I am unable to upload attachment using SeleniumWebDriver - eclipse

Question

This is my Code
driver.findElement(By.id("ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_cbpAssociationNew_panelAssnDetailAdd_Add_Photo_Browse0")).click();
Thread.sleep(2000);
StringSelection ss= new StringSelection("C:\\Users\\ns10\\Desktop\\download.jpg");
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard().setContents(ss, ss);
Robot robo=new Robot();
robo.delay(1000);
robo.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
robo.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
robo.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);
robo.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_V);
robo.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_V);
robo.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);
robo.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
robo.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
When I run the above code in Eclipse, it clicks on the File upload; then the windows pop up comes but doesn't select the file which I mentioned. It was just idle.
Could someone please help me with this.

Answer 1

If possible try this first,
driver.findElement(By.id("ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_cbpAssociationNew_panelAssnDetailAdd_Add_Photo_Browse0")).sendKeys("C:\\Users\\ns10\\Desktop\\download.jpg");
This is a noted way to upload file via selenium webdriver as of now, where you don't have to bother about clicking on the File Upload button and then using Robot class to upload image. Just sending the path of the file to upload will accomplish the Upload.
If it still doesn't work, then below is the alternative way by using Robot and Sikuli (combined) to accomplish the task:-
Problem:-
Sometimes, the Robot class types the "attachment_path" into the "File Name" field of textbox but doesn't presses 'Enter key' thereafter for the file to upload.
Solution:-
To avert that, I've used Sikuli to click on the Open button, which does infact uploads the file then;
(Note:- You have to take a screenshot of Open button in the window's dialog box, that comes up after clicking on the "File Upload button".
First of all download sikuli-api standalone jar. And, add it to the build path of your project. Then, add the below code for the file upload:-
//Clicking on the File Upload button
driver.findElement(By.id("ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_cbpAssociationNew_panelAssnDetailAdd_Add_Photo_Browse0")).click();
//Copying the path of the file to the clipboard
StringSelection attachment = new StringSelection("C:\\Users\\ns10\\Desktop\\download.jpg"); //path to the attachment
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard().setContents(attachment, null);
//Pasting the contents of clipboard in the field "File name" of the Window Pop-up
Robot robot = new Robot();
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_V);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_V);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);
try{
ScreenRegion screen = new DesktopScreenRegion(); //screen is the default screen region which corresponds to the entire screen on your default monitor.
Target target = new ImageTarget(new File("<PUT HERE THE PATH FOR THE OPEN BUTTON'S IMAGE>"));
ScreenRegion screen_web = screen.wait(target,5000);
screen_web = screen.find(target); //screen_web holds the screen region occupied by the "Open" button that was found by Sikuli's image recognition engine.
if(screen_web != null)
{
Mouse mouse = new DesktopMouse(); // Create a mouse object
mouse.click(screen_web.getCenter()); // Use the mouse object to click on the center of the target region, i.e., the Open button
}else{
throw new Throwable();
}
}catch(Throwable e){
System.err.println("The Open file button wasn't clicked!!" + e.getMessage() + "\n---------------------");
}
Code for Uploading in Tiny Pic.com :-
package pack_ads;
import java.awt.AWTException;
import java.awt.Robot;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.datatransfer.StringSelection;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import java.io.File;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.sikuli.api.DesktopScreenRegion;
import org.sikuli.api.ImageTarget;
import org.sikuli.api.ScreenRegion;
import org.sikuli.api.Target;
import org.sikuli.api.robot.Mouse;
import org.sikuli.api.robot.desktop.DesktopMouse;
public class Testing_TinyPicUpload {
public static void main(String[] args) throws AWTException, InterruptedException {
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(); //Opens a firefox browser instance
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS); //Timeout of 30 seconds given
driver.manage().window().maximize(); //Maximizing the window
//Navigating to tiny pic site
driver.get("http://tinypic.com/");
//Uploading photo
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[#id='the_file']")).click(); //Locating the attach button
//Copying the path of the file to the clipboard
StringSelection photo = new StringSelection("D:\\\\Images\\default.jpg"); //Putting the path of the image to upload
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard().setContents(photo, null);
//Pasting the contents of clipboard in the field "File name" of the Window Pop-up
Thread.sleep(5000);
Robot robot = new Robot();
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_V);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_V);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);
try{
ScreenRegion screen = new DesktopScreenRegion(); //screen is the default screen region which corresponds to the entire screen on your default monitor.
Target target = new ImageTarget(new File("Tinyimages\\Open_file.png")); //Made a folder in my project as Tinyimages and put the image of Open_file in there.
ScreenRegion screen_web = screen.wait(target,5000);
screen_web = screen.find(target); //screen_web holds the screen region occupied by the "Open" button that was found by Sikuli's image recognition engine.
if(screen_web != null)
{
Mouse mouse = new DesktopMouse(); // Create a mouse object
mouse.click(screen_web.getCenter()); // Use the mouse object to click on the center of the target region, i.e., the Open button
}
else{
throw new Throwable();
}
System.out.println("Attachment was successfully done.\n------------------------------\n");
}catch(Throwable e){
System.err.println("The Open file button wasn't clicked!!" + e.getMessage() + "\n------------------------------");
}
}
}
Note: You can download use this image for the "Open" button from here. Change the file path accordingly in the code Target target = new ImageTarget(new File("Tinyimages\\Open_file.png"));

Answer 2

I was finding the same result, that the code would halt and wait when the File Upload window was opened, and would only continue after the window was closed.
As a workaround I put the thread sleep and the robot keypresses in a separate thread that I spawned just before clicking the file upload button. This solved the issue for me.
// Thread class to be instantiated and run just before button click:
//
public class PasteUploadFileThread extends Thread {
String uploadFileName = "";
public PasteUploadFileThread(String filename){
this.uploadFileName = filename;
}
public void run() {
try {
// Pause 3 seconds giving window time to open up
Thread.sleep(3000);
System.out.println("STARTING PasteUploadFileThread for file: " + this.uploadFileName);
StringSelection ss= new StringSelection(this.uploadFileName);
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard().setContents(ss, ss);
Robot robo=new Robot();
robo.delay(2000);
robo.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
robo.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
robo.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);
robo.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_V);
robo.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_V);
robo.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);
robo.delay(2000);
robo.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
robo.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
System.out.println("ENDING PasteUploadFileThread for file: " + this.uploadFileName);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (AWTException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
// Portion of the test class that spawns the thread and then clicks the button
String filepath = "C:\\UploadDocument.txt";
WebElement browseButton = wait60Secs.until(ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated(By.xpath("//span[contains(.,'Browse')]")));
// Spawn a thread that will do the interacting with the File Upload window.
// This is needed because when we click on the browse button the code halts waiting for the File Upload window to be closed.
// So this thread will go off on it's own and do it's work while this code is paused.
(new PasteUploadFileThread(filepath)).start();
browseButton.click();
// Execution continues here after the Upload window is closed...
// Find the file that was uploaded before continuing
wait60Secs.until(ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated(By.xpath("//div[contains(.,'UploadDocument.txt')]")));