Finding an element takes too much time

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1

I am using Click activity on an element on IE browser, and this takes 5-10 seconds, which is way too slow. Is there any way to make UiPath find the specific element faster?

On the browser there is a HTML table with 1000+ rows. Each row’s selector is almost the same, but each has a unique row number, so I am using this row number to click on a specific row I want to click.

The rows with a smaller row number like the first 100 rows can easily be found by UiPath Click activity, and it clicks within 1 second.
However, 700-1000th rows are very difficult to find, and it takes 5-10 seconds to find one row.

This is unacceptably slow. It seems like UiPath is spending lots of time to find the element from the browser before clicking. Is there any way to make this faster?

2

@tomato25

You can adjust the timeout and set it to like 3 seconds on the find elemet activity properties and maybe also set wait until interactive

3

@tomato25 - have you tried using chrome browser?
if no - please try to use chrome browser and verify the response…

4

Hi @tomato25

Are you using an attach browser activity as well? If not, try including one…
Also, use the wait for ready property to interactive and see whether it makes any difference… :thinking:

5

I cannot use Chrome. For this operation, Chrome is not supported, so I am using IE. I was thinking it could be one of the causes of the slowness.

6

but if I set the timeout to be 3 seconds, anything that takes more than 3 seconds will be an error, right? That’s not what I want, because this operation has to be done, however long it takes.
But this is just unacceptably long.

7

Yes everything is in Attach Browser.

8

The below is the summary of my current situation:

  1. I am using IE (Chrome is not an available option)
  2. The Click activity is inside Attach Browser activity
  3. The “WaitForReady” property is set to “Interactive”

yet, it takes 5-10 seconds to process each row in the second half of the table.

9

What is the purpose of row click? Is it to go to a different page post the click?

10

I am facing the exactly same issue.

@tomato25, did you find any solution for this?

Thank you.

11

@marius.velicu
Unfortunately, no. We gave up, and just let the robot take forever.
This program was made 2 years ago, but this customer still uses it, waiting hours for this process to complete.

12

My task is to insert data into the HTMl table and I created a string that contains the entire row data and pasted it from clipboard after selecting the row. This way is much faster but I have less control.

13

There are a few possible ways to make UiPath find elements faster when using the Click activity on an IE browser. Here are some suggestions:

  1. Use a more specific selector for the element. By default, UiPath uses a relative selector which can be slow, especially on IE. You can try using an absolute selector which targets the element more directly, and this may improve performance.
  2. Enable the native events option in the Click activity. This option allows UiPath to use the native events of the browser, which can be faster than using simulated events. To enable this option, click on the “Click” activity and then check the “Use Native Events” box in the properties panel.
  3. Use the “Find Element” activity instead of the “Click” activity. The “Find Element” activity searches for an element on the page without interacting with it, which can be faster than the “Click” activity which not only finds the element but also performs a click on it. You can use the “Find Element” activity to search for the element, and then use the “Click” activity on the output of the “Find Element” activity to click on the element.
  4. Use the “Attach Browser” activity before the “Click” activity. This activity allows you to attach to an already-opened browser, which can be faster than launching a new browser instance. To use this activity, click on the “Attach Browser” activity and then specify the browser type and URL in the properties panel. Then, use the output of the “Attach Browser” activity as the input for the “Click” activity.