Getting StaleElementReferenceException when trying to open all links on webpage sequentially

Question

My goal here is to navigate all hyperlinks on webpage.

Upon trying navigate().back() getting this exception.

Please help.

Code

import java.util.List;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

public class DownloadAllFiles {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "E:\\TestAutomation\\chromedriver.exe");
        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
        
        driver.get("https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~scottm/cs307/codingSamples.htm");
        List<WebElement> all_links_webpage = driver.findElements(By.tagName("a")); 
        System.out.println("Total no of links Available: " + all_links_webpage.size());
        int k = all_links_webpage.size();
        System.out.println("List of links Available: ");
        for(int i=0;i<k;i++)
        {
        if(all_links_webpage.get(i).getAttribute("href") != null)
        {

        driver.navigate().to(all_links_webpage.get(i).getAttribute("href"));
        driver.navigate().back();
        }   
        }
        
    }
    
}

Output

Starting ChromeDriver 2.26.436362 (5476ec6bf7ccbada1734a0cdec7d570bb042aa30) on port 46211
Only local connections are allowed.
Jan 15, 2017 5:16:24 PM org.openqa.selenium.remote.ProtocolHandshake createSession
INFO: Attempting bi-dialect session, assuming Postel's Law holds true on the remote end
Jan 15, 2017 5:16:29 PM org.openqa.selenium.remote.ProtocolHandshake createSession
INFO: Detected dialect: OSS
Total no of links Available: 47
List of links Available: 
Exception in thread "main" org.openqa.selenium.StaleElementReferenceException: stale element reference: element is not attached to the page document
  (Session info: chrome=55.0.2883.87)
  (Driver info: chromedriver=2.26.436362 (5476ec6bf7ccbada1734a0cdec7d570bb042aa30),platform=Windows NT 6.1.7601 SP1 x86) (WARNING: The server did not provide any stacktrace information)
Command duration or timeout: 71 milliseconds
For documentation on this error, please visit: http://seleniumhq.org/exceptions/stale_element_reference.html
Build info: version: '3.0.1', revision: '1969d75', time: '2016-10-18 09:48:19 -0700'
System info: host: 'Ravi-PC', ip: '192.168.145.1', os.name: 'Windows 7', os.arch: 'x86', os.version: '6.1', java.version: '1.8.0_111'
Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver
Capabilities [{applicationCacheEnabled=false, rotatable=false, mobileEmulationEnabled=false, networkConnectionEnabled=false, chrome={chromedriverVersion=2.26.436362 (5476ec6bf7ccbada1734a0cdec7d570bb042aa30), userDataDir=C:\Users\Ravi\AppData\Local\Temp\scoped_dir1580_25788}, takesHeapSnapshot=true, pageLoadStrategy=normal, databaseEnabled=false, handlesAlerts=true, hasTouchScreen=false, version=55.0.2883.87, platform=XP, browserConnectionEnabled=false, nativeEvents=true, acceptSslCerts=true, locationContextEnabled=true, webStorageEnabled=true, browserName=chrome, takesScreenshot=true, javascriptEnabled=true, cssSelectorsEnabled=true, unexpectedAlertBehaviour=}]
Session ID: b2512a47f89fab0681d3c89f4a7d3987
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Unknown Source)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler.createThrowable(ErrorHandler.java:216)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler.throwIfResponseFailed(ErrorHandler.java:168)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:635)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebElement.execute(RemoteWebElement.java:274)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebElement.getAttribute(RemoteWebElement.java:126)
    at DownloadAllFiles.main(DownloadAllFiles.java:21)

Answer 1

When you nevigate to the new page, the cache of elements you identified on a previous page will be overridden by new elements. So, you will have to identify those elements again.

        System.out.println("Total no of links Available: " + all_links_webpage.size());
        int k = all_links_webpage.size();
        System.out.println("List of links Available: ");
        for(int i=0;i<k;i++)
        {
        if(all_links_webpage.get(i).getAttribute("href") != null)
        {

        driver.navigate().to(all_links_webpage.get(i).getAttribute("href"));
        driver.navigate().back();

      all_links_webpage = driver.findElements(By.tagName("a")); 
        }   
        }
        
    }
    
}

Hope that helps.

Comments

Perfect! works.Thanks for help :)