How can I ask the Selenium-WebDriver to wait for few seconds after sendkey?

Question

I'm working on a C# Selenium-WebDriver. After send key, I want to wait few seconds. I do the following code to wait for 2 seconds.

public static void press(params string[] keys)
{
 foreach (string key in keys) 
 { 
 WebDriver.SwitchTo().ActiveElement().SendKeys(key);
 Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2));
 }
}

And I call like these:

press(Keys.Tab, Keys.Tab, Keys.Tab);

It works fine. Which one is a better way?

• Curtis Miller: Why aren't you using an implicit wait for the element you need to interact with next?
• LeMoussel: Because for some tests, I have to simulate "human" way of typing characters.

Answer 1

I would avoid at all cost using something like that since it slows down tests, but I ran into a case where I didn't had other choices.

public void Wait(double delay, double interval)
{
 // Causes the WebDriver to wait for at least a fixed delay
 var now = DateTime.Now;
 var wait = new WebDriverWait(myWebDriver, TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(delay));
 wait.PollingInterval = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(interval);
 wait.Until(wd=> (DateTime.Now - now) - TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(delay) > TimeSpan.Zero);
}

It's always better to observe the DOM somehow, e.g.:

public void Wait(Func<IWebDriver, bool> condition, double delay)
{
 var ignoredExceptions = new List<Type>() { typeof(StaleElementReferenceException) };
 var wait = new WebDriverWait(myWebDriver, TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(delay)));
 wait.IgnoreExceptionTypes(ignoredExceptions.ToArray());
 wait.Until(condition);
}
public void SelectionIsDoneDisplayingThings()
{
 Wait(driver => driver.FindElements(By.ClassName("selection")).All(x => x.Displayed), 250);
}

• LeMoussel: Julien, delay is the timeout after which the condition is deemed to have failed. Is it possible to specify interval at which the condition function is polled to determine whether the wait has succeeded? For ex : Wait(Func<IWebDriver, bool> condition, double delay, double interval)

Answer 2

You can use Thread.Sleep(miliseconds) function. This stop your C# thread and selenium continue

[TestMethod]
public void LoginTest()
{
 var loginForm = driver.FindElementByXPath("//form[@id='login-form']");
 if (loginForm.Enabled)
 {
 MainPageLogin(loginForm);
 CheckLoginForm();
 }
 else
 {
 CheckLoginForm();
 }
 **Thread.Sleep(5000);**
 Assert.AreEqual(driver.Url, "https://staging.mytigo.com/en/");
}

Answer 3

public static void press(params string[] keys)
{
 foreach (string key in keys) 
 { 
 WebDriver.SwitchTo().ActiveElement().SendKeys(key);
 Sleep(2000);
 }
}

which serves the same

• User: Sleep() is not a function.