Code python/selenium to send bulk whatsapp messages - continiously unable to locate element for text box

Question

Looked at many options and other codes. Everything in the code below runs smoothly, until the whatsapp input box is called up with:

*input_box = driver.find_element_by_xpath('//*[@id="main"]/footer/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[2]')*

I have also adjusted it to:

*input_box = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//*@id="main"]/footer/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[2]')*

without any success. I get the following error:

---

Klaas Malan *(my contact)*
As jy hierdie teks kry, dan werk die program wat ek vir Heiko skrywe. *(Message in Afrikaans)*
https://web.whatsapp.com/send?phone=Klaas Malan&text=As+jy+hierdie+teks+kry%2C+dan+werk+die+program+wat+ek+vir+Heiko+skrywe.&source=&data=
Sending message to Klaas Malan
**Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"//*[@id="main"]/footer/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[2]"}**
  (Session info: chrome=101.0.4951.54)
Failed to send message

---

Below my full code:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.common.exceptions import NoSuchElementException
from selenium.webdriver.common.action_chains import ActionChains

import datetime
import time
import openpyxl as excel
import urllib.parse

# function to read contacts from a text file
def readContacts(fileName):
    lst = []
    file = excel.load_workbook(fileName)
    sheet = file.active
    firstCol = sheet['A']
    secondCol = sheet['B']
    driver  = webdriver.Chrome()
    driver.get('https://web.whatsapp.com')
    time.sleep(60)

    for cell in range(len(firstCol)):
        contact = str(firstCol[cell].value)
        message = str(secondCol[cell].value)
        print(contact)
        print(message)
        link = "https://web.whatsapp.com/send phone="+contact+"&text="+urllib.parse.quote_plus(message)+"&source=&data="
        print(link)  
        driver.get(link)
        time.sleep(4)
        print("Sending message to", contact)

        try:
            time.sleep(7)
            input_box = driver.find_element_by_xpath('//*[@id="main"]/footer/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[2]')
            for ch in message:
                if ch == "\n":
                    ActionChains(driver).key_down(Keys.SHIFT).key_down(Keys.ENTER).key_up(Keys.ENTER).key_up(Keys.SHIFT).key_up(Keys.BACKSPACE).perform()
                else:
                    input_box.send_keys(ch)
            input_box.send_keys(Keys.ENTER)
            print("Message sent successfuly")
        except NoSuchElementException as exc:
            print(exc) # and/or other actions to recover
            print("Failed to send message")

targets = readContacts("./contacts-message.xlsx")

Is there anyone with a suggestion or who are willing to share their code? Best wishes, folks. I am very new to Python and a farmer in Namibia, and I aim to send to separate message for each of my cattle buyers thanking them. Emil Jung

Here is what I could find in terms of the html of the message box:

<div title="Type a message" role="textbox" class="_13NKt copyable-text selectable-text" contenteditable="true" data-tab="10" dir="ltr" spellcheck="true"></div>

Screen shot of Whatsapp

ABOVE, screenshot of Whatsapp - looking for the element.

Answer 1

Have you tried finding the element by the text?

input_box = driver.find_element_by_xpath('//*[text()="Type a message"]')

Or you could use contains() to find the element:

input_box = driver.find_element_by_xpath('//*[contains(@class, "copyable-text selectable-text")]'