Flask

Dependencies

To use the flask driver, the following must be installed:

Flask, lxml, cssselect.

When splinter is installed via pip, the flask extra argument can be provided. This will automatically install Flask.

python -m pip install splinter[flask]

Usage

To use the flask driver, you’ll need to pass the string flask and an app instances via the app keyword argument when you create the Browser instance:

from splinter import Browser
browser = Browser('flask', app=app)

Note: if you don’t provide any driver to Browser function, firefox will be used.

When visiting pages with the Flask client, you only need to provide a path rather than a full URL. For example:

browser.visit('/my-path')

API docs

class splinter.driver.flaskclient.FlaskClient(app, user_agent=None, wait_time=2, custom_headers=None)
back()

The browser will navigate to the previous URL in the history.

If there is no previous URL, this method does nothing.

check(name)

Check a checkbox by its name.

Parameters:name (str) – name of the element to check.

Example

>>> browser.check("agree-with-terms")

If you call browser.check n times, the checkbox keeps checked, it never get unchecked.

To uncheck a checkbox, take a look in the uncheck method.

choose(name, value)

Choose a value in a radio buttons group.

Parameters:
  • name (str) – name of the element to enter text into.
  • value (str) – Value to choose.

Example

You have two radio buttons in a page, with the name gender and values ‘F’ and ‘M’.

>>> browser.choose('gender', 'F')

Then the female gender will be chosen.

cookies

A CookieManager instance.

For more details, check the cookies manipulation section.

fill(name, value)

Fill the field identified by name with the content specified by value.

Parameters:
  • name (str) – name of the element to enter text into.
  • value (str) – Value to enter into the element.
fill_form(field_values, form_id=None, name=None, ignore_missing=False)

Fill the fields identified by name with the content specified by value in a dict.

Currently, fill_form supports the following fields: text, password, textarea, checkbox, radio and select.

Checkboxes should be specified as a boolean in the dict.

Parameters:
  • field_values (dict) – Values for all the fields in the form, in the pattern of {field name: field value}
  • form_id (str) – Id of the form to fill. Can be used instead of name.
  • name (str) – Name of the form to fill.
  • ignore_missing (bool) – Ignore missing keys in the dict.
find_by_css(selector)

Return an instance of ElementList, using a CSS selector to query the current page content.

Parameters:css_selector (str) – CSS Selector to use in the search query.
find_by_id(id_value)

Find an element on the current page by its id.

Even when only one element is find, this method returns an instance of ElementList

Parameters:id (str) – id to use in the search query.
find_by_name(name)

Find elements on the current page by their name.

Return an instance of ElementList.

Parameters:name (str) – name to use in the search query.
find_by_tag(tag)

Find all elements of a given tag in current page.

Returns an instance of ElementList

Parameters:tag (str) – tag to use in the search query.
find_by_text(text)

Find elements on the current page by their text.

Returns an instance of ElementList

Parameters:text (str) – text to use in the search query.
find_by_value(value)

Find elements on the current page by their value.

Returns an instance of ElementList

Parameters:value (str) – value to use in the search query.
find_by_xpath(xpath, original_find=None, original_query=None)

Return an instance of ElementList, using a xpath selector to query the current page content.

Parameters:xpath (str) – Xpath to use in the search query.
find_option_by_text(text)

Finds <option> elements by their text.

Returns an instance of ElementList

Parameters:text (str) – text to use in the search query.
find_option_by_value(value)

Find <option> elements by their value.

Returns an instance of ElementList

Parameters:value (str) – value to use in the search query.
forward()

The browser will navigate to the next URL in the history.

If there is no URL to forward, this method does nothing.

get_alert()

Change the context for working with alerts and prompts.

For more details, check the docs about iframes, alerts and prompts

get_iframe(name)

Change the context for working with iframes.

For more details, check the docs about iframes, alerts and prompts

html

Source of current page.

html_snapshot(name: str = '', suffix: str = '.html', encoding: str = 'utf-8', unique_file: bool = True) → str

Write the current html to a file.

Parameters:
  • name (str) – File name.
  • suffix (str) – File extension.
  • encoding (str) – File encoding.
  • unique_file (str) – If true, the filename will include a path to the system temp directory and extra characters at the end to ensure the file is unique.
Returns:

Full file name of the created html snapshot.

Return type:

str

is_text_present(text, wait_time=None)

Check if a piece of text is on the page.

Parameters:
  • text (str) – text to use in the search query.
  • wait_time (int) – Number of seconds to search for the text.
Returns:

True if finds a match for the text and False if not.

Return type:

bool

new_tab(url)

The browser will navigate to the given URL in a new tab.

Parameters:url (str) – URL path.
quit()

Quit the browser, closing its windows (if it has one).

reload()

Revisits the current URL.

screenshot(name=None, suffix=None, full=False, unique_file=True)

Take a screenshot of the current page and save it locally.

Parameters:
  • name (str) – File name for the screenshot.
  • suffix (str) – File extension for the screenshot.
  • full (bool) – If the screenshot should be full screen or not.
  • unique_file (bool) – If true, the filename will include a path to the system temp directory and extra characters at the end to ensure the file is unique.
Returns:

Full file name of the created screenshot.

Return type:

str

select(name, value)

Select an <option> element in an <select> element using the name of the <select> and the value of the <option>.

Parameters:
  • name (str) – name of the option element.
  • value (str) – Value to select.

Example

>>> browser.select("state", "NY")
title

Title of current page.

type(name, value, slowly=False)

Type a value into an element.

It’s useful to test javascript events like keyPress, keyUp, keyDown, etc.

Parameters:
  • name (str) – name of the element to enter text into.
  • value (str) – Value to enter into the element.
  • slowly (bool) – If True, this function returns an iterator which will type one character per iteration.
uncheck(name)

Uncheck a checkbox by its name.

Parameters:name (str) – name of the element to uncheck.

Example

>>> browser.uncheck("send-me-emails")

If you call brower.uncheck n times, the checkbox keeps unchecked, it never get checked.

To check a checkbox, take a look in the check method.

url

URL of current page.

visit(url)

The browser will navigate to the given URL.

Parameters:url (str) – URL path.