JavaScript alerts, prompts and confirmations

WebDriver provides an API for working with the three types of native popup messages offered by JavaScript. These popups are styled by the browser and offer limited customisation.

Alerts

The simplest of these is referred to as an alert, which shows a custom message, and a single button which dismisses the alert, labelled in most browsers as OK. It can also be dismissed in most browsers by pressing the close button, but this will always do the same thing as the OK button. See an example alert.

WebDriver can get the text from the popup and accept or dismiss these alerts.

 wait.until(ExpectedConditions.alertIsPresent());   Alert alert = driver.switchTo().alert();  assertEquals("Sample Alert", alert.getText());  alert.accept();
 element = driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "See an example alert")  element.click()   wait = WebDriverWait(driver, timeout=2)  alert = wait.until(lambda d : d.switch_to.alert)  text = alert.text  alert.accept()
//Click the link to activate the alert driver.FindElement(By.LinkText("See an example alert")).Click();  //Wait for the alert to be displayed and store it in a variable IAlert alert = wait.Until(ExpectedConditions.AlertIsPresent());  //Store the alert text in a variable string text = alert.Text;  //Press the OK button alert.Accept();  
 # Store the alert reference in a variable  alert = driver.switch_to.alert   # Get the text of the alert  alert.text   # Press on Cancel button  alert.dismiss
 let alert = await driver.switchTo().alert();  let alertText = await alert.getText();  await alert.accept();
//Click the link to activate the alert driver.findElement(By.linkText("See an example alert")).click()  //Wait for the alert to be displayed and store it in a variable val alert = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.alertIsPresent())  //Store the alert text in a variable val text = alert.getText()  //Press the OK button alert.accept()

Confirm

A confirm box is similar to an alert, except the user can also choose to cancel the message. See a sample confirm.

This example also shows a different approach to storing an alert:

 alert = driver.switchTo().alert();  assertEquals("Are you sure?", alert.getText());  alert.dismiss();
 element = driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "See a sample confirm")  driver.execute_script("arguments[0].click();", element)   wait = WebDriverWait(driver, timeout=2)  alert = wait.until(lambda d : d.switch_to.alert)  text = alert.text  alert.dismiss()
//Click the link to activate the alert driver.FindElement(By.LinkText("See a sample confirm")).Click();  //Wait for the alert to be displayed wait.Until(ExpectedConditions.AlertIsPresent());  //Store the alert in a variable IAlert alert = driver.SwitchTo().Alert();  //Store the alert in a variable for reuse string text = alert.Text;  //Press the Cancel button alert.Dismiss();  
 # Store the alert reference in a variable  alert = driver.switch_to.alert   # Get the text of the alert  alert.text   # Press on Cancel button  alert.dismiss
 let alert = await driver.switchTo().alert();  let alertText = await alert.getText();  await alert.dismiss();
//Click the link to activate the alert driver.findElement(By.linkText("See a sample confirm")).click()  //Wait for the alert to be displayed wait.until(ExpectedConditions.alertIsPresent())  //Store the alert in a variable val alert = driver.switchTo().alert()  //Store the alert in a variable for reuse val text = alert.text  //Press the Cancel button alert.dismiss()

Prompt

Prompts are similar to confirm boxes, except they also include a text input. Similar to working with form elements, you can use WebDriver’s send keys to fill in a response. This will completely replace the placeholder text. Pressing the cancel button will not submit any text. See a sample prompt.

 alert = driver.switchTo().alert();  assertEquals("What is your name?", alert.getText());  alert.sendKeys("Selenium");  alert.accept();
 element = driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "See a sample prompt")  driver.execute_script("arguments[0].click();", element)   wait = WebDriverWait(driver, timeout=2)  alert = wait.until(lambda d : d.switch_to.alert)  alert.send_keys("Selenium")  text = alert.text  alert.accept()
//Click the link to activate the alert driver.FindElement(By.LinkText("See a sample prompt")).Click();  //Wait for the alert to be displayed and store it in a variable IAlert alert = wait.Until(ExpectedConditions.AlertIsPresent());  //Type your message alert.SendKeys("Selenium");  //Press the OK button alert.Accept();  
 # Store the alert reference in a variable  alert = driver.switch_to.alert   # Type a message  alert.send_keys('selenium')   # Press on Ok button  alert.accept
 let alert = await driver.switchTo().alert();  //Type your message  await alert.sendKeys(text);  await alert.accept();
//Click the link to activate the alert driver.findElement(By.linkText("See a sample prompt")).click()  //Wait for the alert to be displayed and store it in a variable val alert = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.alertIsPresent())  //Type your message alert.sendKeys("Selenium")  //Press the OK button alert.accept()
Last modified May 29, 2025: Removing comments in English and maximising browser command. (1b5dc8c9739)