How to Retrieve Page Titles with Selenium?

When using Selenium for automated testing or web scraping, retrieving the page title is a common requirement. The page title helps verify proper page loading or confirm that you are on the intended page. Below are the steps to retrieve the page title in Selenium:

Step 1: Install and Configure Selenium

First, ensure that the Selenium library and the appropriate web drivers (such as ChromeDriver, GeckoDriver, etc.) are installed. This can be achieved using the pip command in Python:

bash
pip install selenium

Step 2: Import Selenium WebDriver

In a Python script, import the WebDriver module:

python
from selenium import webdriver

Step 3: Create a WebDriver Instance

Next, create a WebDriver instance specifying the browser. For example, if using Chrome:

python
driver = webdriver.Chrome()

Step 4: Open a Web Page

Use the get method to load the target web page:

python
driver.get("https://www.example.com")

Step 5: Retrieve the Page Title

Now, use the title attribute to obtain the title of the currently loaded page:

python
title = driver.title
print("Page title is:", title)

Example

Combine the above steps into a simple Python script to retrieve and print a web page's title:

python
from selenium import webdriver

# Create WebDriver instance
driver = webdriver.Chrome()

# Open the web page
driver.get("https://www.example.com")

# Retrieve and print the page title
print("Page title is:", driver.title)

# Clean up and close the browser
driver.quit()

This script imports necessary modules, initializes the Chrome WebDriver, opens the specified URL, retrieves the page title and prints it, and finally closes the browser to release resources.

Using this approach, retrieving and verifying web page titles in automation scripts is highly convenient, which is crucial for ensuring the quality and correctness of web applications.