Native clicks do not work properly in Internet Explorer

[lukeis]

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 4403

Sometimes click does not work in IE with enabled native events. Consider the following
code:

System.setProperty("webdriver.ie.driver", "<path_to_iedriverserver>");
DesiredCapabilities d = DesiredCapabilities.internetExplorer();
//d.setCapability("nativeEvents", false);
webdriver = new InternetExplorerDriver(d);
webdriver.get("http://google.co.uk");
webdriver.findElement(By.linkText("Images")).click();
webdriver.findElement(By.linkText("Search")).click();

This script usually clicks "Images" link successfully, but in some cases it fails to
click "Search" afterwards. It is not a synchronization issue, the same stuff happens
when there is a, say, Thread.sleep() between the clicks. Moreover, if script is stopped
at the breakpoint after this code and user tries to click links manually, it does not
work either, but URLs keep flashing in the IE status bar as if some click event was
not completely handled. When IEDriverServer.exe process is killed, this browser window
becomes responsive again. 

Interestingly, if d.setCapability("nativeEvents", false) is uncommented, everything
works as expected.

Selenium version: 2.25.0
OS: WinXP
Browser: IE 8, IEDriverServer 2.25.3 (x32), browser mode = IE8, document mode = IE8
Standards

Reported by nebehr.gudahtt on 2012-08-13 08:26:21

[lukeis]

Reported by barancev on 2012-08-14 10:50:52

• Labels added: Component-WebDriver, Browser-IE

[lukeis]

Wanted to say that this is also confirmed on the RemoteWebDriver, connecting to a node
running IEDriverServer 2.25.2 (and selenium server standalone 2.25).

The server node is running IE9 on Windows7.
It is actually the IE8 image downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11575
upgraded to IE9.

Also somewhat related, running with native events I get near 100% CPU utilization from
the IExplore process, and the tests almost choke.

Switching off "nativeEvents" on the capabilities resolves both issues (simulating click
and performance). Big thanks for the workaround from the issue opener.

Reported by amitayd on 2012-11-11 19:44:52

[lukeis]

I have native events working for iedriverserver 2.25.2, but broken for 2.26.2.0.
I am using IE9.

Reported by jan.c.kester on 2012-11-14 14:55:07

[lukeis]

Reported by barancev on 2012-11-14 15:22:03

[lukeis]

Same issues, exactly as described, for IE10 also.
IEDriverServer 2.33.0.0

Reported by mykey2005 on 2013-05-31 12:06:13

[lukeis]

I too face this issue. IE Webdriver is now able to switch to iframe but click actions
are not working properly , always seeing flickering between page navigations.

IEDriverVersion : 2.33.0
IE 9.0
WebDriver:2.25.0

Please find the steps to reproduce this issue:
1.Navigate to http://digitalmagazine.autosport.com/
2.Click on "pay with paypal" button. This will popup a iframe window.
3.Try to navigate to iframe (WebElement frame = Grid.driver().findElementByName("PPDGFrame");Grid.driver().switchTo().frame(frame);
4.Click on the submit button.

Actual result:
Click action not working properly. Works sometimes but not always.

Reported by manavalangopinath on 2013-06-28 09:58:40