Real-World Wait Patterns

// Login → wait for spinner to disappear → read dashboard
driver.findElement(By.id("login-btn")).click();

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(15));

// Step 1: Wait for spinner to disappear
wait.until(ExpectedConditions.invisibilityOfElementLocated(
    By.cssSelector(".loading-spinner")));

// Step 2: Now safely read the dashboard
WebElement balance = wait.until(
    ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(
        By.id("account-balance")));
System.out.println("Balance: " + balance.getText());

// Click login → wait for URL to change → verify dashboard
driver.findElement(By.id("login-btn")).click();

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(10));

// Wait for URL to change to dashboard
wait.until(ExpectedConditions.urlContains("/dashboard"));

// Now verify the page loaded
WebElement title = wait.until(
    ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(
        By.id("dashboard-title")));
System.out.println("Page: " + title.getText());

// Click "View Transactions" → wait for rows to appear
driver.findElement(By.id("view-transactions")).click();

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(10));

// Wait until at least one transaction row appears
wait.until(ExpectedConditions.numberOfElementsToBeMoreThan(
    By.cssSelector(".transaction-row"), 0));

List<WebElement> rows = driver.findElements(
    By.cssSelector(".transaction-row"));
System.out.println("Transactions: " + rows.size());

// Problem: page re-renders after action, element reference is stale
WebElement price = driver.findElement(By.id("total-price"));
driver.findElement(By.id("apply-coupon")).click();
// price.getText(); // STALE! Page re-rendered, old reference is dead.

// Solution: Re-find the element after the action
driver.findElement(By.id("apply-coupon")).click();
WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(10));
WebElement updatedPrice = wait.until(
    ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(
        By.id("total-price")));
String newPrice = updatedPrice.getText();

// Solution 2: FluentWait that ignores StaleElementReferenceException
Wait<WebDriver> fluentWait = new FluentWait<>(driver)
    .withTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(10))
    .pollingEvery(Duration.ofMillis(500))
    .ignoring(StaleElementReferenceException.class)
    .ignoring(NoSuchElementException.class);

String price2 = fluentWait.until(d ->
    d.findElement(By.id("total-price")).getText()
);

// A promo popup might appear — close it if it does, ignore if it doesn't
try {
    WebDriverWait shortWait = new WebDriverWait(driver,
        Duration.ofSeconds(3));
    WebElement popup = shortWait.until(
        ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(
            By.id("promo-popup")));
    popup.findElement(By.cssSelector(".close-btn")).click();
} catch (TimeoutException e) {
    // Popup didn't appear — that's fine, continue
}