NoSuchElementExcpetion thrown even when I catch it?

Question

I'm not clear why I still get a NoSuchElementException thrown in this Webdriver test?

Can anyone debug or suggest a more efficient/robyst solution?

NB - I get the same error if I try a driver.findElements( By.id("...") ).size() != 0

    boolean present;
    try{
        driver.findElement(By.cssSelector(".message-bg-color>table>tbody>tr>td>h3"));
        present = true;
    }catch (NoSuchElementException e){
        present = false;
    }

    if(!present) {

       // do some stuff
    }
     else 
    { 
       //do some otherstuff
    }

Stack Trace:

org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException: Unable to locate element: {"method":"css selector","selector":".message-bg-color>table>tbody>tr>td>h3"}
Command duration or timeout: 1.17 seconds
For documentation on this error, please visit: http://seleniumhq.org/exceptions/no_such_element.html
Build info: version: '2.41.0', revision: '3192d8a6c4449dc285928ba024779344f5423c58', time: '2014-03-27 11:29:39'
System info: host: 'L-IS08381', ip: '172.19.248.194', os.name: 'Windows 7', os.arch: 'x86', os.version: '6.1', java.version: '1.7.0_51'
Session ID: 203c9fbc-3b59-4c6e-9f6b-03738b1c1c8f
Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver
Capabilities [{platform=XP, acceptSslCerts=true, javascriptEnabled=true, cssSelectorsEnabled=true, databaseEnabled=true, browserName=firefox, handlesAlerts=true, browserConnectionEnabled=true, webStorageEnabled=true, nativeEvents=true, rotatable=false, locationContextEnabled=true, applicationCacheEnabled=true, takesScreenshot=true, version=28.0}]
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:526)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler.createThrowable(ErrorHandler.java:193)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler.throwIfResponseFailed(ErrorHandler.java:145)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:595)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.findElement(RemoteWebDriver.java:348)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.findElementByCssSelector(RemoteWebDriver.java:437)
    at org.openqa.selenium.By$ByCssSelector.findElement(By.java:425)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.findElement(RemoteWebDriver.java:340)
    at cms.workflow.DeleteArticleSysadminTest.deleteTestArtifactTest(DeleteArticleSysadminTest.java:109)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.java:47)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:12)
    at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java:44)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.InvokeMethod.evaluate(InvokeMethod.java:17)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunBefores.evaluate(RunBefores.java:26)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunAfters.evaluate(RunAfters.java:27)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runLeaf(ParentRunner.java:271)
    at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:70)
    at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:50)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:238)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:63)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:236)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:53)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:229)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:309)
    at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.run(JUnitCore.java:160)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.JUnitStarter.main(JUnitStarter.java:65)
Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler$UnknownServerException: Unable to locate element: {"method":"css selector","selector":".message-bg-color>table>tbody>tr>td>h3"}
Build info: version: '2.41.0', revision: '3192d8a6c4449dc285928ba024779344f5423c58', time: '2014-03-27 11:29:39'
System info: host: 'L-IS08381', ip: '172.19.248.194', os.name: 'Windows 7', os.arch: 'x86', os.version: '6.1', java.version: '1.7.0_51'

Answer 1

Check if your code's NoSuchElementException is of type org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException.

It is very likely that you might have used java.util.NoSuchElementException instead.

You could try adding import org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException on top of your source code.