How To Download a File with Selenium PYTHON, RUBY, JAVA

Just like with uploading files we hit the same issue with downloading them. A dialog box just out of Selenium’s reach.

A Solution

With some additional configuration when setting up Selenium we can easily side-step the dialogue box. This is done by instructing the browser to download files to a specific location without triggering the dialogue box.

After the file is downloaded we can perform some simple checks to make sure the file is what we expect.

Sample code

Python

# filename: download.py
import os
import time
import shutil
import tempfile
import unittest
from selenium import webdriver
class Download(unittest.TestCase):

    def setUp(self):
        self.download_dir = tempfile.mkdtemp()

        profile = webdriver.FirefoxProfile()
        profile.set_preference("browser.download.dir", self.download_dir)
        profile.set_preference("browser.download.folderList", 2)
        profile.set_preference(
            "browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk",
            "images/jpeg, application/pdf, application/octet-stream")
        profile.set_preference("pdfjs.disabled", True)
        self.driver = webdriver.Firefox(firefox_profile=profile)

    def tearDown(self):
      self.driver.quit()
      shutil.rmtree(self.download_dir)

    def test_example_1(self):
        driver = self.driver
        driver.get('http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/download')
        download_link = driver.find_element_by_css_selector('.example a')
        download_link.click()

        time.sleep(1.0)  # necessary for slow download speeds

        files = os.listdir(self.download_dir)
        files = [os.path.join(self.download_dir, f)
                 for f in files]  # add directory to each filename
        assert len(files) > 0, "no files were downloaded"
        assert os.path.getsize(files[0]) > 0, "downloaded file was empty"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    unittest.main()

Ruby

# filename: download_file.rb

require 'selenium-webdriver'
require 'rspec/expectations'
include RSpec::Matchers
require 'uuid'
require 'fileutils'

def setup
  @download_dir = File.join(Dir.pwd, UUID.new.generate)
  FileUtils.mkdir_p @download_dir

  # Firefox
  profile = Selenium::WebDriver::Firefox::Profile.new
  profile['browser.download.dir'] = @download_dir
  profile['browser.download.folderList'] = 2
  profile['browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk'] = 'images/jpeg, application/pdf, application/octet-stream'
  profile['pdfjs.disabled'] = true
  @driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :firefox, profile: profile
end

def teardown
  @driver.quit
  FileUtils.rm_rf @download_dir
end

def run
  setup
  yield
  teardown
end

run do
  @driver.get 'http://the-internet.herokuapp.com/download'
  download_link = @driver.find_element(css: '.example a')
  download_link.click

  files = Dir.glob("#{@download_dir}/*")
  expect(files.empty?).to eql false
  expect(File.size(files.first)).to be > 0
end

Java

//filename: DownloadFile.java
import java.awt.AWTException;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeOptions;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver;
import org.testng.annotations.AfterClass;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeClass;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class DownloadFile {
	
	private RemoteWebDriver driver;

	@BeforeClass
	public void setUp() throws Exception {

		System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "/Users/neeraj.kumar/Desktop/chromedriver");

		ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
		
		Map<String, Object> prefs = new HashMap<String, Object>();
		prefs.put("download.prompt_for_download", false);
		options.setExperimentalOption("prefs", prefs);
		
		driver = new ChromeDriver(options);
		driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
		driver.manage().window().maximize();
	}
	
	@Test
	public void fileDownload() throws AWTException, InterruptedException {
		
		driver.get("https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/index.html?path=79.0.3945.36/");
		Thread.sleep(2000);
		WebElement btnDownload = driver.findElement(By.xpath(".//a[text()='chromedriver_win32.zip']"));
		btnDownload.click();
		
		Thread.sleep(7000);
        //add code related to validating downloaded files
		
	}

	@AfterClass
	public void tearDown() throws Exception {
		driver.quit();
	}
}

When we save this file and run it, this is what will happen:

Create a uniquely named temp directory in the present working directory
Open the browser
Visit the page
Find and click the first download link on the page
Automatically download the file to the temp directory without prompting
Check that the temp directory is not empty
Check that the downloaded file is not empty
Close the browser
Delete the temp directory

A Solution

Sample code

Python

Ruby

Java

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