java - How to read text from hidden element with Selenium WebDriver?

Question

I'm trying to read the example String 1000 out of a hidden <div> like this:

<div id="hidden_div" style="visibility:hidden">1000</div>

I am aware that WebElement.getText() does not work on hidden elements in Selenium 2 (WebDriver), so I searched for solutions (like this one) and apparently the following code should work:

WebElement hiddenDiv = seleniumDriver.findElement(By.id("hidden_div"));
String n = hiddenDiv.getText(); // does not work (returns "" as expected)
String script = "return arguments[0].innerText";
n = (String) ((JavascriptExecutor) driver).executeScript(script, hiddenDiv);

But it doesn't work for me, the variable n always ends up as null. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Might be useful as well:

In some cases, one may find it useful to get the hidden text, which can be retrieved from element's textContent, innerText or innerHTML attribute, by calling element.attribute('attributeName').

element.getAttribute("textContent") worked for me.

See more details there -> http://yizeng.me/2014/04/08/get-text-from-hidden-elements-using-selenium-webdriver/