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📅 Day 2: Locating Elements on Instagram with Selenium

Today, you’ll learn how to:

✅ Locate web elements using Selenium
✅ Use different locator strategies like ID, Class, XPath, and CSS Selectors
✅ Practice locating Instagram’s login elements

🔎 Step 1: Understanding Locator Strategies in Selenium

To interact with any element on a webpage, you must first locate it using one of the following methods:

Method	Function	Example
By `ID`	`find_element(By.ID, "id_value")`	`driver.find_element(By.ID, "username")`
By `Class Name`	`find_element(By.CLASS_NAME, "class")`	`driver.find_element(By.CLASS_NAME, "button")`
By `Name`	`find_element(By.NAME, "name")`	`driver.find_element(By.NAME, "password")`
By `XPath`	`find_element(By.XPATH, "xpath")`	`driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//input[@name='username']")`
By `CSS Selector`	`find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "css")`	`driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "input[name='password']")`

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

username_field = driver.find_element(By.NAME, "username")

🖱️ Step 2: How to Inspect Elements in Instagram

Open Instagram in Chrome: Go to https://www.instagram.com.
Right-click on the element you want to inspect (e.g., the username input field).
Click “Inspect” to open Chrome DevTools.
Look for the unique properties of the element like ID, Class, Name, etc.

🔧 Step 3: Practice Locating Instagram Login Elements

1️⃣ Locate the Username Input Field

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

username_field = driver.find_element(By.NAME, "username")

2️⃣ Locate the Password Input Field

password_field = driver.find_element(By.NAME, "password")

3️⃣ Locate the Login Button

login_button = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//button[@type='submit']")

📄 Full Code: Automating Instagram Login (Without Credentials)

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.service import Service
import time

# Path to your ChromeDriver
service = Service("C:/WebDrivers/chromedriver.exe")
driver = webdriver.Chrome(service=service)

# Open Instagram
driver.get("https://www.instagram.com")
driver.maximize_window()

# Locate elements
username_field = driver.find_element(By.NAME, "username")
password_field = driver.find_element(By.NAME, "password")
login_button = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//button[@type='submit']")

# Simulate typing
username_field.send_keys("your_username")
password_field.send_keys("your_password")

# Click the login button
login_button.click()

# Wait and close the browser
time.sleep(5)
driver.quit()

🛠️ Task for Day 2:

Locate the username, password, and login button fields on Instagram.
Write a script to fill in your credentials and click the login button.
Use different locator methods (like XPath, CSS Selector, etc.) to practice.

💡 Pro Tip:

If you don’t want to hardcode your Instagram credentials, you can use input() to take them from the user.

username = input("Enter your Instagram username: ")
password = input("Enter your Instagram password: ")

💬 Let me know if you have any issues!Once you’re done, I’ll teach you Day 3: Browser Interactions (Clicking Buttons, Typing Text, etc.). 😊

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