Open a new tab in an existing browser session using Selenium

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6

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My current code below in C# opens a window then navigates to the specified URL after a button click.

protected void onboardButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   IWebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
   driver.FindElement(By.CssSelector("body")).SendKeys(Keys.Control + "t");
   driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("http://www.google.com")
}

But the site that I am planning to navigate to has single sign-on. How can I open a new tab in my existing browser session and navigate from there? The above code does not seem to work.

Infield answered 11/1, 2017 at 9:51 Comment(1)

https://mcmap.net/q/587125/-open-link-in-new-tab-selenium-c also has a clearly explained solution. – Tropine 11/8, 2017 at 14:16

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25

To handle new tab you should switch to it first. Try following:

driver.FindElement(By.CssSelector("body")).SendKeys(Keys.Control + "t");
driver.SwitchTo().Window(driver.WindowHandles.Last());
driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("http://www.google.com")

Also you might need to switch back:

driver.SwitchTo().Window(driver.WindowHandles.First());

Mccaslin answered 11/1, 2017 at 9:54 Comment(12)

To clear things up, how should I initialize my driver? Should it be a global variable, right outside my buttonClick method? @Mccaslin – Infield 11/1, 2017 at 10:7

driver is an instance of your browser session object. If you want to simulate sequence of some actions except your onboardButton_Click() you should definitely define driver outside this function, globally – Mccaslin 11/1, 2017 at 10:13

How can I initialize that existing session? I cannot use new ChromeDriver() because it would launch a new window instead of a new tab in the current session. – Infield 11/1, 2017 at 10:51

You should initialize driver just once as global variable and then use it in your code. Sorry I'm not a C# coder, so I cannot tell much about how to write C# script... check this learnseleniumtesting.com/basic-webdriver-and-c-sharp for some tips – Mccaslin 11/1, 2017 at 10:55

@Infield to make a global driver, make a static class and call it 'SeleniumInfo' or similar and inside it, add a property: "public static IWebDriver Driver { get; set; }" and call it like SeleniumInfo.Driver – Plume 11/1, 2017 at 16:0

@Mccaslin @Happy Bird Do you guys have an idea on how this could be done in JavaScript? Instead of building a new window through chromedriver, the Selenium script would run on the existing browser instance instead. Thanks! – Infield 26/9, 2017 at 9:11

@JPaulPunzalan, do you mean implementing the same in JavaScript + Selenium or just the command to pass into JavaScriptExecutor? – Mccaslin 30/9, 2017 at 19:30

@Andersson, Is it possible for the driver to attach to an existing browser instance using JavaScript to bypass my firm's Single Sign-on? The workaround that we did before was through a button in a web application which was running on my parent chrome browser that has activated single sign-on. I am currently working on node scripts for browser automation. – Infield 1/10, 2017 at 3:10

@JPaulPunzalan, it would be better to open new ticket with more details regarding this new issue as for now it's hard for me to understand what exactly you want to achieve – Mccaslin 1/10, 2017 at 19:19

@Andersson, let's say you have your chrome browser open at this moment (parent browser). Then you ran the selenium JS script via cmd. Right now, I cannot manipulate the chrome browser that is already open (parent browser). Every time I run the Selenium script via cmd, it instead opens a new browser using chromedriver. – Infield 2/10, 2017 at 1:30

@JPaulPunzalan, oh... You mean you want to handle already opened (manually) browser with selenium? If so, AFAIK it's not possible – Mccaslin 2/10, 2017 at 4:58

How would we open the new Browser – Turkish 8/4, 2020 at 9:13

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Sending Keys.Control + "t" didn't work for me. I had to do it with javascript and then switch to it.

((IJavaScriptExecutor)driver).ExecuteScript("window.open();");
driver.SwitchTo().Window(driver.WindowHandles.Last());

Galibi answered 2/12, 2018 at 8:14 Comment(1)

the SendKeys(ctrl T) didn't work for me, but this one did. Plus I could put the URL in the window.open(url), and have it go to the correct page automatically, and not have to do a navigate after opening the tab. – Hauck 2/10, 2019 at 15:13

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25

To handle new tab you should switch to it first. Try following:

driver.FindElement(By.CssSelector("body")).SendKeys(Keys.Control + "t");
driver.SwitchTo().Window(driver.WindowHandles.Last());
driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("http://www.google.com")

Also you might need to switch back:

driver.SwitchTo().Window(driver.WindowHandles.First());