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Solving the "Wordle" Game using Python and Selenium

Michael Mintz on January 20, 2022

If you're looking for a complete Python Selenium solution for solving the Wordle Game programmatically, here's one that uses the SeleniumBase frame...
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ifuchs

I have a question which is less about your script than it is about using pytest. I ran pytest -s wordle.py and it runs fine and prints the result to the console. However, I wanted to run the script while logged in via an ssh session and in that case Chrome opens on the Mac screen but does not then run the script. Is there a way to run this "remotely"?

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Michael Mintz

For running Selenium tests remotely, there is something called a "Selenium Grid". Some info on that here: github.com/seleniumbase/SeleniumBa...

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ifuchs • Edited

Selenium Grid is the right way to do remote execution but I found a less attractive way which is to start a terminal session with the screen command and detach the console. If I then ssh in and reattach the console, I am able to run the pytest and get the print output back.

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ifuchs

I meant to say that my question is probably more about selenium and how to run this script remotely.

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ifuchs

New problem. I have this working perfectly on an iMac (with Chrome) but after installing seleniumbase and pytest on my MBP (which is running the same MacOS and Version of Chrome), I am getting this error:

       raise exception(message)
E       selenium.common.exceptions.ElementNotVisibleException: Message:
E        Shadow DOM Element {game-app::shadow game-keyboard::shadow button[data-key="?"]} was not visible after 6 seconds!

/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/seleniumbase/fixtures/page_actions.py:163: ElementNotVisibleException

Any idea of what is causing this?

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Michael Mintz

The New York Times just acquired Wordle, and there were some strange things happening during the transition for a short time. If there are any issues remaining, I'll be posting an updated script soon.

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ifuchs

I will be very interested to see if the transition is the cause of this problem. Your script continues to work fine on the iMac but not on the MacBook Pro regardless of which browser is used.

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Michael Mintz

It could be related to the Python version. I see you are using 3.7. Try a newer one (3.8 or 3.9 or 3.10). I also updated the script to point directly to the newer NYT URL, and to get the words list must faster without any redirects.

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ifuchs

The current script on github no longer works on my iMac or MBP (under either python 3.7 or 3.9).

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Michael Mintz

What's the error message? I was able to run it now just fine.

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ifuchs

I stand corrected. The script works on my iMac under python 3.9 but no longer runs under 3.7. However, on the MBP I also have python 3.9 env activated (conda) but when I run pytest it still seems to be using python 3.7 (not sure how to change that) to see if the new script runs.

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Michael Mintz

You could try python3.9 -m pytest in order to force pytest to use a specific version of Python if that version is installed.

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ifuchs

On the MBP running with 3.7 the browser window comes up and the 1st word is entered and then it times out. WIth 3.9 the console log for the MBP is here: gist.github.com/ifuchs/e3ee59aec78...
Obviously there is something wrong with the environment on the MBP so it is not your code that is the problem.

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Michael Mintz

Looks to be a missing font issue:
'button[data-key="↵"]'
shows up as
'button[data-key="?"]'

If you change
button[data-key="↵"]
to
button.one-and-a-half
does it start working?

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ifuchs

YES! Not only did that fix it under 3.9, it now works properly under 3.7 as well (same as on the iMac). Thanks for your help. (So, how to fix the font "issue" on the MBP?)

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ifuchs

and what is button.one-and-a-half?

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Michael Mintz

Not sure about getting the missing fonts on your MBP's Python env, but I've already updated the script on the DEV post to use a selector without the special font, and I'll be shipping that change to the SeleniumBase repo on GitHub within the hour. Thanks for finding that font issue on some Python environments!

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Michael Mintz

button.one-and-a-half is another selector for the Enter button. It has that class name because the button is wider than other buttons on that keyboard.

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ifuchs

Thanks. I searched but did not find it in the seleniumbase docs.
Is there a way to run the pytest repetitively so that it shows each path to solution, waits a few seconds and does it again?

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Michael Mintz

One: That button.one-and-a-half selector is part of the Wordle website:

<button data-key="↵" class="one-and-a-half">enter</button>
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Two: Here's an example SeleniumBase test for repeating tests: test_repeat_tests.py

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Michael Mintz

All necessary updates to the SeleniumBase GitHub repo have been shipped.

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ifuchs

I tried installing pytest-repeat and running
pytest --count=5 wordle_test.py but that only ran it once.

I'll see if I can use your examples do cause it to repeat.

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Michael Mintz

pytest-repeat is an external plugin that won't work on tests that inherit unittest.TestCase.