Check if an element exists with Selenium, JavaScript, and Node.js

Just use the isElementPresent(locatorOrElement) method. Here's a link to the code:

http://selenium.googlecode.com/git/docs/api/javascript/source/lib/webdriver/webdriver.js.src.html#l777

Aaron Silverman's answer did not work as expected (err.state was undefined and a NoSuchElementError was always thrown)—though the concept of using the optional callbacks still works.

Since I was getting the same error as the OP is referencing, I believe NoSuchElementError should be referenced when determining if the targeted element exists or not. As its name implies, it is the error that is thrown when an element does not exist. So the condition in the errorCallback should be:

err instanceof webdriver.error.NoSuchElementError

So the complete code block would be as follows (I also am using async/await for those taking advantage of that syntax):

var existed = await driver.findElement(webdriver.By.id('test')).then(function() {
    return true; // It existed
}, function(err) {
    if (err instanceof webdriver.error.NoSuchElementError) {
        return false; // It was not found
    } else {
        webdriver.promise.rejected(err);
    }
});
// Handle value of existed appropriately here

Aaron Silverman's answer did not work for me fully, though some parts of it were helpful. Arthur Weborg's answer worked for me, though some parts caused issues.

My typical use case for "checking if element exists" is when I want to click the element, only if it exists, since if it doesn't exist, it crashes the program due to the error. All I want is for the application to note that it doesn't exist, and move on. So what I do is:

await driver.findElement(By.id("test")).then(found => {
  driver.findElement(By.id("test")).click()
}, error => {
  if (error instanceof webdriver.error.NoSuchElementError) {
    console.log('Element not found.');
  }
});

Just a simple console log, and it moves on with the rest of the program like I wanted.

Here the summary for newbies like me ;-)

As described here:

For consistency with the other Selenium language bindings, WebDriver#isElementPresent() and WebElement#isElementPresent() have been deprecated. These methods will be removed in v3.0. Use the findElements command to test for the presence of an element:

  driver.findElements(By.css('.foo')).then(found => !!found.length);

There are 2 possible cases for this answer:

1. Case 1: Using promises
2. Case 2: Using async / await

Case 1 using promises, then() and the error callback is already well explained in the accepted answer.

In Case 2, if you're in an async function (and therefore likely to be using await statements), then you have the pleasure of avoiding all the nasty chaining of then()'s and callbacks. 🎉

In this scenario, you can simply check if an element exists with code like this:

const check = async (webdriver) => {
  let elementExists;

  // Solution HERE:
  try {
    await webdriver.findElement(webdriver.By.id('test'));
    elementExists = true;
  } catch (error) { // error thrown is: "NoSuchElementError: no such element"
    elementExists = false;
  }

  if (elementExists) {
    // Element exists behaviour...
  } else {
    // Element doesn't exist behaviour...
  }
};

You want to check whether an element exists before you want to find an element in the UI. You can wait until the element gets located in the UI, and then you can perform the find element operation.

Example: Below code waits until the element located, and then it will perform the find element.

driver.wait(webdriver.until.elementLocated(webdriver.By.id(LocatorValue)), 20000)
.then(() => {
    return driver.findElement(webdriver.By.id('test'));
}).then((element) => {
    // Perform any operation what you to do.
    return element.click();
}).catch(() => {
    console.log('Element not found');
})

This is the code that worked for me.

var assert = require('assert');
var expect = require('chai').expect;
var should = require('chai').should();
var chai = require('chai');
var chaiAsPromised = require('chai-as-promised');

chai.use(chaiAsPromised);
chai.should();

var webdriver = require('selenium-webdriver');
By = webdriver.By;
until = webdriver.until;

describe('checking if an element id exists', function() {

  it.only('element id exists', function () {
    var driver = new webdriver.Builder().forBrowser('chrome').build();
    driver.get('http://localhost:3000');
    this.timeout(6000);

    return driver.wait(until.elementLocated(By.id('idWeWantToTest')), 5 * 1000).then((e) => {
    }, function(err) {
      throw {
        msg: "element not found"
      }
    }).then(() => {
      driver.quit();
    });
  });
})