Protractor: sendKeys() only passes partial value

[rschoenbichler]

After upgrading to protractor 2.0 my login tests started failing.

In my PO I use the following function to handle input values:

    function _input(parentElement, binding, value) {
        var field = parentElement.element(by.model(binding)).element(by.css("input"));
        if (value === undefined)
            return field.getAttribute('value');
        else
            return field.clear().then(function() {
                return field.sendKeys(value);
            });
    }

I found out that sendKeys only passes the first part of the value (always with a different length, sometimes one character sometimes n-1). Even if I make a conditional wait for the input to contain the whole value, the condition never gets fullfilled. It seems like sendKeys randomly stops sending keys from the value.

[juliemr]

Can you tell us your browser version, version of webdriver, and OS?

[rschoenbichler]

Sure, I'm using:

• current stable chrome (atm 41.0.2272.118)
• windows 7
• not shure which webdriver-version that is exactly, but webdriver-manager status says chromedriver is up to date

[tullmann]

@kleinerroemer are you using a non-English keyboard or remote display or any other configuration that might confuse the keyboard mappings? Chromedriver has had some problem configurations where it drops characters out of sendKeys. See https://github.com/angular/protractor/issues/698 and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18483419/selenium-sendkeys-drops-character-with-chrome-driver and https://code.google.com/p/chromedriver/issues/detail?id=1037 (the non-English keyboard bugs seem to be fixed recently, though.)

Alternatively, the bug might be in the code _after_ your _input method (if that is not waiting for the sendKeys to complete somehow.

[rschoenbichler]

my keyboard layout is set to german but switching to english layout didn't change anything. sendKeys always skips the keys at a different point. I don't use remote display.

I doubt that the bug is in my method, since it worked just fine before upgrading. My current workaround looks like this:

    function _completeInput(field, value) {
        return field.getAttribute('value').then(function(v) {
            if (v.length < value.length) {
                return field.sendKeys(value.substring(v.length, value.length)).then(function() {
                    return _completeInput(field, value);
                });
            }   
        });
    }

[zeropaper]

It looks like we have a similar issue here.

On the install of a colleague (windows 7, protractor 1.5, chrome 42.0.2311.90) everything is fine.
On my machine setup (ubuntu 13.10, protractor 2.0.0, chrome 42.0.2311.90 (64-bit)) the exclamation mark (!) will not be entered by sendKeys().
I did a downgrade to protractor 1.8.0, but the problem was still occurring.
I did a second downgrade to 1.5 (to match my colleague's version).
My colleague did an upgrade to protractor 2 (on his windows machine).

From what we could observe, the problem does not seems to happen on a windows machine (there's always a first time) but on ubuntu, whatever the version is, it happens all the time.
I hope it will help to spot the issue.

[markharding]

I am still getting this problem, particularly in chrome. It seems totally random - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

eg:

element(by.id('message')).sendKeys(Date.now());

will not output the current timestamp, but something like 1142

[radek-holy]

I experience this is well. In my case, the tested application is based on Angular 2 and it happens only with the input elements that are bound to a model [(ng-model)] and only if the string is long enough (in my case e.g. "credentials.password"). If they are not bound, everything is ok. My current workaround is (in TypeScript):

export function sendKeys(element:protractor.ElementFinder, string:string):void {
  "use strict";

  for (let i:number = 0; i < string.length; i++) {
    element.sendKeys(string.charAt(i));
  }
}

but it significantly slows down the tests.

[brocsk]

I'm also experiencing this issue now.

Upgrading tests from 1.8.0 to 2.5.1. I have some tests randomly failing now that used to work. These are on a page where browser.ignoreSynchronization = true;

I will do something like:

input1.sendkeys('abc');
input2.sendkeys('def');

I will either see this:

Input1: 'ab'
Input2: 'cdef'

or

Input1: 'abcdef'
input2; ''

Using Chrome: Version 46.0.2490.86 m

[juliemr]

@brocsk @radek-holy are either of you able to create a reproducible case we can test against using http://www.protractortest.org/testapp/?

[radek-holy]

No, sorry, I am not able to reproduce it against the Testapp. Here is the simplest reproducer I am able to come up with: http://plnkr.co/edit/f0LQ0zLvtr8HEodySl35 . For some reason, it's necessary to call sendKeys twice to hit the issue. I'm sorry if this is another issue (e.g. Angular 2 specific)...

[pgrm]

I've encountered a similar issue with 48.0.2564.109 (Official Build) m (32-bit) on Windows 10 x64. I've switched to Firefox for running the tests in the meanwhile, and didn't encounter this issue yet.

I'm running my tests so far on non-angular pages with browser.ignoreSynchronization = true;

I'm currently working on reproducing the problem on the testapp.

Update - I didn't manage to reproduce it with the testapp. And I actually have maybe a different issue because for me the first part is missing and the last characters show up. Always after few reloads of the browser. However this problem persists even when I ensure that the element is being displayed:

elem.isDisplayed();
elem.clear();
elem.sendKeys('custom input')

and when I add a browser.sleep after the page has been loaded. And it doesn't show up with firefox.

My current workaround is now:

public setValueOnInputElement(inputElement: protractor.ElementFinder, value: string) {
  inputElement.clear();
  inputElement.sendKeys(value);

  return inputElement.getAttribute('value')
    .then(insertedValue => {
      if (insertedValue !== value) {
        return this.setValueOnInputElement(inputElement, value);
      } else {
        return null;
      }
    });
}

This sets the correct value eventually.

[laurelnaiad]

:+1: Thank you for the workaround @pgrm!

This problem was hitting me probably about 8 times out of 10 on the first test in my suite.

FWIW, my platform below.

    Build info: version: '2.51.0', revision: '1af067d', time: '2016-02-05 19:15:17'
    System info: host: 'MacPro-3362', ip: '10.0.0.81', os.name: 'Mac OS X', os.arch: 'x86_64', os.version: '10.10.5', java.version: '1.8.0_45'
    Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver
    Capabilities [{applicationCacheEnabled=false, rotatable=false, mobileEmulationEnabled=false, chrome={chromedriverVersion=2.21.371459 (36d3d07f660ff2bc1bf28a75d1cdabed0983e7c4), userDataDir=/var/folders/qv/5y3z61z52ng0tgtffc5fmc24zcqrgw/T/.org.chromium.Chromium.4RbZiA}, takesHeapSnapshot=true, databaseEnabled=false, handlesAlerts=true, hasTouchScreen=false, version=49.0.2623.87, platform=MAC, browserConnectionEnabled=false, nativeEvents=true, acceptSslCerts=true, locationContextEnabled=true, webStorageEnabled=true, browserName=chrome, takesScreenshot=true, javascriptEnabled=true, cssSelectorsEnabled=true}]

[matesk8]

I'm experiencing the same issue as @radek-holy described on Angular 2 with input fields.

[HFlorina]

I spent a whole day trying to figure out why my tests were suddenly failing. This workaround fixed all my troubles. Thank you !

[Nez07]

I am not using Angular 2. I have protractor 3.0.0. My input fields on login screen no more work! SendKeys() don't seem to work at all. even clear() does not work on the inputs. I get an error invalid element state: element must be user-editable in order to clear it. I actually click() the input before trying to clear it.
The second issue with clear() is secondary. I am also facing the same issue with sendKeys() not working. MY chrome recently updated to version 50.0.2661.102 m. Unfortunately this workaround does not work for me.

[mona9301]

Hi,

Try with below example,

inputUsername.sendKeys(protractor.Key.chord(protractor.Key.CONTROL, "a"));
inputUsername.sendKeys(protractor.Key.chord(protractor.Key.CONTROL, "x"));
browser.sleep(1000);
inputUsername.sendKeys(username);

Here instead of clear(), we can use "inputUsername.sendKeys(protractor.Key.chord(protractor.Key.CONTROL, "x"));"

[diansan-zhou]

@juliemr
I have the similar problem, and I am able to consistently reproduce it in the testapp link you mentioned above
In the elementexplorer, I typed command:

I expected the character 5 will be appended after "Anon" (to be "Anon5"), but in fact, it deleted the last character of "Anon":

Then I tried sending another string and got this:

It looks like the character 5 is misinterpreted to backspace... and the similar misinterpretation happened to charactor 6 (move cursor to the next button or textbox, similar to the function of tab).

Here is the environment I used:
Chrome: 50.0.2664.102 (64-bit)
ChromeDriver: 2.21.371461
Selenium: 2.45.0
Protractor: 2.0.0

[sdsanders]

Splitting up the string seems to fix the issue for me, for example:

emailAddress.split('').forEach((c) => emailField.sendKeys(c));

[juliemr]

All issues here are either a duplicate of https://github.com/angular/protractor/issues/3003 or https://github.com/angular/protractor/issues/3196 - I'm closing this issue to concentrate effort in those two.

[djungowski]

Two years later and @sdsanders' hotfix is still the way to go

[mikila85]

2.5 years and we are still waiting.... it is f$%#! not usable like this.

[JoannaG33]

Just implemented @sdsanders hotfix on an Angular Material form. It seems to be the only stable solution.

[aterrong]

Just in case anybody it's still facing this problem.
I'm using Selenium, Chrome and Mac but having the same problem.
After quite a few trial-and-error approaches what worked for me was introducing a tiny delay before entering the text.
Even if I tried char by char it didn't work for me.
It seems that the problem has to do (in my case) with these inputs:
<input placeholder="Value" type="text" id="xxxxxx" value="">
I could see that once I began typing there were a refresh were the placeholder reappeared, then cleared the input field and wrote the rest of the text
The slower you wrote the easier was to see this effect.
So I introduced this before start typing:
getClock().pauseFor(timeInMilliseconds);

[evanjmg]

@aterrong could you elaborate on your solution? Where are you getting getClock?

[IIIHeloIII]

Animations seem to be a problem.
I had this issue when opening a modal dialog (sendKeys only wrote the first 1 to 4 letters of my text). I noticed that disabling animations by using NoopAnimationsModule fixed the input issue.

Since I want to have animations I ended up with a fix where I assert that the dialog is ready for input by testing for the visibility of the modal without the ng-animating class on it (Xpath: //mat-dialog-container[not(contains(@class, 'ng-animating'))]).