Best approach to use when values are dynamically created? - selenium

Question

I'm looking for some advice on how to select a WebElement.
When I click a button that creates a new 'page', the given value is dynamic, in that it is totally random and not sequential. I would expect it to follow something like: page 1 = 0, page 2 = 1, page 3 = 2, etc.
By default I begin with a page, and its value is c3. Although when I trigger a button to create new pages the values appear as follows:
<select class="j-currentPage f-feature-A" name="currentPage"> <option value="c3">New Page</option> <option value="c277">New Page 2</option> <option value="c383">New Page 3</option> <option selected="" value="c461">New Page 4</option> </select>
So when I attempt to use the following:
List<WebElement> option = chrome.findElements(By.tagName("option"));
option.get(0).click();
option.get(1).click();
option.get(0).click();
It's obviously failing as the values are c277, c346 etc etc, and there is no way of knowing what the values will be in a new session as they will always be different.
The stacktrace is throwing a StaleElementReferenceException because its not in the DOM.
How can I select each page when the values are completely random?
I'm using Webdriver and JUnit4.
EDIT
Test method: to create some new pages.
#Test
public void createANewPage(){
WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(chrome, 60);
wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.cssSelector("select.j-currentPage.f-feature-A[name=\"currentPage\"]")));
WebElement newPage = chrome.findElement(By.cssSelector("span.j-addViewBtn.ss-layers"));
newPage.click();
List<WebElement> option = chrome.findElements(By.tagName("option"));
option.get(1).click();
option.get(0).click();
}
Then a few tests later I want to call back the created page(s)
#Test
public void goToPage(){
new WebDriverWait(chrome, 60).until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.cssSelector("select.j-currentPage.f-feature-A[name=\"currentPage\"]")));
List<WebElement> option = chrome.findElements(By.tagName("option"));
option.get(0).click();
option.get(1).click();
option.get(0).click();
}
I receive a org.openqa.selenium.StaleElementReferenceException at the point of the third option.get(0).click();
However I feel as though I'm approaching this the wrong way as the values are dynamically created <option value="c3">New Page</option>
<option value="c207">New Page 2</option>
<option value="c288">New Page 3</option>
<option selected="" value="c366">New Page 4</option>

Answer 1

The StaleElementReferenceException does not mean that it is not in the DOM. It means that the DOM has changed since you found that object and therefore may be deleted or changed. The change coudld be due to the page reloading or HTML refreshed via javascript. Either way, Webdriver throws the error because it thinks it is probably good idea to refind objects as the page has changed.
If you refind the elements, then it will work. You are finding by tag name, so the fact that ids have changed, should have no impact.
The following would work but does have performance issues;
chrome.findElements(By.tagName("option")).get(0).click
chrome.findElements(By.tagName("option")).get(1).click
chrome.findElements(By.tagName("option")).get(2).click
There will a better way to approach your problem for your particular application but hopefully understanding what stale elements actually indicates, will help you solve your issue.

Answer 2

None of the FindElement() strategies support using regular expressions for finding elements.
Though there is another way using regex, might help you
List<WebElement> option = chrome.findElements(By.tagName("option"));
now loop on the options and getText. Then do the regex check programmetically
Below is a demo code will not run. Please transfer it to jave
foreach(WebElement link in links)
{
string text = link.Text;
if (Regex.Match("your Regex here", text))
{
matchingLinks.Add(text);
}
}
foreach(string linkText in matchingLinks) // now you have the texts even if they are dynamics
{
WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.LinkText(linkText));
element.Click();
// do stuff on the page navigated to
driver.Navigate().Back();
}

Answer 3

OKay, I've just managed to solve the issue with the help of the contributors to this question.
It seems as though I just needed to use xpath instead of List<WebElement> so the below code now selects the pages I want.
#Test
public void jGoToPage(){
new WebDriverWait(chrome, 60).until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.cssSelector("select.j-currentPage.f-feature-A[name=\"currentPage\"]")));
WebElement page1 = chrome.findElementByXPath("//option[contains(.,'New Page')]");
page1.click();
WebElement page2 = chrome.findElementByXPath("//option[contains(.,'New Page 2')]");
page2.click();
WebElement selectPage1Again = chrome.findElementByXPath("//option[contains(.,'New Page')]");
selectPage1Again.click();
Perhaps not the best code, but if anyone would like to suggest a better way to refine it, please comment so others can learn.
The reason I declared New Page twice was because I was receiving a staleElementReferenceException again. So by simply attempting to perform page1.click(); immediately after page2.click(); is when that happened which is why I declared it as selectPage1Again
I also used this question to help with the solution.