Certificate in Business in Accounting',
                                 u'Higher Certificate in Business in Real Estate (Valuation, Sale and Management)'],
 u'Computing': [u'Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Computing',
                u'Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Computing',
                u'Bachelor of Science (Honours) in IT Management',
                u'Bachelor of Science (Honours) IT Management',
                u'Bachelor of Science in Computing',
                u'Bachelor of Science in Computing',
                u'Bachelor of Science in IT Management',
                u'Certificate in Cloud Computing Applications Development',
                u'Certificate in Cloud Computing Infrastructure Management',
                u'Certificate in Fundamentals of Software Development (Minor Award)',
                u'Certificate in Network Design and Implementation',
                u'Higher Certificate in Science in Information Technology',
                u'Higher Certificate in Science in IT Management',
                u'Higher Diploma in Science in Computing',
                u'M. Sc. in Distributed and Mobile Computing',
                u'M.Sc. in Information Technology Management',
                u'PhD in Information Technology',
                u'Postgraduate Diploma in Distributed and Mobile Computing',
                u'Postgraduate Diploma in Information Technology Management',
                u'Postgraduate Diploma in Science in Info Technology Management Information Technology Management'],
 u'Electronic Engineering': [u'Bachelor Degree in Engineering (Honours) in Electronic Engineering',
                             u'Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Electronic Engineering',
                             u'Bachelor of Engineering in Electronic Engineering',
                             u'Bachelor of Engineering In Electronic Engineering',
                             u'Cisco CCNA Routing & Switching',
                             u'Higher Certificate in Engineering in Electronic Engineering',
                             u'Masters of Engineering in Electronic Engineering in Electronic System Design',
                             u'Single Subject Certificate Structured Analogue Design'],
 u'External Services': [u'Access English',
                        u'Pre-Start Academic English',
                        u'Pre-Start Maths'],
 u'Humanities': [u'Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Creative Digital Media',
                 u'Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in European Studies',
                 u'Bachelor of Arts (Honours) International Hospitality & Tourism Management',
                 u'Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Social Care Practice',
                 u'Bachelor of Arts (Ordinary) International Hospitality and Tourism Management',
                 u'Bachelor of Arts in Culinary Arts',
                 u'Bachelor of Arts in International Hospitality and Tourism Management',
                 u'English as a Foreign Language',
                 u'Higher Cert in Arts in International Hospitality & Tourism Operati in Int Hosp & Tourism Operations',
                 u'Higher Certificate in Arts in Culinary Arts'],
 u'Management': [u'Bachelor of Business (Honours) in Management',
                 u'Bachelor of Business (Honours) in Management',
                 u'Bachelor of Business in Management',
                 u'Bachelor of Science (Honours) in the Management of Innovation and Technology',
                 u'Bachelor of Science in the Management of Innovation and Technology',
                 u'Higher Certificate in Business in Business Administration',
                 u'International Digital Management & Sales',
                 u'TA_BMNGT_D - Bachelor of Business in Management'],
 u'Marketing': [u'Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Advertising & Marketing Communications',
                u'Bachelor of Arts in Advertising and Marketing Communications',
                u'Bachelor of Business (Honours) in Marketing',
                u'Bachelor of Business (Honours) in Marketing Management',
                u'Bachelor of Business in Marketing',
                u'Bachelor of Business in Marketing',
                u'BSc in Data Analytics with Digital Marketing',
                u'Higher Certificate in Business in Marketing',
                u'Higher Diploma in Business in Marketing'],
 u'Mechanical Engineering': [u'B.Eng(Hons) in Mechanical Engineering',
                             u'Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering',
                             u'Bachelor of Engineering in Energy and Environmental Engineering',
                             u'Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering',
                             u'Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Energy Systems Engineering',
                             u'Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Energy Systems Engineering',
                             u'Certificate in Project Management (IPMA)',
                             u'EIQA Diploma in Quality Management Quality Management',
                             u'Higher Certificate in Engineering in Mechanical Engineering',
                             u'Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering'],
 u'Science': [u'Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Bioanalytical Science',
              u'Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Bioanalytical Science',
              u'Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Pharmaceutical Science',
              u'Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Sports Science and Health',
              u'Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Sports Science and Health (1 Year Add-On)',
              u'Bachelor of Science Hons in DNA and Forensic Analysis',
              u'Bachelor of Science in Bio Analysis (1 year add-on Bachelor Degree)',
              u'Bachelor of Science in Bioanalysis or Chemical Analysis',
              u'Bachelor of Science in Chemical Analysis',
              u'Bachelor of Science in DNA and Forensic Analysis',
              u'Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Science',
              u'Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Technology',
              u'Bachelor of Science in Sports Science and Health',
              u'Bachelor of Science in Sterile Services Management',
              u'Certificate in Bioprocessing and Cleanroom Management - Minor Award',
              u'Certificate in Food Science and Technology Minor Award',
              u'Certificate in GMP & Regulatory Affairs (MIN) in GMP & Technology',
              u'Certificate in GMP and Medical Device Manufacture (Minor Award)',
              u'Copy of TA_SSPPM_B - Certificate in Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Manufacturing (Special Purpose Award)v2',
              u'Higher Certificate in Science Contamination Control and Asepsis for the Healthcare Sector',
              u'Higher Certificate in Science in Bio & Pharmaceutical Analysis',
              u'Higher Certificate in Science in GMP and Technology',
              u'Higher Certificate in Science in Process Technologies',
              u'Higher Diploma in Food Science and Technology',
              u'Higher Diploma in Science in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing',
              u'Masters in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing & Process Technology',
              u'PhD in Science in Biology',
              u'PhD in Science in Chemistry']}