Switching Frames

Syntax#

• Java
• driver.switchTo().frame(String name);
• driver.switchTo().frame(String id);
• driver.switchTo().frame(int index);
• driver.switchTo().frame(WebElement frameElement);
• driver.switchTo().defaultContent();
• C#
• driver.SwitchTo().Frame(int frameIndex);
• driver.SwitchTo().Frame(IWebElement frameElement);
• driver.SwitchTo().Frame(string frameName);
• driver.SwitchTo().DefaultContent();
• Python
• driver.switch_to_frame(nameOrId)
• driver.switch_to.frame(nameOrId)
• driver.switch_to_frame(index)
• driver.switch_to.frame(index)
• driver.switch_to_frame(frameElement)
• driver.switch_to.frame(frameElement)
• driver.switch_to_default_content()
• driver.switch_to.default_content()
• JavaScript
• driver.switchTo().frame(nameOrId)
• driver.switchTo().frame(index)
• driver.switchTo().defaultContent()

Parameters#

<iframe src="../images/eightball.gif" name="imgboxName" id="imgboxId">
   <p>iframes example</p>
   <a href="../images/redball.gif" target="imgbox">Red Ball</a>
</iframe><br />

… then to perform any action on the web-elements of the iframe, you have to switch the focus to the iframe first, using any one of the below methods:

Using frame Id (should be used only if you know the id of the iframe).

driver.switchTo().frame("imgboxId"); //imgboxId - Id of the frame

Using frame name (should be used only if you know the name of the iframe).

driver.switchTo().frame("imgboxName"); //imgboxName - Name of the frame

Using frame index (should be used only if you do not have the id or name of the iframe), where the index defines the position of the iframe amongst all frames.

driver.switchTo().frame(0); //0 - Index of the frame

Note: If you have three frames in the page, then the first frame will be at index 0, the second at index 1, and the third at index 2.

Using previously located webelement (should be used only if you have already located the frame and have returned it as a WebElement).

driver.switchTo().frame(frameElement); //frameElement - webelement that is the frame

So, to click on the Red Ball anchor:

driver.switchTo().frame("imgboxId");
driver.findElement(By.linkText("Red Ball")).Click();

To get out of a frame using Java

To switch focus to either main document or first frame of the page. You have to use below syntax.

driver.switchTo().defaultContent();

Switch to a frame using C#

1. Switch to a frame by Index.

Here we are switching to index 1. Index refers to the order of frames on the page. This should be used as a last resort, as frame id or names are much more reliable.

driver.SwitchTo().Frame(1);

2. Switch to a frame by Name

driver.SwitchTo().Frame("Name_Of_Frame");

3. Switch to a frame by Title, Id, or others by passing IWebElement

If you want to switch to a frame by id or title you have to pass in a web element as a parameter:

driver.SwitchTo().Frame(driver.FindElement(By.Id("ID_OF_FRAME")));
driver.SwitchTo().Frame(driver.FindElement(By.CssSelector("iframe[title='Title_of_Frame']")));

Also note that if your frame takes a few seconds to come up, you may have to use a wait:

new WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10))
    .Until(ExpectedConditions.ElementIsVisible(By.Id("Id_Of_Frame")));

Get out of a frame:

driver.SwitchTo().DefaultContent()

To get out of a frame using C#

To switch focus to either main document or first frame of the page. You have to use below syntax.

webDriver.SwitchTo().DefaultContent();

Switch among Child Frames of a Parent Frame.

Consider you have a Parent Frame(Frame-Parent). and 2 child frames(Frame_Son,Frame_Daughter). Lets see various conditions and how to handle.

1.From Parent to Son or Daughter:

 driver.switchTo().frame("Frame_Son");
 driver.switchTo().frame("Frame_Daughter");

2.From Son to Parent: If parent is default frame, switch to default frame, else from default frame switch to parent frame. But you cannot switch directly from son to Parent.

driver.switchTo().defaultContent(); 
driver.switchTo().frame("Frame_Parent");

3.From Son to Daughter: If your sister does some mistake don’t yell at her, just reach out to your Parent. Similarly, you give control to parent frame and then to daughter frame.

driver.switchTo().defaultContent(); 
driver.switchTo().frame("Frame_Parent");
driver.switchTo().frame("Frame_Daughter");

Wait for your frames to load

In quite a few cases your frame might not show up immediately and you probably have to wait till it is loaded to switch. Or else you will have NoSuchFrameException.

So its always a good choice to wait before you switch. Following is a ideal way to wait till a frame is loaded.

try{
        new WebDriverWait(driver, 300).ignoring(StaleElementReferenceException.class).
                        ignoring(WebDriverException.class).
                        until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOf((driver.findElement(By.id("cpmInteractionDivFrame"))));}
    catch{

// throws exception only if your frame is not visible with in your wait time 300 seconds }