Selenium Driver / Java - Upload File Without <input type="file">

I am aware of this way to upload a file using Selenium

  WebElement UploadImg = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id='file_upload_button']"));
  UploadImg.sendKeys("d:.jpg");

However, it requires the file upload button to be a in the <input type="file" id="file_upload_button"> form.

I can click an upload button and see the windows file prompt window. After selecting file and clicking "Open", it works.

It only seems to work this way. I need to be able to select the file here. I have tried all the keystroke combinations. But, nothing seems to let me edit the file name at the top of the windows file prompt window?

What are the solutions to this? Some great examples with Java would be greatly appreciated.

I have managed to solve this using AutoIt Windows Automation.

We can use Java and Selenium Web Driver to click an upload button on a website.

Then we can call a .exe file written in AutoIt. Inside our Java app. To do the necessary operations in the window that appears. Operations outside the scope of Selenium Web Driver.

I learned the fundamentals of AutoIt with this YouTube video

I made some edits to what I was taught. To fit my needs. In our Java app, we can write our file path we want to upload into a .txt file. This file is then referenced by the AutoIt .exe file in runtime. This way we're not having to hard code our file path into the .exe file. It means we can change it in runtime.

AutoIt Code

This code reads the path of the file we want to upload from a .txt file.

Then it focuses on the file path text box in the windows popup window. It pastes this file path string inside it.

Then it clicks the "Open" button.

#include <File.au3>


# File path of .txt with file name inside
Global $sFileName = @ScriptDir & "\info.txt"

# Get file name from .txt file
Global $sFileRead = FileRead($sFileName)

# Focus in on file path text box in pop up window
ControlFocus("Open","","Edit1")

# Small delay
Sleep(1000)

# Enter file name into text box in popup window
ControlSetText("Open","", "Edit1", string($sFileRead))

# Small delay
Sleep(1000)

# Click the upload button
ControlClick("Open", "", "Button1")

Java Code

This code writes the file we want to upload to a .txt file.

Then it clicks the upload button inside the web browser.

Then it calls our AutoIt .exe file to run our script. To do the operations Selenium Web Driver can't do.

This results in the right file being successfully chosen and uploaded.

// Get file with PrintWriter
PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter("E:/Google Drive/Data - Cloud/Programming/AutoIt/info.txt", "UTF-8");

// Add our file path to the text file
writer.print("C:\\Users\\jacktrow\\Pictures\2.jpg");

// Close PrintWriter
writer.close();

// Click upload button on target site
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@data-trigger='anywhere-upload-input']")).click();

// Run AutoIt .exe script that uses file path we saved in .txt file
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("E:/Google Drive/Data - Cloud/Programming/AutoIt/test.exe");