How to get Inspect Element code using Selenium WebDriver

selenium selenium-webdriver web-inspector inspector view-source
user2782522 picture user2782522 · Oct 10, 2014 · Viewed 15.7k times · Source

I'm working in selenium with Firefox browser.

The Html code shown in View Source (CTRL+U) is different from the html code i see when inspecting the elements in Firefox.

When i run the driver.getPageSource() i only get the View source (CTRL + U) codes.

Is there is any way to access the Inspect element code instead of View source code?

Answer

John O. picture John O. · Oct 10, 2014

I think your question is answered here.

The View Source html is what is sent by the server. I think of it as compile time html, or the initial state of the DOM.

The Inspect Element html could have been updated by ajax responses or javascript so will not necessarily be the same. I think of it as runtime html, or the current state of the DOM.

The GetAttribute() method queries the current DOM element state. You can return a particular html attribute value directly

webElement.GetAttribute("class")

or get the whole html string.

webElement.GetAttribute("innerHTML")

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