Selenium WebDriver and browsers select file dialog

Question

I'm using selenium webdriver, C#.

Is it possible to make work webdriver with Firefox select file dialog? Or must I use something like AutoIt?

Answer 1

If you are trying to select a file for upload Selenium 2 supports HTML file inputs. For example:

HTML

<input type="file" id="uploadhere" /> 

Selenium Code

IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(By.Id("uploadhere")); element.SendKeys("C:\\Some_Folder\\MyFile.txt"); 

Basically you "type" (with SendKeys) the full file path to the file input element. Selenium handles the file selection dialog for you.

However if you want to manipulate an arbitrary file selection dialog, then like Anders said, you have to go outside of Selenium.

Answer 2

No, WebDriver cannot interact with dialogs - this is because dialogs are the domain of the operating system and not the webpage.

I know people that have had luck with autoit as well as the Automation API provided by .Net.

Another option would be to skip the file dialog entirely and issue a POST or a GET, but this requires more advanced knowledge of the website as well as understanding how construct a POST/GET.

You could try Webinator, it is similar to Selenium in the sense that it is powered by WebDriver. It provides file dialog capabilities and I've had great success with it.