urlopen error [Errno 111] Connection refused for selenium python

Question

When I try to log out from the testing page, there occurs an connection refused error. This is the command / code I've used:

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//a[@href = '/logged/pages/user/logout.php']").click()

I also tried by linktext, or ActionChains, the same error. And it happens sometime, not always, Any comments?

The Error Message:

<urlopen error [Errno 111] Connection refused>
Stacktrace

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/jenkins/run/workspace/QA_DEV_CINDY_LOGGED/LoggedSmoke/LoggedCommonFunction.py", line 158, in Logout
    link.click()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/remote/webelement.py", line 70, in click
    self._execute(Command.CLICK_ELEMENT)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/remote/webelement.py", line 404, in _execute
    return self._parent.execute(command, params)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/remote/webdriver.py", line 193, in execute
    response = self.command_executor.execute(driver_command, params)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/remote/remote_connection.py", line 358, in execute
    return self._request(command_info[0], url, body=data)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/remote/remote_connection.py", line 426, in _request
    resp = opener.open(request)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/urllib/request.py", line 469, in open
    response = self._open(req, data)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/urllib/request.py", line 487, in _open
    '_open', req)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/urllib/request.py", line 447, in _call_chain
    result = func(*args)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/urllib/request.py", line 1274, in http_open
    return self.do_open(http.client.HTTPConnection, req)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/urllib/request.py", line 1253, in do_open
    r = h.getresponse()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/http/client.py", line 1147, in getresponse
    response.begin()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/http/client.py", line 358, in begin
    version, status, reason = self._read_status()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/http/client.py", line 328, in _read_status
    raise BadStatusLine(line)
http.client.BadStatusLine: ''

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/urllib/request.py", line 1248, in do_open
    h.request(req.get_method(), req.selector, req.data, headers)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/http/client.py", line 1065, in request
    self._send_request(method, url, body, headers)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/http/client.py", line 1103, in _send_request
    self.endheaders(body)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/http/client.py", line 1061, in endheaders
    self._send_output(message_body)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/http/client.py", line 906, in _send_output
    self.send(msg)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/http/client.py", line 844, in send
    self.connect()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/http/client.py", line 822, in connect
    self.timeout, self.source_address)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/socket.py", line 435, in create_connection
    raise err
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.3/socket.py", line 426, in create_connection
    sock.connect(sa)
ConnectionRefusedError: [Errno 111] Connection refused 

Answer 1

This is a temporary connectivity issue between your Selenium language bindings and a Selenium server. This may happen more often if you are using a remote Selenium server on a different machine and especially if it goes over the internet. We've, for instance, seen this kind of errors when using remote selenium servers at BrowserStack or Sauce Labs.

Since Python/Selenium bindings don't have an automatic way to retry JSON wire (JSON over HTTP) requests/commands, you are forced to handle it in your code. For instance, if these are tests you are executing - a common way to tackle these errors is to retry failed tests 3 times and, only if all 3 attempts fail - report a failed test.