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0 pointsYossarrian221y ago0 comments

That's how Playwright works too

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4 comments · 1 top-level

mherrmann1y ago· 3 in thread

Doesn't work for logging into HN:

    from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright
    playwright = sync_playwright().start()
    browser = playwright.chromium.launch()
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto('https://news.ycombinator.com/login?goto=news')
    page.get_by_label('username').fill('mherrmann')
    # playwright._impl._errors.TimeoutError: Locator.fill: Timeout 30000ms exceeded.

I suspect Playwright expects there to be a <label> for an <input> element.

It does work with Helium:

    from helium import *
    start_chrome('https://news.ycombinator.com/login?goto=news')
    write('mherrmann', into='username')

The two scripts are equivalent, except Helium's works and is half as long.

mdaniel1y ago

Depending on when you tried that, there is no such label "username" in view-source:https://news.ycombinator.com/login?goto=news

  <table border="0"><tr><td>username:</td><td><input type="text" name="acct" size="20" autocorrect="off" spellcheck="false" autocapitalize="off" autofocus="true"></td></tr><tr><td>password:</td><td><input type="password" name="pw" size="20"></td></tr></table><br>

as they only put text username not <label> and the input is named "acct" (without even the common decency to include autocomplete=username)

So if your script really did write that string into a what it thinks is 'username' then that's arguably one more thing to debug when its wizardry goes awry in some unknown way

mherrmann1y ago

Yes, there is no such <label>. There is only such <td>. And Playwright isn't smart enough to understand that that is still the label for the <input> element. Helium is smart enough.

So if your script really did write that string into a what it thinks is 'username' then that's arguably one more thing to debug when its wizardry goes awry in some unknown way

I tested my script. It writes into the correct field. The logic is not hard: "Find an element to the right of the given label." If there are multiple, then Helium uses the one that's closest to the last element it interacted with. That's just how a human would do it. It works surprisingly well. In many years of using Helium, I barely recall this causing problems once.

Try it before judging. You will be surprised by how well it works.

1 more reply

vunderba1y ago

I like what you're doing with Helium, and while you are technically correct that it's half as long - IMHO it's a bit disingenuous considering that in any meaningful web automation script, you'd only need to put in the initialization code a single time, e.g.:

    from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright
    playwright = sync_playwright().start()
    browser = playwright.chromium.launch()
    page = browser.new_page()

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