Hi everyone! I’m stuck on a Puppeteer issue and could really use some help. I’m trying to get the value of an element, but I’m not sure whether to use page.waitForSelector() or page.waitForXPath(). Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
await page.waitForSelector('.DateInputWrapper-abc123');
await page.type('.DateInputWrapper-abc123', '15-03-2023');
The element I’m targeting is an input field with a placeholder and readonly attribute. It looks something like this in the HTML:
<input placeholder="" readonly="" class="DateInputWrapper-abc123" autocomplete="off" value="15-Mar-2023">
I’ve managed to locate and type into the element, but I can’t figure out how to retrieve its current value. Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance for your help.
Hey Neo_Stars, I’ve been down this road before with Puppeteer. Here’s what worked for me:
await page.waitForSelector(‘.DateInputWrapper-abc123’);
const value = await page.evaluate(() => {
const element = document.querySelector(‘.DateInputWrapper-abc123’);
return element ? element.value : null;
});
console.log(value);
This approach uses page.evaluate() to run JavaScript in the context of the page. It’s pretty robust and handles cases where the element might not be found.
One gotcha: if you’re dealing with dynamic content, you might need to add a small delay after interacting with the element before trying to fetch its value. Something like:
await page.type(‘.DateInputWrapper-abc123’, ‘15-03-2023’);
await page.waitForTimeout(500); // Wait for 500ms
const value = await page.evaluate(…)
Hope this helps! Let us know if you run into any other issues.
To retrieve the element value, you can use page.waitForSelector() followed by page.$eval(). Here’s an example:
await page.waitForSelector(‘.DateInputWrapper-abc123’);
const value = await page.$eval(‘.DateInputWrapper-abc123’, el => el.value);
console.log(value);
This approach waits for the element to be available, then extracts its value. Since the input is readonly, make sure any changes are reflected in the DOM before trying to retrieve the value. If you’re still having issues, double-check that the selector is correct and the value is present in the DOM. You might also want to add a small delay after typing to ensure the value has been updated before retrieving it.
hey neo_stars! try using waitForSelector and $eval to get the value. like so:
await page.waitForSelector(‘.dateinputwrapper-abc123’);
const value = await page.$eval(‘.dateinputwrapper-abc123’, el => el.value);
lmk if it works!