Understanding different navigation outcomes when clicking elements in SimpleBrowser headless mode

[sarahj]

I’m having trouble understanding why I get different results when clicking elements using SimpleBrowser

I wrote some code that clicks on two different elements but I’m getting weird results. The first click gives me SucceededNavigationComplete while the second one returns SucceededNavigationError. Both clicks work fine when I test them manually in a regular browser.

Browser webClient = new Browser();
webClient.UserAgent = "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:58.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/58.0";
webClient.AutoRedirect = true;

string mainUrl = "https://example.com";
webClient.Navigate(mainUrl);
string pageContent1 = webClient.CurrentHtml;

HtmlResult linkElement = webClient.Find(ElementType.Anchor, "id", "submitLink");
ClickResult clickResult1 = linkElement.Click();
string pageContent2 = webClient.CurrentHtml;

HtmlResult buttonElement = webClient.Find(ElementType.Button, "id", "processBtn");
ClickResult clickResult2 = buttonElement.Click();
string pageContent3 = webClient.CurrentHtml;

What’s the best way to debug this issue? I’m pretty new to headless browser automation and would appreciate any tips on how to get more details about what’s causing the navigation error.

[sofiag]

The difference usually comes down to how each element triggers its action. I’ve seen this before - the anchor tag makes a simple HTTP request while the button tries to run client-side validation or form submission that SimpleBrowser can’t handle properly. Check the clickResult2.HttpResult.StatusCode to see if you’re getting a specific error. Also look at whether the button has onclick handlers or form validation attached. SimpleBrowser sometimes throws navigation errors even when the action actually works, especially with complex forms. I’d compare the actual content in pageContent3 with what you expect instead of just trusting the ClickResult status.

[avamtz]

check if the button’s running javascript that simplebrowser can’t handle. I always add webClient.Log = Console.WriteLine to see what’s happenin behind the scenes. also, check the ResponseUri property after each click - make sure you’re endin up on the right urls. half the time these errors happen cause you got redirected somewhere you didn’t expect.

[Tom_Artist]

I’ve hit this same issue with SimpleBrowser. SucceededNavigationError means the click worked, but something went wrong during the page load afterward. Usually it’s JavaScript errors, AJAX timeouts, or the page just doesn’t play nice with SimpleBrowser’s engine. Here’s what I’d try: Check LastWebException on your browser instance right after the failed click - it’ll show you what actually broke. Throw in a Thread.Sleep(1000) between operations to see if it’s a timing thing. Also peek at the HTML in pageContent3 - sometimes the page loads fine despite the error.