Trouble logging into a website using Puppeteer automation

Other Questions Puppeteer
1

I’m trying to automate logging into a website with Puppeteer but I’m running into some issues. The main problem is that the input field IDs change every time the page reloads. This makes it hard to use them as selectors.

Here’s a simplified version of what I’ve tried:

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

async function attemptLogin() {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({headless: false});
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.setViewport({width: 1000, height: 800});
  await page.goto('login-page-url');
  await page.waitForNavigation();
  
  // This part doesn't work because selectors keep changing
  await page.type('.email-input', 'myemail');
  await page.type('.password-input', 'mypassword');
  await page.click('.login-button');
  
  await page.waitForNavigation();
}

attemptLogin();

Does anyone know how to handle dynamic input IDs when using Puppeteer? Any tips or tricks would be really helpful. Thanks!

2

Have you considered using the page.evaluate() method? It allows you to execute JavaScript directly in the context of the page, which can be really useful for dynamic content. You could use it to find elements based on their attributes or content, rather than relying on IDs or classes. For example:

const emailInput = await page.evaluate(() => {
  return document.querySelector('input[placeholder*="email" i]');
});
await page.evaluate((el, value) => el.value = value, emailInput, 'myemail');

This approach is more flexible and can adapt to changes in the page structure. You might also want to add some error handling and retries, as dynamic pages can be unpredictable. Remember to use page.waitForSelector() or similar methods to ensure the page has loaded before interacting with elements.

3

I’ve dealt with similar issues when automating logins. One approach that’s worked well for me is using data attributes instead of IDs or classes. Many sites add custom data attributes to their elements that don’t change, even if the IDs do.

For example, you might find something like ‘data-test-id=“email-input”’ on the email field. These are often more stable than other selectors. You could then use:

await page.type(‘[data-test-id=“email-input”]’, ‘myemail’);

If that’s not an option, I’ve had success with more complex CSS selectors or XPath. Sometimes you need to chain multiple attributes or navigate the DOM structure to uniquely identify an element.

Also, don’t forget to add waits before interactions. The page might be reloading or updating dynamically, causing your script to fail. Something like page.waitForSelector() can help ensure the element is actually there before you try to interact with it.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you need any clarification on these approaches.

4

hey, have u tried using xpath selectors? theyre pretty good for dynamic stuff. like, you could do something like:

await page.$x(‘//input[@placeholder=“Email”]’)[0].type(‘myemail’);

it might work better than relying on ids or classes. just make sure to wait for the page to load properly before trying to interact with elements.