Can't select option: element is found but invisible - selenium

Question

I'm trying to automate a website which is not under my control, so I can't change its HTML and CSS. I need to select an option from a combo box.
I can successfully find a "select ../>" element but when I try to select an option via SelectByText, ByValue, ByIndex it results in the ElementNotVisibleException. The html is pretty complex on that page and I believe that developers assigned "display:none" by a css-style. I can navigate to the "div" which contains that combo box and click on it via Actions but it doesn't help to select an option after that. After such a click I see for a second the options on the screen and then the combo box collapses.
Is it possible at all to overcome such a problem?

Answer 1

Since Selenium API tries to be "user-centric" it will not allow interaction with non-visible elements. There are two approaches you can try:
1) Click on the select element, then perform an explicit wait for the option to become visible. This is useful if the page is using JavaScript to display the select options which can cause slight delay.
By bySelect = By.id("id_of_select_element");
By byOption = new ByChained(bySelect, By.xpath(".//option[contains(text(), 'text_of_option')]");
WebElement select = driver.findElement(bySelect);
select.click();
try {
// wait at-most 5 seconds for element to become visible
WebElement option = new WebDriverWait(driver, 5)
.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(byOption)));
} catch(TimeoutException t) {
System.err.println("Timed out while waiting for dropdown to become visible: " + byOption.toString());
}
2) If the above doesn't work, you can be a little more invasive and execute some JavaScript to force the option to be selected. This is only recommended as a last resort.
public void selectDropdownByText(WebDriver driver, WebElement select, String text) {
((JavascriptExecutor) driver).executeScript(
"var select = arguments[0]; for(var i = 0; i < select.options.length; i++) {if(select.options[i].text == arguments[1]) {select.options[i].selected = true; }}", select, text);
}

Answer 2

ok, Element is not visible exception is thrown because of "user-centric" behavior of selenium,
In my working experience i found out that,
Selenium is not able to select element which are not visible to clients.
I mean can't select those who not appears on UI Window,
Still those are you can inspect on HTML DOM but cant access through selenium.
When those are visible on screen you can very well select those elements.
solution is before finding out select tag you must click on it to get visible full options tags.
Clicking makes all options that needs to be selected are now visible to clients.
Then you find that select element and then select options under select tag. when those List of options are completely visible on screen.