What is puppeteer-core?
The puppeteer-core package is a version of Puppeteer, a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium over the DevTools Protocol. It is intended to be a lightweight version that can be used when you want to bring your own browser. It does not download any browsers by default, unlike the full puppeteer package.
What are puppeteer-core's main functionalities?
Page Automation
Automate and control a web page, including navigation, screenshot taking, and DOM manipulation.
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-core');
(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.launch({executablePath: '/path/to/your/Chrome'});
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com');
await page.screenshot({path: 'example.png'});
await browser.close();
})();
Form Submission
Automate form submissions by typing into fields and clicking buttons.
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-core');
(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.launch({executablePath: '/path/to/your/Chrome'});
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com/login');
await page.type('#username', 'myUsername');
await page.type('#password', 'myPassword');
await page.click('#submit');
await page.waitForNavigation();
await browser.close();
})();
Web Scraping
Extract data from web pages by running JavaScript in the context of the page.
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-core');
(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.launch({executablePath: '/path/to/your/Chrome'});
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com');
const data = await page.evaluate(() => {
return document.querySelector('h1').textContent;
});
console.log(data);
await browser.close();
})();
PDF Generation
Generate PDFs of web pages for offline viewing or archiving.
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-core');
(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.launch({executablePath: '/path/to/your/Chrome'});
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com', {waitUntil: 'networkidle0'});
await page.pdf({path: 'example.pdf', format: 'A4'});
await browser.close();
})();
Automated Testing
Perform automated testing on web applications, including end-to-end tests, performance testing, and more.
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-core');
(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.launch({executablePath: '/path/to/your/Chrome', headless: false});
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com');
// Perform various tests, like checking if a button exists
const buttonExists = await page.$('button') !== null;
console.assert(buttonExists, 'Button should exist on the page');
await browser.close();
})();
Other packages similar to puppeteer-core
playwright
Playwright is a Node library to automate the Chromium, WebKit, and Firefox browsers with a single API. It is similar to puppeteer-core but provides support for multiple browsers out of the box. It also offers additional features like network interception and emulation capabilities.
selenium-webdriver
Selenium WebDriver is one of the most well-known tools for automated web testing. It supports multiple browsers and languages, making it a versatile choice for web automation. Compared to puppeteer-core, Selenium is more mature and has a larger community but can be slower and more complex to set up.
nightmare
Nightmare is a high-level browser automation library. It is built on top of Electron, which is a framework for creating native applications with web technologies. Nightmare is designed to be simpler and more approachable than Puppeteer, but it is less powerful and only works with Electron's version of Chromium.
cypress
Cypress is a front-end testing tool built for the modern web. It is both a library for writing automated tests and a test runner that can execute them. Cypress is more focused on testing than general browser automation and provides a rich interactive interface for developing tests.
Puppeteer
![npm puppeteer package](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/puppeteer.svg)
Puppeteer is a Node.js library which provides a high-level API to control
Chrome or Firefox over the
DevTools Protocol or WebDriver BiDi.
Puppeteer runs in the headless (no visible UI) by default
but can be configured to run in a visible ("headful") browser.
Installation
npm i puppeteer
npm i puppeteer-core
Example
import puppeteer from 'puppeteer';
const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://developer.chrome.com/');
await page.setViewport({width: 1080, height: 1024});
await page.locator('.devsite-search-field').fill('automate beyond recorder');
await page.locator('.devsite-result-item-link').click();
const textSelector = await page
.locator('text/Customize and automate')
.waitHandle();
const fullTitle = await textSelector?.evaluate(el => el.textContent);
console.log('The title of this blog post is "%s".', fullTitle);
await browser.close();