Creating virtual click (click as human) functions with Selenium

When we create automated bots to do stuff for us on the internet, we are usually doing this for a reason. The reason may be to get some cash, data, or something like that. Usually, these sites may have protection from automated programs. If we would use the click() default Selenium function, we would click virtually on the center of an object. It's easy to track or protect from such clicks. But if we would create a function that could click as a human, no one could say that we are using the bot. So in this short tutorial, I will create a virtual click function.

Continuing from the last tutorial, I modified two functions. At first, where we are starting a new Browser, I added an option to open a Chrome browser when we use "2" as an option. "1" is Firefox as before and "3" is no for custom browsers:

def StartBrowser(browser=1, browser_location='', driver_path=''): if browser == 1: driver = webdriver.Firefox() if browser == 2: driver = webdriver.Chrome() if browser == 3: options = webdriver.ChromeOptions() options.binary_location = browser_location driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=driver_path, chrome_options=options) #driver.implicitly_wait(30) #driver.set_window_size(1920,1080) #driver.maximize_window() return driver

Our 3rd tutorial part had a quite simple function for opening new tabs, so I added more functionality for more advanced users. This new function can choose to what window we will switch after the new tab opens. There is protection not to hang if our new tab opens only a blank page (possible when the link doesn't work). And you can add functionality if our function opens a wrong link or opened link redirects you somewhere else:

def NewTab(driver, Link, default_page=0, custom=0): window_count = len(driver.window_handles) driver.execute_script('''window.open("'''+Link+'''","_blank");''') while len(driver.window_handles) != window_count+1: time.sleep(0.5) if custom == 0: driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[-1]) if custom != 0: driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[custom]) time.sleep(2) if driver.current_url == Link: current_window = driver.current_window_handle return current_window if driver.current_url == "about:blank": time.sleep(2) DriverClose() driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[default_page]) print("current window was about:blank we closed it, trying again in 10s") time.sleep(10) NewTab(driver, Link, default_page, custom) if driver.current_url != Link: pass

Here comes the final VirtualClick function we are creating. At first, let's import random library along with other imports. In the next tutorial, I will not explain exceptions. I am doing this in the video tutorial. We can choose we will use random object coordinates click in this function, or we'll always click in the center.

Here is the simplified function version, but if you use it, you will face errors quite soon(not recommended to use):

def VirtualClick(driver, click_object): size = click_object.size height_rand = random.randint(1,int(sizeList[0])-1) width_rand = random.randint(1,int(sizeList[1])-1) action = webdriver.common.action_chains.ActionChains(driver) action.move_to_element_with_offset(click_object, width_rand, height_rand) action.click() action.perform() return True

So our original function does the same as the simplified version above. But we integrated exceptions to protect from errors. If we would try to find out what our code does above, so at the first line, it gets x and y size of HTML object. In the next two lines, it picks random height_rand and width_rand coordinates. It's random coordinates which are between 1-x and 1-y axis. In the next line, we are using the standard ActionChains function to do everything like a human. Then we are moving our mouse to our chosen random coordinates and performing the virtual click() function. At the last line of code, we return True if everything is fine there.

So bellow is the same code we'll use in our further coding, where we handle exceptions:

def VirtualClick(driver, click_object, UseRandom=True): try: size = click_object.size except StaleElementReferenceException: print("StaleElementReferenceException") return False sizeList = list(size.values()) height = int(sizeList[0])-1 width = int(sizeList[1])-1 if UseRandom == True: try: height_rand = random.randint(1,height) except ValueError: height_rand = 1 try: width_rand = random.randint(1,width) except ValueError: width_rand = 1 if UseRandom == False: height_rand = height width_rand = width action = webdriver.common.action_chains.ActionChains(driver) try: action.move_to_element_with_offset(click_object, width_rand, height_rand) except StaleElementReferenceException: return False action.click() try: action.perform() except MoveTargetOutOfBoundsException: print("MoveTargetOutOfBoundsException with action.perform()") return False except StaleElementReferenceException: print("StaleElementReferenceException with action.perform()") return False return True

And here comes the final up to date code:

from selenium import webdriver import time from selenium.webdriver import ActionChains from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys from selenium.common.exceptions import WebDriverException from selenium.common.exceptions import NoSuchElementException from selenium.common.exceptions import NoSuchFrameException from selenium.common.exceptions import NoSuchWindowException from selenium.common.exceptions import ElementNotInteractableException from selenium.common.exceptions import StaleElementReferenceException from selenium.common.exceptions import MoveTargetOutOfBoundsException from selenium.common.exceptions import UnexpectedAlertPresentException from selenium.common.exceptions import ElementClickInterceptedException from selenium.common.exceptions import JavascriptException import random def CheckExistsById(driver, CheckId): try: DriverId = driver.find_element_by_id(CheckId) except NoSuchWindowException: return False return DriverId def CheckExistsByName(driver, CheckName): try: DriverName = driver.find_element_by_name(CheckName) except NoSuchWindowException: return False return DriverName def CheckExistsByXpath(driver, xpath): try: path = driver.find_element_by_xpath(xpath) except NoSuchWindowException: return False except WebDriverException: return False except StaleElementReferenceException: return False return path def CheckExistsArrayByXpath(driver, xpath): try: path = driver.find_elements_by_xpath(xpath) except NoSuchWindowException: return False except WebDriverException: return False except StaleElementReferenceException: return False return path def MinimizeWindow(driver): try: driver.minimize_window() except UnexpectedAlertPresentException: return False return True def DriverClose(driver): try: driver.close() except NoSuchWindowException: print("NoSuchWindowException in driver.close()") return False return True def SimpleClick(driver, ObjectToClick): try: ObjectToClick.click() except ElementNotInteractableException: return False except ElementClickInterceptedException: return False except TypeError: return False return True def StartBrowser(browser=1, browser_location='', driver_path=''): if browser == 1: driver = webdriver.Firefox() if browser == 2: driver = webdriver.Chrome() if browser == 3: options = webdriver.ChromeOptions() options.binary_location = browser_location driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=driver_path, chrome_options=options) #driver.implicitly_wait(30) #driver.set_window_size(1920,1080) #driver.maximize_window() return driver def NewTab(driver, Link, default_page=0, custom=0): window_count = len(driver.window_handles) driver.execute_script('''window.open("'''+Link+'''","_blank");''') while len(driver.window_handles) != window_count+1: time.sleep(0.5) if custom == 0: driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[-1]) if custom != 0: driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[custom]) time.sleep(2) if driver.current_url == Link: current_window = driver.current_window_handle return current_window if driver.current_url == "about:blank": time.sleep(2) DriverClose() driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[default_page]) print("current window was about:blank we closed it, trying again in 10s") time.sleep(10) NewTab(driver, Link, default_page, custom) if driver.current_url != Link: pass def VirtualClick(driver, click_object, UseRandom=True): try: size = click_object.size except StaleElementReferenceException: print("StaleElementReferenceException") return False sizeList = list(size.values()) height = int(sizeList[0])-1 width = int(sizeList[1])-1 if UseRandom == True: try: height_rand = random.randint(1,height) except ValueError: height_rand = 1 try: width_rand = random.randint(1,width) except ValueError: width_rand = 1 if UseRandom == False: height_rand = height width_rand = width action = webdriver.common.action_chains.ActionChains(driver) try: action.move_to_element_with_offset(click_object, width_rand, height_rand) except StaleElementReferenceException: return False action.click() try: action.perform() except MoveTargetOutOfBoundsException: print("MoveTargetOutOfBoundsException with action.perform()") return False except StaleElementReferenceException: print("StaleElementReferenceException with action.perform()") return False return True browser_location = "C:/Users/HOME/Desktop/chrome-win/chrome.exe" driver_path = "C:/Users/HOME/Desktop/chrome-win/chromedriver.exe" driver = StartBrowser(1, browser_location, driver_path) time.sleep(1) driver.get("https://www.google.com") time.sleep(1) NewTab(driver, "https://www.google.com/gmail/about/new/") signin = CheckExistsByXpath(driver, "//a[starts-with(.,'Sign In')]") VirtualClick(driver, signin) time.sleep(0.5) driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[-1]) time.sleep(2) email = CheckExistsByXpath(driver, "//input[@type='email']") email.send_keys("email") next = CheckExistsByXpath(driver, "//span[@class='RveJvd snByac']") VirtualClick(driver, next)