[FIXED] Couldn't find the correct XPATH

Issue

I am currently finding the XPATH for the input area on twitter so that i could write smth on it using bot but i keep getting the wrong XPATH.However,i've seen the code from other ppl and they manage to get the correct XPATH eventhough we are getting from the same html element.

The XPATH I get is //*[@id="reactroot"]/div/div/div2/main/div/div/div/div1/div/div2/div/div2/div1/div/div/div/div2/div1/div/div/div/div/div/div2/div/div/div/div/label/div1/div/div/div/div/div/div2/div

Element chosen

The correct XPATH they get is //div[contains(@aria-label, 'Tweet text')] and when i check the location of it in inspect , it appears to be the same element

other's XPATH

Solution

No, try to avoid very long CSS or very long XPath expressions. They are hard to read, not reliable and also makes your code ugly.

Try this:

my_element = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//div[contains(text(),"What\'s happening")]')

or:

my_element = driver.find_element(By.CSS, '//div[data-testid="tweetTextarea_0"]')

Using XPath is a bad practice because if the element will be moved to another div or span - your XPath will be broken. Always prefer working with:

1. CSS and ID
2. CSS and Class
3. CSS and attibutes
4. XPATH with text contains
5. XPATH with match text (full match)
6. If no other way - possible - use only XPath

Answered By - Tal Angel