Google Forms Automation & Email Submission

A Python-based automation solution for filling Google Forms and sending assignment submissions via email. Built with Selenium WebDriver for form automation and Flask for programmatic email delivery.

Overview

This project automates the complete workflow of:

1. Filling out a Google Form with required information
2. Capturing a confirmation screenshot
3. Sending a submission email with attachments via Flask

Project Structure

.
├── selenium_form_filler.py    # Form automation script
├── email_utils.py              # Email sending logic (reusable)
├── app.py                      # Flask application
├── pyproject.toml            # Project dependencies
├── .env                        # Environment variables (not in git)
├── .gitignore                  # Git ignore rules
├── screenshots/                # Form confirmation screenshots
│   └── confirmation.png
└── attachments/                # Email attachments
    └── resume.pdf

Technologies Used

• Selenium WebDriver - Browser automation
• Flask - Web framework for triggering email
• smtplib - Email sending via SMTP
• python-dotenv - Environment variable management

Setup & Installation

1. Clone the Repository

git clone git@github.com:DanielPopoola/selenium-form-automation.git
cd form-automation

2. Install Dependencies

pip install .

3. Configure Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the project root:

EMAIL_ADDRESS=your-email@gmail.com
EMAIL_PASSWORD=your-app-password

Note: You need to generate a Gmail App Password:

1. Enable 2-Factor Authentication on your Google account
2. Go to Google Account → Security → App Passwords
3. Generate a password for "Mail" → "Other"
4. Use this 16-character password in your .env file

4. Prepare Attachments

• Place your resume as attachments/resume.pdf
• The confirmation screenshot will be auto-generated at screenshots/confirmation.png

Usage

Step 1: Run Form Automation

python selenium_form_filler.py

This will:

• Open Chrome browser
• Navigate to the Google Form
• Fill all required fields
• Submit the form
• Capture a screenshot of the confirmation page
• Save screenshot to screenshots/confirmation.png

Step 2: Send Submission Email

Start the Flask server:

python app.py

Visit http://localhost:5000/send-email in your browser, or use curl:

curl http://localhost:5000/send-email

The email will be sent with all required attachments to the specified recipients.

Technical Approach

Form Automation Strategy

Initial Challenge: Google Forms use dynamic elements with shared CSS classes, making it difficult to target specific fields.

Solution:

• Identified that form fields are wrapped in container divs with class Xb9hP
• Extracted all <input> elements from these containers
• Filled fields by their index position in the form
• Handled the address field separately (it's a <textarea>, not an <input>)

Code snippet:

# Find all field containers
containers = driver.find_elements(By.CLASS_NAME, "Xb9hP")

# Extract input fields from containers
input_fields = []
for container in containers:
    try:
        field = container.find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "input")
        input_fields.append(field)
    except:
        pass  # Skip containers without inputs

# Fill by index
for i, (field, value) in enumerate(zip(input_fields, data)):
    field.send_keys(value)

Email Automation Strategy

Design Decision: Separated email logic from Flask routes for:

• Reusability across different contexts
• Easier testing without running Flask
• Cleaner code organization

Architecture:

• email_utils.py - Pure Python functions (no Flask dependency)
• app.py - Thin Flask wrapper that calls email functions

This follows the "separation of concerns" principle, making the codebase more maintainable.

Problems Encountered & Solutions

Problem 1: Date Field Not Accepting Input

Issue: When using send_keys("06/23/2004") on the date field, only the year (2004) was being filled, showing as mm/dd/2004 instead of the complete date.

Root Cause: HTML <input type="date"> fields have strict format requirements. While manual typing of 06/23/2004 worked, Selenium's send_keys() wasn't properly triggering the field's internal parsing.

Solution: Used JavaScript to directly set the date value in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD):

# Instead of send_keys, use JavaScript
driver.execute_script("arguments[0].value = '2004-06-23';", date_field)

# Trigger validation events
driver.execute_script("arguments[0].dispatchEvent(new Event('input', { bubbles: true }));", date_field)
driver.execute_script("arguments[0].dispatchEvent(new Event('change', { bubbles: true }));", date_field)

Why this works:

• HTML date inputs internally store dates in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD)
• JavaScript sets the value directly, bypassing input parsing issues
• Triggering input and change events ensures Google Forms' validation runs correctly

Problem 2: Class Name Selector Not Working

Issue: Using By.CLASS_NAME with "whsOnd zHQkBf" (two classes) failed to find elements.

Root Cause: Selenium's CLASS_NAME selector only accepts a single class name, not multiple classes separated by spaces.

Attempted Solutions:

1. ❌ By.CLASS_NAME, "whsOnd zHQkBf" - Failed (space means two classes)
2. ✓ By.CLASS_NAME, "Xb9hP" - Worked (found container divs)
3. ✓ Alternative: By.CSS_SELECTOR, ".whsOnd.zHQkBf" - Would also work (dot notation for multiple classes)

Final Approach: Found container divs (Xb9hP), then extracted input elements from within them. This proved more reliable than targeting the inputs directly.

Problem 3: Screenshot Timing Issues

Issue: Screenshots were either blank or showing the form page instead of the confirmation page.

Root Cause: Taking the screenshot immediately after clicking submit didn't give the confirmation page time to load.

Solution: Implemented explicit wait for a confirmation element:

# Wait for confirmation text to appear
WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(
    EC.presence_of_element_located(
        (By.XPATH, "//div[contains(text(), 'recorded')]")
    )
)

# Additional buffer for rendering
time.sleep(2)

# Now take screenshot
driver.save_screenshot("screenshots/confirmation.png")

Key Learning: Always wait for specific elements rather than arbitrary time delays. This makes the code more reliable across different network speeds.

Problem 4: Address Field Different Structure

Issue: The address field wasn't being caught by the input field extraction logic.

Root Cause: The address field is a <textarea> element, not an <input> element.

Solution: Handled it separately using its unique class:

# Handle textarea separately
address_field = driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "textarea.KHxj8b.tL9Q4c")
address_field.send_keys("123 Main St, City")

Lesson: Always inspect the actual HTML structure rather than assuming all form fields use the same element type.

Key Technical Decisions

1. Separation of Concerns

Split email logic (email_utils.py) from Flask routes (app.py) for testability and reusability.

2. Explicit Waits Over Implicit Waits

Used WebDriverWait with specific conditions rather than blanket time.sleep() calls for more reliable automation.

3. JavaScript Execution for Edge Cases

When standard Selenium methods failed (date field), fell back to JavaScript execution for direct DOM manipulation.

4. Environment Variables for Secrets

Used .env file and python-dotenv to keep credentials out of source code.

Testing Recommendations

1. Test email locally first: Change recipients to your own email before sending to actual addresses
2. Verify screenshot: Check that screenshots/confirmation.png shows the confirmation message
3. Check attachments: Ensure resume and screenshot are both attached to the email

Common Issues & Troubleshooting

"SMTP Authentication Error"

• Verify you're using an App Password, not your regular Gmail password
• Check that 2FA is enabled on your Google account
• Ensure credentials in .env are correct

"Element not found" errors

• Form structure may have changed
• Check class names are still correct
• Increase wait timeouts if network is slow

Date field shows "Invalid date"

• Verify date format is YYYY-MM-DD in the JavaScript execution
• Check that the date is valid (not Feb 30, etc.)

License

MIT

Author

Daniel Popoola

---

Note: This project was created as part of a technical assignment to demonstrate web automation and email integration skills.