The Headless Chrom[e|ium] driver for Node.js.
browserless is a headless Chrome/Chromium driver built on top of puppeteer, created to handle resources efficiently and satisfy the most desired production scenarios.
Highlights
- Puppeteer-like API for common tasks (text, screenshot, html, pdf).
- Automatic 3rd party requests cancellation via adblocker.
- Simple Google Lighthouse integration.
- Configurable pooling support.
Installation
You can install it via npm:
$ npm install browserless puppeteer --save
browserless has a puppeteer-like API and it uses puppeteer under the hood.
You can use it with puppeteer
, puppeteer-core
or puppeteer-firefox
, interchangeably.
Usage
browserless has the same API is than puppeteer:
const browserless = require('browserless')()
const termImg = require('term-img')
async function main () {
const buffer = await browserless.screenshot('http://example.com', {
device: 'iPhone 6'
})
console.log(termImg(buffer))
}
If you're already using puppeteer, you can upgrade to use browserless instead almost with no effort.
Additionally, you can use some specific packages in your codebase, interacting with them from puppeteer.
Basic
All methods follow the same interface:
<url>
: The target URL. It's required.[options]
: Specific settings for the method. It's optional.
The methods returns a Promise or a Node.js callback if pass an additional function as the last parameter.
.constructor(options)
It creates the browser
instance, using puppeter.launch method.
// Creating a simple instance
const browserless = require('browserless')()
or passing specific launchers options:
// Creating an instance for running it at AWS Lambda
const browserless = require('browserless')({
ignoreHTTPSErrors: true,
args: ['--disable-gpu', '--single-process', '--no-zygote', '--no-sandbox', '--hide-scrollbars']
})
options
Additionally, you can setup:
defaultDevice
type: string
default: 'Macbook Pro 13'
Sets a consistent device viewport for each page.
lossyDeviceName
type: boolean
default: false
It enables lossy detection over the device descriptor input.
const browserless = require('browserless')({ lossyDeviceName: true })
browserless.getDevice({ device: 'macbook pro 13' })
browserless.getDevice({ device: 'MACBOOK PRO 13' })
browserless.getDevice({ device: 'macbook pro' })
browserless.getDevice({ device: 'macboo pro' })
This setting is oriented for find the device even if the descriptor device name is not exactly the same.
timeout
type: number
default: 30000
This setting will change the default maximum navigation time.
retries
type: number
default: 3
The number of retries that can be performed before considering a navigation as failed.
proxy
type: string
default: undefined
It will setup a proxy to be used to communicate between the browser and the target URL.
puppeteer
type: Puppeteer
default: puppeteer
|puppeteer-core
|puppeteer-firefox
It's automatically detected based on your dependencies
being supported puppeteer, puppeteer-core or puppeteer-firefox.
Alternatively, you can pass it.
incognito
type: boolean
default: false
Every time a new page is created, it will be an incognito page.
An incognito page will not share cookies/cache with other browser pages.
.html(url, options)
It serializes the content from the target url
into HTML.
const browserless = require('browserless')
;(async () => {
const url = 'https://example.com'
const html = await browserless.html(url)
console.log(html)
})()
options
See browserless.goto to know all the options and values supported.
.text(url, options)
It serializes the content from the target url
into plain text.
const browserless = require('browserless')
;(async () => {
const url = 'https://example.com'
const text = await browserless.text(url)
console.log(text)
})()
options
See browserless.goto to know all the options and values supported.
.pdf(url, options)
It generates the PDF version of a website behind an url
.
const browserless = require('browserless')
;(async () => {
const url = 'https://example.com'
const buffer = await browserless.pdf(url)
console.log('PDF generated!')
})()
options
This method use the following options by default:
{
margin: '0.35cm',
printBackground: true,
scale: 0.65
}
See browserless.goto to know all the options and values supported.
Also, any page.pdf option is supported.
Additionally, you can setup:
margin
type: string
| string[]
default: '0.35cm'
It sets paper margins. All possible units are:
px
for pixel.in
for inches.cm
for centimeters.mm
for millimeters.
You can pass an object
object specifing each corner side of the paper:
;(async () => {
const buffer = await browserless.pdf(url.toString(), {
margin: {
top: '0.35cm',
bottom: '0.35cm',
left: '0.35cm',
right: '0.35cm'
}
})
})()
Or, in case you pass an string
, it will be used for all the sides:
;(async () => {
const buffer = await browserless.pdf(url.toString(), {
margin: '0.35cm'
})
})()
.screenshot(url, options)
It takes a screenshot from the target url
.
const browserless = require('browserless')
;(async () => {
const url = 'https://example.com'
const buffer = await browserless.screenshot(url)
console.log('Screenshot taken!')
})()
options
This method use the following options by default:
{
device: 'macbook pro 13'
}
See browserless.goto to know all the options and values supported.
Also, any page.screenshot option is supported.
Additionally, you can setup:
codeScheme
type: string
default: 'atom-dark'
When this value is present and the response 'Content-Type'
header is 'json'
, it beautifies HTML markup using Prism.
The syntax highlight theme can be customized, being possible to setup:
- A prism-themes identifier (e.g.,
'dracula'
). - A remote URL (e.g.,
'https://unpkg.com/prism-theme-night-owl'
).
element
type: string
Capture the DOM element matching the given CSS selector. It will wait for the element to appear in the page and to be visible.
overlay
type: object
After the screenshot has been taken, this option allows you to place the screenshot into a fancy overlay
You can configure the overlay specifying:
- browser: It sets the browser image overlay to use, being
light
anddark
supported values. - background: It sets the background to use, being supported to pass:
- An hexadecimal/rgb/rgba color code, eg.
#c1c1c1
. - A CSS gradient, eg.
linear-gradient(225deg, #FF057C 0%, #8D0B93 50%, #321575 100%)
- An image url, eg.
https://source.unsplash.com/random/1920x1080
.
- An hexadecimal/rgb/rgba color code, eg.
;(async () => {
const buffer = await browserless.screenshot(url.toString(), {
hide: ['.crisp-client', '#cookies-policy'],
overlay: {
browser: 'dark',
background:
'linear-gradient(45deg, rgba(255,18,223,1) 0%, rgba(69,59,128,1) 66%, rgba(69,59,128,1) 100%)'
}
})
})()
.devices
It has all the devices presets available, being possible to load viewport and user agents settings based on a device descriptor.
These devices are used for emulation purposes. It extends from puppeteer.devices.
.getDevice({ device, viewport, headers })
Get a specific device descriptor settings by descriptor name.
It doesn't matter if device name is lower/upper case.
const browserless = require('browserless')
browserless.getDevice({ device: 'Macbook Pro 15' })
// {
// userAgent: 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_12_6) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/62.0.3202.89 Safari/537.36',
// viewport: {
// width: 1440,
// height: 900,
// deviceScaleFactor: 2,
// isMobile: false,
// hasTouch: false,
// isLandscape: false
// }
// }
Advanced
The following methods are exposed to be used in scenarios where you need more granularity control and less magic.
.browser
It returns the internal browser instance used as singleton.
const browserless = require('browserless')
;(async () => {
const browserInstance = await browserless.browser
})()
.evaluate(fn, gotoOpts)
It exposes an interface for creating your own evaluate function, passing you the page
and response
.
The fn
will receive page
and response
as arguments:
const browserless = require('browserless')()
const getUrlInfo = browserless.evaluate((page, response) => ({
statusCode: response.status(),
url: response.url(),
redirectUrls: response.request().redirectChain()
}))
;(async () => {
const url = 'https://example.com'
const info = await getUrlInfo(url)
console.log(info)
// {
// "statusCode": 200,
// "url": "https://example.com/",
// "redirectUrls": []
// }
})()
Note you don't need to close the page; It will be done under the hood.
Internally, the method performs a browserless.goto, being possible to pass extra arguments as second parameter:
const browserless = require('browserless')()
const getText = browserless.evaluate(page => page.evaluate(() => document.body.innerText), {
waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded'
})
;(async () => {
const url = 'https://example.com'
const text = await getText(url)
console.log(text)
})()
.goto(page, options)
It performs a smart page.goto, using a builtin adblocker by Cliqz.
const browserless = require('browserless')
;(async () => {
const page = await browserless.page()
const { response, device } = await browserless.goto(page, { url: 'http://example.com' })
})()
options
Any option passed here will bypass to page.goto.
Additionally, you can setup:
adblock
type: boolean
default: true
It will be abort requests detected as ads.
animations
type: boolean
default: false
Disable CSS animations and transitions, also it sets prefers-reduced-motion consequently.
click
type: string
| string[]
Click the DOM element matching the given CSS selector.
device
type: string
default: 'macbook pro 13'
It specifies the device descriptor to use in order to retrieve userAgent
and viewport
.
evasions
type: string[]
default: require('@browserless/goto').evasions
It makes your Headless undetectable, preventing to being blocked.
These techniques are used by antibot systems to check if you are a real browser and block any kind of automated access
Evasions techniques implemented are:
Evasion | Description |
---|---|
chromeRuntime | It creates the window.chrome object associated to any Chrome browser |
consoleDebug | Ensure console.debug exists. |
errorStackTrace | Prevent detect Puppeteer via variable name. |
mediaCodecs | Ensure media codedcs are defined. |
navigatorPermissions | Mock over Notification.permissions . |
navigatorPlugins | Ensure your browser has NavigatorPlugins defined. |
navigatorWebdriver | Ensure Navigator.webdriver exists. |
randomizeUserAgent | Use a different User-Agent every time. |
webglVendor | Ensure WebGLRenderingContext & WebGL2RenderingContext returns browser-like information. |
All the evasions techinques are enabled by default.
const evasions = require('@browserless/goto').evasions.filter(
evasion => evasion !== 'randomizeUserAgent'
)
const browserless = require('browserless')({ evasions })
headers
type: object
An object containing additional HTTP headers to be sent with every request.
const browserless = require('browserless')
;(async () => {
const page = await browserless.page()
await browserless.goto(page, {
url: 'http://example.com',
headers: {
'user-agent': 'googlebot',
cookie: 'foo=bar; hello=world'
}
})
})()
hide
type: string
| string[]
Hide DOM elements matching the given CSS selectors.
;(async () => {
const buffer = await browserless.screenshot(url.toString(), {
hide: ['.crisp-client', '#cookies-policy']
})
})()
This sets visibility: hidden
on the matched elements.
html
type: string
In case you provide HTML markup, a page.setContent avoiding fetch the content from the target URL.
javascript
type: boolean
default: true
When it's false
, it disables JavaScript on the current page.
mediaType
type: string
default: 'screen'
Changes the CSS media type of the page using page.emulateMediaType.
modules
type: string
| string[]
Injects <script type="module"> into the browser page.
It can accept:
- Absolute URLs (e.g.,
'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@microlink/[email protected]/src/browser.js'
). - Local file (e.g., `'local-file.js').
- Inline code (e.g.,
"document.body.style.backgroundColor = 'red'"
).
;(async () => {
const buffer = await browserless.screenshot(url.toString(), {
modules: [
'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@microlink/[email protected]/src/browser.js',
'local-file.js',
"document.body.style.backgroundColor = 'red'"
]
})
})()
remove
type: string
| string[]
Remove DOM elements matching the given CSS selectors.
;(async () => {
const buffer = await browserless.screenshot(url.toString(), {
remove: ['.crisp-client', '#cookies-policy']
})
})()
This sets display: none
on the matched elements, so it could potentially break the website layout.
colorScheme
type: string
default: 'no-preference'
Sets prefers-color-scheme CSS media feature, used to detect if the user has requested the system use a 'light'
or 'dark'
color theme.
scripts
type: string
| string[]
Injects <script> into the browser page.
It can accept:
- Absolute URLs (e.g.,
'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@microlink/[email protected]/src/browser.js'
). - Local file (e.g., `'local-file.js').
- Inline code (e.g.,
"document.body.style.backgroundColor = 'red'"
).
;(async () => {
const buffer = await browserless.screenshot(url.toString(), {
scripts: [
'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/jquery.min.js',
'local-file.js',
"document.body.style.backgroundColor = 'red'"
]
})
})()
Prefer to use modules whenever possible.
scroll
type: string
| object
Scroll to the DOM element matching the given CSS selector.
styles
type: string
| string[]
Injects <style> into the browser page.
It can accept:
- Absolute URLs (e.g.,
'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/dark.css'
). - Local file (e.g., `'local-file.css').
- Inline code (e.g.,
"body { background: red; }"
).
;(async () => {
const buffer = await browserless.screenshot(url.toString(), {
styles: [
'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/dark.css',
'local-file.css',
'body { background: red; }'
]
})
})()
timezone
type: string
It changes the timezone of the page.
url
type: string
The target URL.
viewport
It will setup a custom viewport, using page.setViewport method.
waitFor
type:string|function|number
default: 0
Wait a quantity of time, selector or function using page.waitFor.
waitUntil
type: string
| string[]
default: 'auto'
values: 'auto'
| 'load'
| 'domcontentloaded'
| 'networkidle0'
| 'networkidle2'
When to consider navigation succeeded.
If you provide an array of event strings, navigation is considered to be successful after all events have been fired.
Events can be either:
'auto'
: A combination of'load'
and'networkidle2'
in a smart way to wait the minimum time necessary.'load'
: Consider navigation to be finished when the load event is fired.'domcontentloaded'
: Consider navigation to be finished when the DOMContentLoaded event is fired.'networkidle0'
: Consider navigation to be finished when there are no more than 0 network connections for at least 500 ms.'networkidle2'
: Consider navigation to be finished when there are no more than 2 network connections for at least 500 ms.
.page()
It returns a standalone browser new page.
const browserless = require('browserless')
;(async () => {
const page = await browserless.page()
})()
Command Line Interface
You can perform any browserless from CLI installing @browserless/cli
globally:
Additionally, can do it under demand using npx
:
npx @browserless/cli --help
That's useful when you want to do under CI/CD scenarios.
Pool of Instances
browserless uses internally a singleton browser instance.
If you want to keep multiple browsers open, you can use @browserless/pool
package.
const createBrowserless = require('@browserless/pool')
const onExit = require('signal-exit')
const browserlessPool = createBrowserless({
max: 2, // max browsers to keep open
timeout: 30000 // max time a browser is consiedered fresh
})
// pool shutdown gracefully on process exit.
onExit(() => browserlessPool.drain().then(() => browserlessPool.clear()))
You can still pass specific puppeteer options as second argument:
const createBrowserless = require('@browserless/pool')
const browserlessPool = createBrowserless(
{
max: 2, // max browsers to keep open
timeout: 30000 // max time a browser is consiedered fresh
},
{
ignoreHTTPSErrors: true,
args: ['--disable-gpu', '--single-process', '--no-zygote', '--no-sandbox', '--hide-scrollbars']
}
)
After that, the API is the same than browserless:
browserlessPool.screenshot('http://example.com', { device: 'iPhone 6' }).then(buffer => {
console.log('your screenshot is here!')
})
Every time you call the pool, it handles acquire and release a new browser instance from the pool ✨.
Lighthouse
browserless has a Lighthouse integration that uses Puppeteer under the hood.
const lighthouse = require('@browserless/lighthouse')
lighthouse('https://browserless.js.org').then(report => {
console.log(JSON.stringify(report, null, 2))
})
.lighthouse(url, options)
It generates a report from the target url
, extending from lighthouse:default
settings, being these settings the same than Google Chrome Audits reports on Developer Tools.
options
The following options are used by default:
{
logLevel: 'error',
output: 'json',
device: 'desktop',
onlyCategories: ['perfomance', 'best-practices', 'accessibility', 'seo']
}
See Lighthouse configuration to know all the options and values supported.
Additionally, you can setup:
getBrowserless
type: function
default: requireOneOf(['browserless'])
The browserless instance to use for getting the browser.
logLevel
type: string
default: 'error'
values: 'silent'
| 'error'
| 'info'
| 'verbose'
The level of logging to enable.
output
type: string
| string[]
default: 'json'
values: 'json'
| 'csv'
| 'html'
The type(s) of report output to be produced.
device
type: string
default: 'desktop'
values: 'desktop'
| 'mobile'
| 'none'
How emulation (useragent, device screen metrics, touch) should be applied. 'none'
indicates Lighthouse should leave the host browser as-is.
onlyCategories
type: string[]
| null
default: ['performance', 'best-practices', 'accessibility', 'seo']
values: 'performance'
| 'best-practices'
| 'accessibility'
| 'pwa'
| 'seo'
Includes only the specified categories in the final report.
Packages
browserless is internally divided into multiple packages for ensuring just use the mininum quantity of code necessary for your user case.
Benchmark
For testing different approaches, we included a tiny benchmark tool called @browserless/benchmark
.
FAQ
Q: Why use browserless
over puppeteer
?
browserless not replace puppeteer, it complements. It's just a syntactic sugar layer over official Headless Chrome oriented for production scenarios.
Q: Why do you block ads scripts by default?
Headless navigation is expensive compared with just fetch the content from a website.
In order to speed up the process, we block ads scripts by default because they are so bloat.
Q: My output is different from the expected
Probably browserless was too smart and it blocked a request that you need.
You can active debug mode using DEBUG=browserless
environment variable in order to see what is happening behind the code:
DEBUG=browserless node index.js
Consider open an issue with the debug trace.
Q: I want to use browserless
with my AWS Lambda like project
Yes, check chrome-aws-lambda to setup AWS Lambda with a binary compatible.
License
browserless © Microlink, Released under the MIT License.
Authored and maintained by Kiko Beats with help from contributors.
The logo has been designed by xinh studio.
microlink.io · GitHub @MicrolinkHQ · Twitter @microlinkhq