How to automate the Instagram search bar with selenium

Question

I am working on a program that can type something in the Instagram search bar. Here is the code of the website:

<input class="XTCLo x3qfX " placeholder="Rechercher" value="" type="text">

I've already looked into a few posts about that but none of them work with me. Here is my code:

input_search = wait(browser, 10).until(
EC.visibility_of_element_located(
    (By.XPATH, "//input[@placeholder='Rechercher']")
))
action=ActionChains(browser)
action.move_to_element(input_search)
action.send_keys(search)
action.click()
action.perform()

how do I correct that?

Answer 1

Hi, please don't search by any placeholder text as it will change the browser language. You should use the locator which will be consistent with all browser languages.

In your case, if the browser language is English, then placeholder text will be "Search".

I have modified your code.

input_search = wait(browser, 20).until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.XPATH, "//input[contains(@class,'XTCLo')]")))
input_search.click()
input_search.send_keys("search")

Hope this helps! :)

Comments

how can I press 'Enter' after I typed the search?

---

You could implement "Enter" using send_keys(Keys.ENTER)