How to Handle InvalidSelectorException with \"span:contains(\'string\')\" in Selenium Python Firefox?

Selenium.common.exceptions.InvalidSelectorException with "span:contains('string')"

When using Selenium Python in Firefox and attempting to find an element using the CSS selector "span:contains('Control panel')", the following error is encountered:

selenium.common.exceptions.InvalidSelectorException: Message: Given css selector expression "span:contains('Control panel')" is invalid: InvalidSelectorError: 'span:contains('Control panel')' is not a valid selector: "span:contains('Control panel')"

In Selenium IDE, this method successfully locates the element. However, in Python, it fails.

Root Cause

As per the CSS specification, the ":contains" pseudo-class is not supported by Firefox or Chrome, even outside of WebDriver. It was specific to the Sizzle Selector Engine used in Selenium 1.0. However, WebDriver does not support Sizzle-style CSS selectors.

Solution

Instead of ":contains," use attributes or XPath selectors:

• Attributes:

  element = "span[attribute_name=attribute_value]"

• XPath:

  • Using text():

    element = my_driver.find_element_by_xpath("//span[text()='Control panel']")

  • Using contains():

    element = my_driver.find_element_by_xpath("//span[contains(.,'Control panel')]")

  • Using normalize-space():

    element = my_driver.find_element_by_xpath("//span[normalize-space()='Control panel']")

Alternative Solution

Use jQuery:

$('span:contains("Control panel")')

Trivia

• CSS selectors are not supported by the console either, but jQuery supports them through $('...'), which overrides document.querySelector when jQuery is present on the page.

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