Java webdriver: Element not visible exception

Question

I'm having the following problem. I have a dropdown that is hidden so when I make the Select and run the test i get the following error:

 org.openqa.selenium.ElementNotVisibleException: element not visible: Element is not currently visible and may not be manipulated
  (Session info: chrome=30.0.1599.101)

This is my select:

Select s = new Select(dropDown);
s.selectByVisibleText("CHARGEBACK");

Is there a walk around it to manipulate hidden elements?. I found the following code in one of the posts:

 JavascriptExecutor jse = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
 jse.executeScript("arguments[0].scrollIntoView(true);", element);

This is the html code:

 <div class="ui-helper-hidden">
<select id="formLevel:levels_input" name="formLevel:levels_input">
<option value="541fac58-5ea8-44ef-9664-e7e48b6c6a3c">Seleccione un Registro</option>
<option value="dafc799c-4d5e-4b02-a882-74cb6ad98902">SECURITY</option>
<option value="e5416086-2036-4cd0-b23e-865747aa3f53">CALL CENTER</option>
<option value="7ea4b4ea-4f06-4d27-9541-1b0cf3f2aa22">CHARGEBACK</option>
<option value="0f915120-7b8f-4a33-b063-5d20a834b655">PREVENÇÃO A FRAUDE</option>
<option value="a8ef13e8-f4a5-43b8-a668-b769f6988565">ANALISE DE CREDITO</option>
<option value="83b65a26-d4cd-43d3-b3fa-2f7894ca454a">SUPORTE A CONTA</option>
<option value="163d0db9-590c-47a7-a271-218b2d27d8d9">REGULARIZAÇÃO FINANCEIRA</option>

And it doesn't work in this case. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Since WebDriver tries to simulate real users, it cannot interact with elements which are invisible/hidden. To solve your issue, I think you would need to click on div first which will make the drop down visible and select option from the dropdown. I would recommend such an approach as opposed to pure Javascript way since it would simulate a real user. Give following a shot,

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 300);
WebElement triggerDropDown = driver.findElement(By
                .className("ui-helper-hidden"));
triggerDropDown.click();
WebElement selectElement = wait.until(ExpectedConditions
                  .visibilityOfElementLocated(By.id("formLevel:levels_input")));
Select select = new Select(selectElement);
select.selectByVisibleText("SECURITY");

Edit updated the class name of triggerDropDown