Drag and drop in Selenium Python

Introduction

Drag and drop helps test if you can move items on a webpage by clicking and dragging them.

Testing if a user can move a file icon into a folder on a webpage.

Checking if a shopping cart allows dragging products into it.

Verifying if a puzzle piece can be dragged to the correct spot.

Testing drag and drop in a form builder interface.

Ensuring a user can reorder list items by dragging.

Syntax

Selenium Python

from selenium.webdriver import ActionChains

# Create action chain object
actions = ActionChains(driver)

# Drag source element and drop on target element
actions.drag_and_drop(source_element, target_element).perform()

Use ActionChains to perform complex mouse actions like drag and drop.

Always call perform() to execute the action.

Examples

Drag the source element and drop it onto the target element in one step.

Selenium Python

actions.drag_and_drop(source, target).perform()

Manually click and hold the source, move to target, then release to drop.

Selenium Python

actions.click_and_hold(source).move_to_element(target).release().perform()

Sample Program

This script opens a test page with drag and drop, drags the box onto the drop area, waits 2 seconds, then prints the drop area's text to confirm success.

Selenium Python

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver import ActionChains
import time

# Setup driver (make sure chromedriver is in PATH)
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get('https://crossbrowsertesting.github.io/drag-and-drop.html')

# Locate source and target elements
source = driver.find_element(By.ID, 'draggable')
target = driver.find_element(By.ID, 'droppable')

# Create action chain and perform drag and drop
actions = ActionChains(driver)
actions.drag_and_drop(source, target).perform()

# Wait to see result
time.sleep(2)

# Verify if drop was successful by checking text
result_text = target.text
print(result_text)

driver.quit()

Important Notes

Drag and drop may fail if elements are inside iframes; switch to the iframe first.

Sometimes drag and drop needs small pauses between actions for reliability.

Use explicit waits to ensure elements are ready before dragging.

Summary

Drag and drop tests moving items by mouse on a webpage.

Use Selenium's ActionChains with drag_and_drop or click_and_hold methods.

Always verify the drop by checking page changes or element states.