Can selenium handle autocomplete?

I used following sequence in IDE,

  1. typeKeys
  2. waitForTextPresent
  3. mouseOver
  4. clickAt

and worked well


For WebDriver, try this

The below code is for searching a text automatically from the auto suggest; mainly for a list item.

driver.findElement(By.id("your searchBox")).sendKeys("your partial keyword");
Thread.sleep(3000);
List <WebElement> listItems = driver.findElements(By.xpath("your list item locator"));
listItems.get(0).click();
driver.findElement(By.id("your searchButton")).click();

I'd do this as follows:

  • type to enter the value in the text field.
  • waitForTextPresent or verifyTextPresent to check the autocomplete content
  • click or mouseDown to click on the item in the autocomplete list

The trick is going to be making the final click be just in the right place. You should be able to use an XPath expression that searches for the text you're expecting to find it.


The type command may not be enough to trigger the autocomplete. Dave Webb's suggestions are otherwise spot on. My only addition would be that you might need the typeKeys command, which causes slightly different JavaScript events to be fired, which may be more likely to trigger the autocomplete widget.