How to change value field in html input tag using selenium in python

Question

The following html tag:

<input id="input-value" title="Search" type="text" value=""> 

I want to change the value attribute from "" to "foo".

<input id="input-value" title="Search" type="text" value="foo">

I am trying this with send_keys() with no success.

ele = browser.find_element_by_id("input-value")
ele.send_keys("foo")
ele.send_keys(Keys.RETURN)` 

• Daniel Roseman: What exactly are you trying to achieve? Changing the contents of an input via the UI doesn't change the underlying value attribute.
• Shivam Negi: Yes, figured that out. Thanks @DebanjanB. I am trying to change the contents of a search input tag. The website(web.whatsapp) is using react.js. I am trying to search by name using the field.

Answer 1

To edit the value attribute and assign the value foo to it you can use the following code block which uses the JavascriptExecutor :

ele = browser.find_element_by_css_selector("input#input-value")
browser.execute_script("arguments[0].setAttribute('value','foo')", ele)

Answer 2

Using .click() before .send_keys() like:

ele = browser.find_element_by_id("input-value")
ele.click()
ele.send_keys("foo")
ele.send_keys(Keys.RETURN)