how to scroll a web page using watir

Question

I am trying to scroll a web page to find and click on a content that is lazily loaded when the page is scrolled. I am using following command

require 'watir-webdriver'

@browser = Watir::new :firefox
@browser.send_keys :space

I am using web-driver with firefox and I am on ubuntu but it is not working. In the following ruby code I am trying to scroll the page down until I don't find the element with :id. The element is loading lazily. I am getting timeout after few seconds, any idea what is wrong with the following code.

When /^deal (\d+) is loaded$/ do |id|
  (0..5).each do |click|    
    @browser.send_keys :space
  end
end

What is the best way to scroll a page using watir-driver ?

Solution 1

If you have JavaScript enabled, you can access the underlying driver and execute some JavaScript to scroll on the page.

@browser.driver.executeScript("window.scrollBy(0,200)")

will scroll down the page 200 pixels along the y axix.

See here for documentation of the method:

http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/met_win_scrollby.asp

Solution 2

I use a gem called "watir-scroll" to assist me with this. Though it usually needs places to scroll to, it also will scroll to coordinates.

https://github.com/p0deje/watir-scroll Since Watir v6.16 watir-scroll gem merged into watir

You can either scroll to a specific element

button1 = @browser.input(:class => "mileage_rate")
@browser.scroll.to button1

Or just scroll to the top middle or center

@browser.scroll.to :top
@browser.scroll.to :center
@browser.scroll.to :bottom

Or scroll to a coordinate

browser.scroll.to [0, 200]

Solution 3

This saved me a bunch of time:

browser.div(:id => 'start-date-holder').wd.location_once_scrolled_into_view 

Solution 4

Sorry I could not comment on the last answer since I am new here and do not have enough rep pts yet so I just created a new answer. Anyways, if anyone is having issues with scrolling multiple times try this (add a loop and sleep):

maximum_times_needed = max # of times you need the page to scroll down

maximum_times_needed.each do
@browser.driver.executeScript("window.scrollBy(0,200)")
sleep 0.15
end

0.15 may vary depending on how long it takes the page to load. 0.15 is 0.15 seconds so adjust as needed to allow for enough time for the page to load. The 200 may also need to be adjusted to a larger pixel amount.

Solution 5

    300.times do
      @browser.driver.execute_script("window.scrollBy(0,200)")
      sleep 0.05
    end

View more solutions

Comments

[Justin Ko]

Note that you do not have to access the driver to execute the script. You can just do: @browser.execute_script("window.scrollBy(0,200)").

[meatspace]

why not wait_until{block}? hardcoded wait methods = irritating

[paul]

it gives undefined method scroll for #<Watir::Browser:0x314d858> (NoMethodError)

[stack1]

@paul - same here. i am using ruby 1.8.7, watir 1.6.7, watir-webdriver 0.6.2

[Kjell]

Double check that you installed the gem 'watir-scroll'. Works fine now, on watir 6.15.1 . watir-scroll 0.4.0

[Mark Rotteveel]

Please don't post only code as answer, but also provide an explanation what your code does and how it solves the problem of the question. Answers with an explanation are usually of better quality, and are more likely to attract upvotes.