Selenium: upload a file in Internet Explorer to the specified folder without a direct link, without Windows forms, without AutoIt or Robot

Question

I often came across a problem how to upload files in IE. Unlike Chrome Firefox, you cannot just specify the desired folder, and all files will be downloaded to this folder. You also need to interact with native Windows formats, etc.

There are several options, for example, using AutoIt, using keyboard commands, a robot, etc. But all these parameters are unstable, they require an explicit wait, the use of redundant libraries and unsuitability when running tests in parallel. Another problem is what to do if the file is not loaded with a direct link, but the link is generated from the javascript command or received from the server and cannot be extracted from html.

All these problems can be solved, here in the hte answer I will show how to do it. The solution is written in C #, I believe that the same thing can be implemented in java

Answer 1

The DownloadFileIexplore method will load the file into the specified Path file (folder + file name), for example. DownloadFileExplore ("C: \ my_folder \ report.xslx")

public void DownloadFileIexplore(string filePath) { //Click the link. //Simple click can be used instead, but in my case it didn't work for all the links, so i've replaced it with click via action: new Actions(Browser.Driver).MoveToElement(Element).Click(Element).Perform(); //Different types of element can be used to download file. //If the element contains direct link, it can be extracter from 'href' attribute. //If the element doesn't contains href or it just an javascript command, link will be extracted from the browser http requests. // string downloadUrlOrLink = Element.GetAttribute("href") != null && !Element.GetAttribute("href").Contains("javascript") ? Element.GetAttribute("href") : GetRequestUrls().Last() ?? GetLinkInNewWindowIexplore(); if (downloadUrlOrLink == null) { throw Log.Exception("Download url cannot be read from the element href attribute and from the recent http requests."); } /// the last step is to download file using CookieWebClient /// method DownloadFile is available in the System.Net.WebClient, /// but we have to create new class CookieWebClient, that will be inherited from System.Net.WebClient with one overriden method new CookieWebClient(GetCookies()).DownloadFile(downloadUrlOrLink, filePath); } /// <summary> /// this method returns all the http requests sent from browser. /// the latest requests was send when link (or button) was clicked to download file /// so we will need just to get last element from list: GetRequestUrls().Last(). /// or, if the request for file downloading isn't the last, find the required request by part of url, in my case it was 'common/handler', eg: /// GetRequestUrls().LastOrDefault(x => x.Contains("common/handler")) /// <summary> public List<string> GetRequestUrls() { ReadOnlyCollection<object> requestsUrls = (ReadOnlyCollection<object>) Driver.ExecuteScript("return window.performance.getEntries().map(function(x) { return x.name });"); return requestsUrls.Select(x => (string) x).ToList(); } /// <summary> /// In some cases after clicking the Download button new window is opened in IE. /// Driver.WindowHandles can return only one window instead of two. /// To solve this problem reset IE security settings and set Enable Protected Mode for each zone. /// </summary> private string GetLinkInNewWindowIexplore() { /// here it would be better to add waiting till new window is opened. /// in that case we have to calculate number of windows before click and send this number as argument to GetLinkInNewWindowIexplore() /// and wait till number will be increased by 1 var availableWindows = Driver.WindowHandles; if (availableWindows.Count > 1) { Driver.SwitchTo().Window(availableWindows[availableWindows.Count - 1]); } string url; try { url = Driver.Url; } catch (Exception) { url = Driver.ExecuteScript("return document.URL;").ToString(); } Driver.SwitchTo().Window(Driver.WindowHandles[0]); return url; } public System.Net.CookieContainer GetCookies() { CookieContainer cookieContainer = new CookieContainer(); foreach (OpenQA.Selenium.Cookie cookie in Driver.Manage().Cookies.AllCookies) { cookieContainer.Add(new System.Net.Cookie { Name = cookie.Name, Value = cookie.Value, Domain = "domain of your site, you can find, track http requests send from your site in browser dev tools, tab Network" }); } return cookieContainer; } public class CookieWebClient : WebClient { private readonly CookieContainer _cookieContainer; public CookieWebClient(CookieContainer cookieContainer) { _cookieContainer = cookieContainer; } /// it necessary to override method to add cookies, because file cannot be download by non-authorized user /// ServerCertificateValidationCallback is set to true to avoid some possible certificate errors protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri address) { ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback = delegate { return true; }; WebRequest request = base.GetWebRequest(address); HttpWebRequest webRequest = request as HttpWebRequest; if (webRequest != null) { webRequest.CookieContainer = _cookieContainer; } return request; } }