Selenium won't open a new URL in a new tab (Python & Chrome)

I want to open quite a few URLs in different tabs using Selenium WebDriver & Python.

I am not sure what is going wrong:

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get(url1)
time.sleep(5)
driver.find_element_by_tag_name('body').send_keys(Keys.CONTROL+'t')
url2 = 'https://www.google.com'
driver.get(item2)

I looked up tutorials and it seems to me as though this code should do what I want. What actually happens is the browser opens, url1 opens as it should, a new tab opens as it should but url2 then loads in the original tab instead of the new one (even though the new tab appears to be the active one).

(I am using Chrome because when using Firefox I can't get it to load any URLs at all. Firefox opens but does not get the url requested. I have tried to find a solution to this but to no avail.)

Is there anything I can change in my code to get the new URL to open in the new tab?

Thanks for your help!

Here is a simple way, platform independent:

Code:

driver.execute_script("window.open('http://google.com', 'new_window')")

Switching back to the original tab:

Code:

driver.switch_to_window(driver.window_handles[0])

Checking the current title to be sure you are on the right page:

Code:

driver.title

For everything else, have fun!

There is a bug in ChromeDriver that prevents ctrl/command+T from working:

• I can´t open new tab in ChromeDriver

What you can do, as a workaround, is to open a link in a new tab and then switch to a new window using the switch_to.window(). Working sample:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver import ActionChains
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("https://www.google.com")

# open a link in a new window
actions = ActionChains(driver)
about = driver.find_element_by_link_text('About')
actions.key_down(Keys.CONTROL).click(about).key_up(Keys.CONTROL).perform()

driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[-1])
driver.get("https://stackoverflow.com")

Now the last driver.get() would be performed in a newly opened tab.

An alternative way to open a new window is to use JavaScript and the window handler to switch between them.

driver = webdriver.Chrome()

# Open a new window
# This does not change focus to the new window for the driver.
driver.execute_script("window.open('');")

# Switch to the new window
driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[1])
driver.get("http://stackoverflow.com")

# close the active tab
driver.close()

# Switch back to the first tab
driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[0])
driver.get("http://google.se")

# Close the only tab, will also close the browser.
driver.close()

If you look at your browser while you're executing it will look like the new window has focus, but to the webdriver, it doesn't. Don't be fooled by the visual. Also remember to select a new window handler when you close a tab as it will set the driver.current_window_handle to

selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchWindowException: 
    Message: no such window: target window already closed from unknown error: web view not found
  (Session info: chrome=<Your version of chrome>)
  (Driver info: chromedriver=<Your chrome driver version> (<string of numbers>),platform=<Your OS>)

on .close() and it will throw that error if you try to do stuff with the driver at that stage.