How To Download File Using Selenium Python

Downloading file using Selenium Python to a specific folder

In this section of the Python automation testing tutorial, we will consider the following test scenario to download file using Selenium Python:

• Go to the Selenium Playground.
• Click on the File Download button.
• In the Enter Data field, enter “How to download files using Selenium & Python?”
• Click on the Generate File button.
• Click on the Download button to download the file Lambdainfo.txt, which should contain “How to download files using Selenium & Python?”

This is what the structure of our project should look like.

In the blog on how to download file using Selenium Python, we will create three folders which are as follows: pages, tests, and utils.

Python packages are denoted by this __init__.py file (pronounced “dunder init”). It’s just an empty file inside a directory that says, “Hey, this is a Python package, and you can treat it as such, specifically for import statements.”

In our “utils” folder, we will create a locators.py file in which we will put our different locators.

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
class SeleniumPlaygroundPageLocators(object):
   #locators
  file_download = (By.XPATH, '//li[.="File Download"]')
   data_field = (By.XPATH, '//*[@id="textbox"]')
   generate_file = (By.ID, 'create')
   download_button = (By.XPATH, '//*[@id="link-to-download"]')

Tests use locators to find elements on a page. Locators are simple query strings for finding elements. They will return all elements that match their query.

Selenium WebDriver supports many types of locators . Some of the most commonly used Selenium locators include— IDs, Names, Class Names, CSS Selectors, XPaths, Link Text, Partial Link Text, and Tag Name.

Now let’s look at how to get locators for the target items we need for our test scenario. We have created a SeleniumPlaygroundPageLocators class in which we have created variables for each element in which we will save our selectors for later use in our code.

file_download = (By.XPATH, '//li[.="File Download"]')

data_field = (By.XPATH, '//*[@id="textbox"]')

generate_file = (By.ID, 'create')

download_button = (By.XPATH, '//*[@id="link-to-download"]')

I have also created a directory called “pages“. In “pages,” we will create a file selenium_playground_page.py in which the page objects are written. To learn more about page objects, refer to our earlier blog on Page Object Model (POM) in Selenium Python.

from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
from utils.locators import *
import time
# Page objects are written in this module.
class Selenium_Playground_Page():
 
   def __init__(self, driver):
       self.locator = SeleniumPlaygroundPageLocators
       self.driver = driver
 
   def download(self, text):
       self.driver.find_element(*self.locator.file_download).click()
       self.driver.find_element(*self.locator.data_field).send_keys(text)
       self.driver.find_element(*self.locator.generate_file).click()
       self.driver.find_element(*self.locator.download_button).click()
       time.sleep(5)

Code Walkthrough:

from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

The selenium.webdriver module provides all the WebDriver implementations. The Keys class provides methods through which you can access keys. You can refer to this blog on Selenium Keys to learn more about Keys class.

from utils.locators import *

Here, we import all the classes in our locators.py file in the utils folder.

import time

Python sleep() is a method of the Python time module. So, first, we must import the time module, and then we can use this method:

time.sleep(5)

In Python projects, it is common practice to create a “tests” directory under the project’s root directory to hold all the test scenarios. In tests, we have two files test_download_file.py and conftest.py.

import unittest
from selenium import webdriver
class Browser(unittest.TestCase):
   def setUp(self):
       PATH = "/Users/macbookair/Desktop/how_download_files_selenium_python/download" #This path must be modified according to your OS and the directory where you want to save your file
       self.driver.get("https://www.lambdatest.com/selenium-playground/")
   def tearDown(self):
       self.driver.close()
if __name__ == '__main__':
   unittest.main()

Code Walkthrough:

import unittest

The unittest module provides a rich set of tools for constructing and running tests. In this blog on how to download file using Selenium Python, we have used unittest, but several other Python testing frameworks can be used like PyTest, Robot, DocTest, etc.

PATH = "/Users/macbookair/Desktop/how_download_files_selenium_python/download"

We have created a PATH variable in which we save the path we want to save the file that we will download with Selenium Python.

Later we will add some code to our conftest.py file to be able to run the tests on our different browsers.

import unittest
from tests.conftest import Browser
from pages.selenium_playground_page import *
# I am using python unittest for asserting cases.
class TestDownloadFile(Browser):
   def test_download(self):
       page = Selenium_Playground_Page(self.driver)
       download_file = page.download("How to download files using Selenium & Python?")

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How to download file using Selenium Python in Chrome?

In our conftest.py file, we need to add some code. First, we will import the chromeOptions with the following import statement:

from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options

Chrome Options class is used to control the properties of Chrome Driver and is used with combining Desired Capabilities. It helps you perform various operations, such as defining the folder where you want to save a download file.

Usage to create a Chrome driver instance:

#Google Chrome
       options = Options()
       prefs = {"download.default_directory" : PATH}
       options.add_experimental_option("prefs",prefs)
       self.driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)

• options: This allows you to set the preferences of the Chrome browser.
• download.default_directory: Allows to modify the default download directory. The default download folder will be the path defined in our PATH variable
• add_experimental_option: Allows users to add these preferences to their Selenium webdriver object.

Our conftest.py file should now look like this:

import unittest
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
 
class Browser(unittest.TestCase):
   def setUp(self):
       PATH = "/Users/macbookair/Desktop/how_download_files_selenium_python/download"
       #Google Chrome
       options = Options()
       prefs = {"download.default_directory" : PATH}
       options.add_experimental_option("prefs",prefs)
       self.driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)
       self.driver.get("https://www.lambdatest.com/selenium-playground/")
 
   def tearDown(self):
       self.driver.close()
 
if __name__ == '__main__':
   unittest.main()

Now you can run your test by typing in your terminal:

python3 -m unittest

Your test should run as follows:

Once your test has run successfully, you should have the Lambdainfo.txt file in your download folder.

The file does contain the text “How to download files using Selenium & Python?”.

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How to download file using Selenium Python in Firefox?

Now, we will need to create a Firefox profile. Here is the code you will need to add to your conftest.py file if you plan to run your tests with Mozilla Firefox.

#Firefox
       profile = webdriver.FirefoxProfile()
       profile.set_preference("browser.download.folderList", 2)
       profile.set_preference("browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting", False)
       profile.set_preference("browser.download.dir", PATH)
       profile.set_preference("browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk", "application/x-gzip")
       self.driver = webdriver.Firefox(firefox_profile=profile)

More explanation:

• Profile: The profile object is specific to FirefoxDriver and contains all the preferences to be defined.
• browser.download.folderList: Tells not to use the default Downloads directory.
• browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting: Turns of showing download progress.
• browser.download.dir: Sets the directory for downloads.
• browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk: Informs Firefox to automatically download the files of the chosen mime types.

self.driver = webdriver.Firefox(firefox_profile=profile)

This line of code allows us to create a Firefox driver object with all the preferences.

Our conftest.py file should now look like this:

import unittest
from selenium import webdriver
class Browser(unittest.TestCase):
   def setUp(self):
       PATH = "/Users/macbookair/Desktop/how_download_files_selenium_python/download"
       #Mozilla Firefox
       profile = webdriver.FirefoxProfile()
       profile.set_preference("browser.download.folderList", 2)
       profile.set_preference("browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting", False)
       profile.set_preference("browser.download.dir", PATH)
       profile.set_preference("browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk", "application/x-gzip")
       self.driver = webdriver.Firefox(firefox_profile=profile)
       self.driver.get("https://www.lambdatest.com/selenium-playground/")
 
   def tearDown(self):
       self.driver.close()
if __name__ == '__main__':
   unittest.main()

Now, we can rerun our tests.

How to download file using Selenium Python in Safari?

It is not necessary to download the Safari driver for Selenium WebDriver. Instead, the built-in Safari driver, safaridriver, is currently available in most Selenium client libraries. But before running web UI testing in Safari, ensure you enable remote automation in the Safari browser.

To allow remote automation in Safari, you must turn on WebDriver support:

• To enable the Develop menu in the Safari browser, click Safari > Preferences > Advanced tab. Select the Show Develop Menu check box. The Develop menu appears in the menu bar.

• To enable Remote Automation, click Develop > Allow Remote Automation in the menu bar.
• Authorize safaridriver to launch the webdriver service that hosts the local web server. To permit this, run /usr/bin/safaridriver once manually and complete the authentication prompt.

• Now, we will need to make some changes before running the tests. Firstly we will change the default download folder for Safari. You can do this in the Safari preferences in the general tab.

• Now, we will disable the download confirmation alerts. In the website tab, in the preferences.

Now let’s add some code.

#Safari
       self.driver = webdriver.Safari()

Our conftest.py file should now look like this:

import unittest
from selenium import webdriver
class Browser(unittest.TestCase):
   def setUp(self):
       PATH = "/Users/macbookair/Desktop/how_download_files_selenium_python/download"
       #Safari
       self.driver = webdriver.Safari()       
       self.driver.get("https://www.lambdatest.com/selenium-playground/")
   def tearDown(self):
       self.driver.close()
if __name__ == '__main__':
   unittest.main()

Everything is ready to run the tests with Safari. After running your tests, the result should be as follows

How to download file using cloud Selenium Grid?

Every project is unique, and you must optimize your application for any configuration to provide a smooth and consistent user experience on all devices, browsers, and operating systems.

In an ideal world, developers would test their apps using real devices under real conditions. However, in-house labs tend to be small and thus cannot provide users with real-world experiences. Instead, they opt to use emulators or simulators designed to mimic the real feelings of users. Although these tools are great for app testing, they cannot replace real devices. In such cases, you must opt for a real device cloud testing solution that offers real devices.

TestMu AI cloud Selenium Grid offers an online device farm with 3000+ real devices and browsers to help you get the job done.

In this Python web automation tutorial on how to download file using Selenium Python, we will use TestMu AI REST APIs (/user-files/download) to download files from TestMu AI cloud storage.

We will have to use the POST request to upload files to our TestMu AI storage and then the PUT request to download the user file from TestMu AI storage.

Before we continue, we will install requests, a Python library that will allow us to make HTTP requests in Python. It abstracts the complexity of requests behind a nice simple API, so you can focus on interacting with services and consuming data in your application.

Run the following command from the terminal:

pip3 install requests

Once requests are installed, you can use them in your project. Importing requests looks like this:

import requests

In our file test_download_file.py, we import JSON and request packages.

import requests
import json

Then let’s add some code.

class TestAPIDownloadFile():
 
       username = "username"
       access_Key = "access key"
  
       #POST_REQUEST
       url = "https://api.lambdatest.com/automation/api/v1/user-files"
 
       payload={}
 
       files=[
       ('files',('Lambdainfo.txt',open('/Users/macbookair/Downloads/Lambdainfo.txt','rb'),'text/plain'))
       ]
 
       headers = {
       'authority': 'api.lambdatest.com',
       'accept': 'application/json',
       }
 
       response = requests.request("POST", url, auth=(username, access_Key), headers=headers, data=payload, files=files)
 
       print(response.text)
  
 
       #PUT_REQUEST
       url = "https://api.lambdatest.com/automation/api/v1/user-files/download"
 
 
       payload = json.dumps({
       "key": "Lambdainfo.txt"
       })
 
       headers = {
       'accept': 'application/octet-stream',
       'Content-Type': 'application/json'
       }
 
       response = requests.request("PUT", url, auth=(username, access_Key), headers=headers, data=payload)
       open('/Users/macbookair/Documents/how_download_files_selenium_python/download/Lambdainfo.txt', 'wb').write(response.content)
 
       print(response.text)

Code Walkthrough:

In a new class TestAPIDownloadFile that we added to our file we declare two variables as follows:

username = "username"
access_Key = "access key"

These variables will be used for identification in our API calls before accessing the endpoint.

You need to replace the value of the username and access key using the authentication data that you can retrieve from the TestMu AI profile page.

#POST_REQUEST
       url = "https://api.lambdatest.com/automation/api/v1/user-files"
 
       payload={}
 
       files=[     ('files',('Lambdainfo.txt',open('/Users/macbookair/Downloads/Lambdainfo.txt','rb'),'text/plain'))
       ]
 
       headers = {
       'authority': 'api.lambdatest.com',
       'accept': 'application/json',
       }
 
       response = requests.request("POST", url, auth=(username, access_Key), headers=headers, data=payload, files=files)
 
       print(response.text)

Then we make a POST request to upload a file from our computer to the lambda storage.

files=[     ('files',('Lambdainfo.txt',open('/Users/macbookair/Downloads/Lambdainfo.txt','rb'),'text/plain'))
       ]

You must replace ‘Lambdainfo.txt‘ by the name of your file and ‘/Users/macbookair/Downloads/Lambdainfo.txt‘ by the path where the file is located.

response = requests.request("POST", url, auth=(username, access_Key), headers=headers, data=payload, files=files)

In a response variable, we save the response of our request that we display afterward by doing.

print(response.text)


       #PUT_REQUEST
       url = "https://api.lambdatest.com/automation/api/v1/user-files/download"
 
 
       payload = json.dumps({
       "key": "Lambdainfo.txt"
       })
 
       headers = {
       'accept': 'application/octet-stream',
       'Content-Type': 'application/json'
       }
 
       response = requests.request("PUT", url, auth=(username, access_Key), headers=headers, data=payload)
       open('/Users/macbookair/Documents/how_download_files_selenium_python/download/Lambdainfo.txt', 'wb').write(response.content)
 
       print(response.text)

Once our file has been uploaded to the lambda storage, we can now use our PUT requests to download it to the directory of our choice.

payload = json.dumps({
       "key": "Lambdainfo.txt"
       })

Key identifies our file on the storage, so you have to replace it with the name of our file on the storage.

open('/Users/macbookair/Documents/how_download_files_selenium_python/download/Lambdainfo_API.txt', 'wb').write(response.content)

Then we save the file in the directory of our choice. You must replace the specified path with the one where you want to save the file.

Once the test is run in your console, you can see the response to your requests.

And the file that has been downloaded in the defined directory.

If you’re a Python programmer looking to make a name for yourself in the automation testing domain, then the Selenium Python 101 certification program from TestMu AI is your best bet.

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Conclusion

This concludes the tutorial on how to download file using Selenium Python. When you automate your web tests using Selenium, you may need to test the complete functionality of a website or a web application. This means you will have to exercise features like downloading and uploading files, streaming video or audio, and reading/writing documents.

In this tutorial on Selenium Python testing, we saw how to download file using Selenium Python to a specific folder. Moreover, we learned to download file using Selenium Python in different browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. In the end, we looked at downloading file on a cloud Selenium Grid like TestMu AI.

I hope this has given you a good overview of how to download file using Selenium Python. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the section below.