Cannot get PAD to press a button

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Posted on 14 Oct 2022 10:38:42 by Craigja

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This is a continuation of https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Automate-Desktop/Unable-to-click-the-button-on-a-webpage/m-p/1816018#M19057 but I closed that yesterday as I thought I had it working!

I can get PAD to login and press all the buttons till it gets to the screen below on the left at which point it is unable to click the Choose File button. You will see from the right hand side of the screenshot what I have tried so far! The only thing that worked (and why I marked it as resolved yesterday) is the image recognition. If I created an image of the button and run it in the designer/debug window it works fine but running it from Power Automate it always errors with:

Wait for image Error Message: Timeout has expired.

Additional Info: {}

I have no idea what else I can try! Ive done button press from UI and Brower Automation, move mouse to position X,Y on screen then send left click, search for image then left click etc but none seem to work - HELP!!! 🙂

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Jamar_Forsythe Microsoft Employee on 15 Oct 2022 at 00:27:40

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Re: Cannot get PAD to press a button

There are many reasons it may not grab on to an element, in this scenario, it may be due to some unique values that are no longer present when the page refreshes. If you post the selector builder code, there may be something that shows up, but this can be a unique problem with a unique solution from case to case.

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Craigja 120 on 14 Oct 2022 at 12:22:32

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Re: Cannot get PAD to press a button

Cheers the Tabs are working for the moment, I just wish I understood why sometimes it can pick up buttons and others it just refuses to!

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SimonSmith84 112 on 14 Oct 2022 at 11:35:12

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Re: Cannot get PAD to press a button

Ohhh I see.

Well, I may have a suggestion - I've had the same issue in some of my flows, maybe identify the image as not the button itself, but as the header, then offset your "Send Mouse Click"?

I mean search for this image: (I imagine it's less likely to have rollover/onselect properties, being just a header) then send your click as an offset of x relative to window. That should help if someone rearranges/adds in new things to the site, provided the button stays under that header in its relative position!

Tabs is a good idea, provided nothing ever changes in that window, or there are other items in the tab index that may arbitrarily appear (Had this one bite me in the past too!)

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Craigja 120 on 14 Oct 2022 at 11:28:22

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Re: Cannot get PAD to press a button

Yeah number 9 - the others (10-16) are what else Ive tried. I think I have it working again - used the send keys to send tabs then enter and it seems to work. I suspect it is something to do with the rollover as you say, hopefully this is it fixed now as I dont have any other ideas!

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SimonSmith84 112 on 14 Oct 2022 at 11:24:05

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Re: Cannot get PAD to press a button

Hi Craig,

Which action number does the error point to? That might help isolate which part is the issue. I've looked at your screenshot and I'm a bit confused as to the specifics. The way I'm reading the highlighted area, but I'm reading step 9 and 10 as the same outcome? (Clicking the Choose File button).

This may or may not help you, but it's something I came across while trying to do a similar thing within our web based CRM - Finding images can be unreliable for some websites etc thanks to things like rollover properties. If the button is designed to change with an "on mouseover" or "on select" property, this can subtly change the button and throw things off.

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Craigja 120 on 14 Oct 2022 at 10:51:38

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Re: Cannot get PAD to press a button

What is starnge is that the press button on webpage action does seem to find the button - I see it highlight it in yellow but the press doesnt seem to work

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