selenium click link-How to click a href link using Selenium

Question

I have an html href link

<a href="/docs/configuration">App Configuration</a>

using Selenium I need to click the link. Currently, I am using below code -

Driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[text()='App Configuration']")).click(); 

But it's not redirecting to the page. I also tried below code -

 Driver.findElement(By.xpath(//a[@href ='/docs/configuration']")).click();

But this is throwing below exception -

org.openqa.selenium.ElementNotVisibleException: Element is not currently visible and so may not be interacted with Command duration or timeout: 13 milliseconds

The link is visible and the page is completely loaded. Can anyone help with this?

Answer 1

webDriver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@href='/docs/configuration']")).click();

The above line works fine. Please remove the space after href.

If the element is not visible please scroll down the page then perform click the action

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Answer 2

Option 1: Utilize the Action Class to Click and Navigate

In certain situations, it may be necessary to use the Actions class to interact with the element to avoid visibility issues.

import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;

WebElement targetElement= driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[text()='App Configuration']"));

Actions actionBuilder = new Actions(driver);

actionBuilder.moveToElement(targetElement).click().perform();

Solution 2: Execute Wait Commands for ElementToBeClickable

The placement of an explicit wait to ensure that a certain element is clickable could mitigate the problem especially in situations where timing delays and or overlay issues exist.

import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.WebDriverWait;

import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.ExpectedConditions;

import java.time.Duration;

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(10));

WebElement element = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath("//a[text()='App Configuration']")));

element.click();