WebDriver Error - Element is no longer attached to the DOM (Selenium::WebDriver::Error::ObsoleteElementError)

I have been getting this error message for a while now and it is very annoying. The reason it is very annoying is because the error is not always reproducible. The ObsoleteElementError only happens about 1 out of 8-10 times I run my test.

After tracing down the errors I found out the code that causes the error:

find(:css, "#travel_control").click
find(:xpath, ".//*[@id='field_container']/a[#TRAVEL_MODE_INDEX[travel_mode]}]").click

It seems that Web driver could not find the #travel_control element and therefore it throws the ObsoleteElement Error. The #travel_control element in my test is actually an ajax call on a popup box so probably WebDriver still has some issue in handling elements with ajax request and javascript.

Nevertheless, I found some help from google groups regarding this issue. There does not seem to be a solution in that thread but there is one comment regarding a temporary fix for this issue which is to ignore the error and execute the same code again.

So I tried it and changed my code into:

begin
   find(:css, "#travel_control").click
   find(:xpath, ".//*[@id='field_container']/
     a[#{TRAVEL_MODE_INDEX[travel_mode]}]").click
rescue Selenium::WebDriver::Error::ObsoleteElementError 
   find(:css, "#travel_control").click
   find(:xpath, ".//*[@id='field_container']/
     a[#{TRAVEL_MODE_INDEX[travel_mode]}]").click
end 

However, This does not work for me and instead I get this error


Element is not currently visible and so may not be clicked (Selenium::WebDriver::Error::ElementNotDisplayedError)


It turns out because when I get the ObsoleteElementError, WebDriver actually is able to click the "#travel_control element. so what I need to change is to not click the same element again. Here is how I fix my test:

begin
  find(:css, "#travel_control").click
  find(:xpath, ".//*[@id='field_container']/a[#{TRAVEL_MODE_INDEX[travel_mode]}]").click
rescue Selenium::WebDriver::Error::ObsoleteElementError 
  #just execute the next element
  find(:xpath, ".//*[@id='field_container']/a[#{TRAVEL_MODE_INDEX[travel_mode]}]").click
end