I’m working on extracting data from a table that doesn’t support regular page scrolling methods. When I try to collect all the information, I can only see the visible rows but cannot access the rest of the data below.
I’ve attempted several approaches including JavaScript execution through the console, but none seem to work for this particular table structure. The table appears to have its own internal scrolling mechanism that doesn’t respond to typical scroll commands.
Here’s my current approach:
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
from selenium.webdriver import ActionChains
import time
def extract_table_data(page_url):
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.maximize_window()
try:
driver.get(page_url)
time.sleep(8)
# Try to interact with table element
table_element = driver.find_element(By.ID, 'dataGrid')
table_element.send_keys(Keys.ARROW_DOWN) # Not working
# Attempt with ActionChains
actions = ActionChains(driver)
actions.move_to_element(table_element).perform()
# JavaScript approach
driver.execute_script("arguments[0].scrollTop = 400", table_element)
except Exception as error:
print(f"Error occurred: {error}")
finally:
driver.quit()
def main():
url = "https://example-table-site.com/data-view"
extract_table_data(url)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
I’ve also tried direct JavaScript commands like document.querySelector('#dataGrid').scrollTop=200 but the table doesn’t respond. Has anyone dealt with similar table structures that have custom scrolling behavior?
Virtual scrolling tables are a nightmare. I usually target whatever virtualization library they’re using - most apps use ag-Grid, DevExtreme, or something similar with their own APIs. Honestly, I skip the scrolling entirely. Just open the network tab in dev tools and watch the XHR/fetch requests when you click around the table. You can usually hit their API directly with requests library, which beats the hell out of selenium for data extraction. I had this stubborn financial table once where mouse wheel events worked when everything else failed. The table only listened for wheel events:
from selenium.webdriver.common.action_chains import ActionChains
from selenium.webdriver.common.actions.wheel_input import ScrollOrigin
actions = ActionChains(driver)
scroll_origin = ScrollOrigin.from_element(table_element)
actions.scroll_from_origin(scroll_origin, 0, 300).perform()
If you’re still stuck, check the URL or local storage for row virtualization parameters you can tweak to load more rows upfront.
I’ve hit this exact problem tons of times with custom data grids. These tables usually use virtual scrolling or custom pagination that completely breaks normal scroll methods.
First, look for pagination controls or “load more” buttons. A lot of these tables have hidden elements that trigger data loading:
# Look for pagination or load more buttons
load_more = driver.find_elements(By.XPATH, "//button[contains(text(), 'Load') or contains(text(), 'More')]")
if load_more:
load_more[0].click()
If that fails, try scrolling the parent container instead of the table. Sometimes the scrollable element is actually a wrapper div:
Here’s another trick that saved me once - use keyboard navigation on individual rows and extract data row by row:
first_row = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//div[@id='dataGrid']//tr[1]")
first_row.click() # Focus on first row
for i in range(100): # Adjust range based on expected rows
# Extract current row data here
ActionChains(driver).send_keys(Keys.ARROW_DOWN).perform()
time.sleep(0.1)
The real trick is figuring out how that specific table loads data. Open dev tools, hit the network tab, and manually scroll to see what requests get fired.
