Horseman is no longer supported
Sorry, but the maintainers just don't have the time anymore. You may want to check out puppeteer or nightmare.
Horseman lets you run PhantomJS from Node.
Horseman has:
- a simple chainable (Promise based) API,
- an easy-to-use control flow (see the examples),
- support for multiple tabs being open at the same time,
- built in jQuery for easier page manipulation,
- built in bluebird for easier in-browser async.
var Horseman = require('node-horseman');
var horseman = new Horseman();
horseman
.userAgent('Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:27.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/27.0')
.open('http://www.google.com')
.type('input[name="q"]', 'github')
.click('[name="btnK"]')
.keyboardEvent('keypress', 16777221)
.waitForSelector('div.g')
.count('div.g')
.log() // prints out the number of results
.close();
Save the file as google.js
. Then, node google.js
.
const Horseman = require('node-horseman');
const users = ['PhantomJS', 'nodejs'];
users.forEach((user) => {
const horseman = new Horseman();
horseman
.open(`http://twitter.com/${user}`)
.text('.ProfileNav-item--followers .ProfileNav-value')
.then((text) => {
console.log(`${user}: ${text}`);
})
.close();
});
Save the file as twitter.js
. Then, node twitter.js
.
npm install node-horseman
Note: Make sure PhantomJS is available in your path,
you have the phantomjs-prebuilt/phantomjs npm package installed,
or use the phantomPath
option.
Create a new instance that can navigate around the web.
The available options are:
timeout
: how long to wait for page loads or wait periods, default5000
ms.interval
: how frequently to poll for page load state, default50
ms.loadImages
: load all inlined images, defaulttrue
.switchToNewTab
: switch to new tab when created, defaultfalse
.diskCache
: enable disk cache, defaultfalse
.diskCachePath
: location for the disk cache. (requires PhantomJS 2.0.0 or above)cookiesFile
: A file where to store/use cookies.ignoreSSLErrors
: ignores SSL errors, such as expired or self-signed certificate errors.sslProtocol
: sets the SSL protocol for secure connections[sslv3|sslv2|tlsv1|any]
, defaultany
.webSecurity
: enables web security and forbids cross-domain XHR.injectJquery
: whether jQuery is automatically loaded into each page. Default istrue
. If jQuery is already present on the page, it is not injected.injectBluebird
: whether bluebird is automatically loaded into each page. Default isfalse
. Iftrue
andPromise
is already present on the page, it is not injected. If'bluebird'
it is always injected as Bluebird, whether Promise is present or not.bluebirdDebug
: whether or not to enable bluebird debug features. Default isfalse
. Iftrue
non-minified bluebird is injected and long stack traces are enabledproxy
: specify the proxy server to useaddress:port
, default not set.proxyType
: specify the proxy server type[http|socks5|none]
, default not set.proxyAuth
: specify the auth information for the proxyuser:pass
, default not set.phantomPath
: If PhantomJS is not installed in your path, you can use this option to specify the executable's location.phantomOptions
: Explicit PhantomJS options, e.g.{'ssl-certificates-path': 'ca.pem'}
. For a complete list refer to the PhantomJS command line interface. These options have precedence over options implicitly set by Horseman.debugPort
: Enable web inspector on specified port, default not set.debugAutorun
: Autorun on launch when in debug mode, default is true.
Dynamically set proxy settings (requires PhantomJS 2.0.0 or above).
The ip
argument can either be the IP of the proxy server,
or a URI of the form type://user:pass@ip:port
.
The port
is optional and defaults to 80
.
The type
is optional and defaults to 'http'
.
The user
and pass
are the optional username and password for authentication,
by default no authentication is used.
Be sure to .close()
each Horseman instance when you're done with it!
Closes the Horseman instance by shutting down PhantomJS.
Load the page at url
.
POST postData
to the page at url
.
PUT putData
to the page at url
.
Go back to the previous page.
Go forward to the next page.
The HTTP status code returned for the page just opened.
Refresh the current page.
Without any options, this function will return all the cookies inside the browser.
horseman
.open('http://httpbin.org/cookies')
.cookies()
.log() // []
.close();
You can pass in a cookie object to add to the cookie jar.
horseman
.cookies({
name: 'test',
value: 'cookie',
domain: 'httpbin.org'
})
.open('http://httpbin.org/cookies')
.cookies()
.then(function(cookies){
console.log(cookies);
return horseman.close();
});
/*
[ { domain: '.httpbin.org',
httponly: false,
name: 'test',
path: '/',
secure: false,
value: 'cookie' } ]
*/
You can pass in an array of cookie objects to reset all the cookies in the cookie jar (or pass an empty array to remove all cookies).
horseman
.cookies([
{
name : 'test2',
value : 'cookie2',
domain: 'httpbin.org'
},
{
name : 'test3',
value : 'cookie3',
domain: 'httpbin.org'
}])
.open('http://httpbin.org/cookies')
.cookies()
.then(function(cookies){
console.log(cookies.length); // 2
return horseman.close();
});
You can pass in the name of a cookies.txt formatted file to reset all the cookies in the cookie jar to those contained in the file.
horseman
.cookies('my-cookies.txt')
.open('http://httpbin.org/cookies')
.cookies()
.then(function(cookies){
console.log(cookies);
return horseman.close();
});
/* Cookies from my-cookies.txt (converted to the above object format) */
Set the userAgent
used by PhantomJS.
You have to set the userAgent before calling .open()
.
Set the headers
used when requesting a page.
The headers are a javascript object.
You have to set the headers before calling .open()
.
Set the user
and password
for accessing a web page
using basic authentication.
Be sure to set it before calling .open(url)
.
horseman
.authentication('myUserName', 'myPassword')
.open('http://httpbin.org/basic-auth/myUserName/myPassword')
.html('pre')
.then(function(body) {
console.log(body);
/*
{
"authenticated": true,
"user": "myUserName"
}
*/
return horseman.close();
});
Set the width
and height
of the viewport, useful for screenshotting.
You have to set the viewport before calling .open()
.
Scroll to a position on the page, relative to the top left corner of the document.
Set the amount of zoom on a page. The default zoomFactor is 1.
To zoom to 200%, use a zoomFactor of 2.
Combine this with viewport
to produce high DPI screenshots.
horseman
.viewport(3200,1800)
.zoom(2)
.open('http://www.horsemanjs.org')
.screenshot('big.png')
.close();
Evaluation elements return information from the page.
Get the title of the current page.
Get the URL of the current page.
Determines if a selector is visible, or not, on the page. Returns a boolean.
Determines if the selector exists, or not, on the page. Returns a boolean.
Counts the number of selector
on the page. Returns a number.
Gets the HTML inside of an element.
If no selector
is provided, it returns the HTML of the entire page.
If file
is provided, the HTML will be written to that filename.
Gets the text inside of an element.
Gets the plain text of the whole page (using PhantomJS's plainText
property).
Get, or set, the value of an element.
Gets an attribute of an element.
Gets a CSS property of an element.
Gets the width of an element.
Gets the height of an element.
Saves a screenshot of the current page to the specified path
.
Useful for debugging.
Returns a base64 encoded string representing the screenshot. Type must be one of 'PNG', 'GIF', or 'JPEG'.
Takes a cropped screenshot of the page.
area
can be a string identifying an html element on the screen to crop to,
or a getBoundingClientRect object.
Returns a string representing a cropped, base64 encoded screenshot of the page.
area
can be a string identifying an html element on the screen to crop to,
or a getBoundingClientRect object.
Type must be one of 'PNG', 'GIF', or 'JPEG'.
Renders the page as a PDF. The default paperSize is US Letter.
The paperSize
object should be in either this format:
{
width: '200px',
height: '300px',
margin: '0px'
}
or this format
{
format: 'A4',
orientation: 'portrait',
margin: '1cm'
}
Supported formats are: A3
, A4
, A5
, Legal
, Letter
, Tabloid
.
Orientation (portrait
, landscape
) is optional and defaults to 'portrait'.
Supported dimension units are: 'mm', 'cm', 'in', 'px'. No unit means 'px'.
You can create a header and footer like this:
horseman
.open('http://www.amazon.com')
.pdf('amazon.pdf', {
format: 'Letter',
orientation: 'portrait',
margin: '0.5in',
header: {
height: '3cm',
contents: function(pageNum, numPages) {
if (pageNum == 1) {
return '';
}
return '<h3>Header ' pageNum ' / ' numPages '</h3>';
}
},
footer: {
height: '3cm',
contents: function(pageNum, numPages) {
if (pageNum == 1) {
return '';
}
return '<h3>Footer ' pageNum ' / ' numPages '</h3>';
}
}
})
.close()
Outputs the results of the last call in the chain, or a string you provide, without breaking the chain.
horseman
.open('http://www.google.com')
.count('a')
.log() // outputs the number of anchor tags
.click('a')
.log('clicked the button') //outputs the string
.close();
Run an function without breaking the chain. Works with asynchronous functions. Must call the callback when complete.
horseman
.open('http://www.google.com')
.do(function(done){
setTimeout(done,1000);
})
.close();
Invokes fn
on the page with args. On completion it returns a value.
Useful for extracting information from the page.
horseman
.open('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headless_Horseman')
.evaluate( function(selector){
// This code is executed inside the browser.
// It's sandboxed from Node, and has no access to anything
// in Node scope, unless you pass it in, like we did with 'selector'.
//
// You do have access to jQuery, via $, automatically.
return {
height : $( selector ).height(),
width : $( selector ).width()
}
}, '.thumbimage')
.then(function(size){
console.log(size);
return horseman.close();
});
Can be used in an asynchronous way as well (with a node-style callback).
This is similar to .do
, but fn
is invoked in the browser.
horseman
.open('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headless_Horseman')
.evaluate(function(ms, done){
var start = Date.now();
setTimeout(function() {
done(null, Date.now() - start);
// ^ Can pass an Error as first argument,
// making evaluate action reject its Promise in Node.
// Second argument is what the Promise will resolve to.
}, ms);
}, 100)
.then(function(actualMs){
console.log(actualMs);
})
.close();
Lastly, if fn
returns a Promise or thenable,
it will be waited on and the action in Node will resolve/reject accordingly.
horseman
.open('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headless_Horseman')
.evaluate(function() {
// Silly example for illustrative purposes.
return Bluebird.delay(100).return('Hello World');
})
.then(function(mesg){
// Will log 'Hello World' after a roughly 100 ms delay.
console.log(mesg);
})
.close();
Clicks the selector
element once.
Sets the value of a select
element to value
.
Sets the value of an element to ''
.
Enters the text
provided into the selector
element.
Options is an object containing eventType
('keypress'
, 'keyup'
, 'keydown'
. Default is 'keypress'
)
and modifiers
, which is a string in the form of ctrl shift alt
.
Specify the path
to upload into a file input selector
element.
Download the contents of url
.
If path
is supplied the contents will be written there,
otherwise this gets the contents.
If binary
is true
it gets the contents as a node Buffer
,
otherwise it gets them as a string (binary
defaults to false
).
Please note: binary downloads do not work correctly with PhantomJS 1.x
Inject a JavaScript file onto the page.
Include an external JavaScript script on the page via URL.
Send a mouse event to the page.
Each event is sent to the page as if it comes from real user interaction.
type
must be one of
'mouseup'
, 'mousedown'
, 'mousemove'
, 'doubleclick'
, or 'click'
,
which is the default.
x
and y
are optional
and specify the location on the page to send the mouse event.
button
is also optional, and defaults to 'left'
.
Send a keyboard event to the page.
Each event is sent to the page as if it comes from real user interaction.
type
must be one of 'keyup'
, 'keydown'
, or 'keypress'
,
which is the default.
key
should be a numerical value from this page.
For instance, to send an "enter" key press,
use .keyboardEvent('keypress',16777221)
.
modifier
is optional, and comes from this list:
- 0x02000000: A Shift key on the keyboard is pressed
- 0x04000000: A Ctrl key on the keyboard is pressed
- 0x08000000: An Alt key on the keyboard is pressed
- 0x10000000: A Meta key on the keyboard is pressed
- 0x20000000: A keypad button is pressed
To send a shift p event,
you would use .keyboardEvent('keypress','p',0x02000000)
.
These functions for the browser to wait for an event to occur. If the event does not occur before the timeout period (configurable via the options), a timeout event will be fired and the Promise for the action will reject.
Wait for ms
milliseconds e.g. .wait(5000)
Wait until a page finishes loading, typically after a .click()
.
options
can have be {timeout: 5000}
to define an action-specific timeout.
Wait until the element selector
is present,
e.g., .waitForSelector('#pay-button')
options
can have be {timeout: 5000}
to define an action-specific timeout.
Wait until the fn
evaluated on the page returns the specified value
.
fn
is invoked with args.
// This will call the function in the browser repeatedly
// until true (or whatever else you specified) is returned
horseman
.waitFor(function waitForSelectorCount(selector, count) {
return $(selector).length >= count
}, '.some-selector', 2, true)
// last argument (true here) is what return value to wait for
Alternative signature for .waitFor, with extra options.
// This will call the function in the browser repeatedly
// until true (or whatever else you specified) is returned
horseman
.waitFor({
fn : function waitForSelectorCount(selector, count) {
return $(selector).length >= count
},
args : ['.some-selector', 2],
value : true
})
// last argument (true here) is what return value to wait for
fn
: function to execute, mandatory
args
: fn
arguments
value
: Wait until the fn
evaluated on the page returns the specified value
.
timeout
: specific timeout
Get the name of the current frame.
Get the number of frames inside the current frame.
Get the names of the frames inside the current frame.
Switch to the frame that is in focus.
Switch to the frame specified by a frame name or a frame position.
Switch to the main frame of the page.
Switch to the parent frame of the current frame.
Resolves to true
it switched frames
and false
if it did not (i.e., the main frame was the current frame).
Horseman supports multiple tabs being open at the same time.
Open a URL in a new tab. Fires a tabCreated
event.
Also, the newly created tab becomes the current tab.
Returns the number of tabs currently open.
Switch to another tab. Count starts at 0.
Close an open tab. Count starts at 0.
Respond to page events with the callback.
Be sure to set these before calling .open()
.
The callback
is evaluated in node.
If you need to return from callback
, you probably want .at
instead.
Supported events are:
initialized
- callback()loadStarted
- callback()loadFinished
- callback(status)tabCreated
- callback(tabNum)tabClosed
- callback(tabNum)urlChanged
- callback(targetUrl)navigationRequested
- callback(url, type, willNavigate, main)resourceRequested
- callback(requestData, networkRequest)resourceReceived
- callback(response)consoleMessage
- callback(msg, lineNumber, sourceId)alert
- callback(msg)confirm
- callback(msg)prompt
- callback(msg, defaultValue)error
- callback(msg, trace)timeout
- callback(msg) - Fired when a wait timeout period elapses.
For a more in depth description, see the full callbacks list for phantomjs.
horseman
.on('consoleMessage', function( msg ){
console.log(msg);
})
Respond to page events with the callback.
Be sure to set these before calling .open()
.
The callback
is evaluated in PhantomJS.
If you do not need to return from callback
, you probably want .on
instead.
Useful events are:
confirm
- callback(msg)prompt
- callback(msg, defaultVal)filePicker
- callback(oldFile)
For a more in depth description, see the full callbacks list for phantomjs.
horseman
.at('confirm', function(msg) {
return msg === 'Like this?' ? true : false;
})
You can add your own actions to horseman with Horseman.registerAction
.
Be sure to register all actions before calling the constructor.
Horseman.registerAction('size', function(selector) {
// The function will be called with the Horseman instance as this
var self = this;
// Return the horseman chain, or any Promise
return this
.waitForSelector(selector)
.then(function() {
return {
w: self.width(selector),
h: self.height(selector)
};
})
.props();
});
var horseman = new Horseman();
horseman
.open('http://example.org')
.size('body')
.log() // { w: 400, h: 240 }
.close();
You can use yields with Horseman with a library like co.
var Horseman = require('node-horseman'),
co = require('co');
var horseman = new Horseman();
co(function *(){
yield horseman.open('http://www.google.com');
var title = yield horseman.title();
var numLinks = yield horseman.count('a');
console.log('Title: ' title); //Google
console.log('Num Links: ' numLinks); //35
yield horseman.close();
}).catch(function(e){
console.log(e)
});
If you use yields, you may need to use the harmony flag when you run your file:
node --harmony test.js
To run the same file with debugging output,
run it like this DEBUG=horseman node myfile.js
.
This will print out some additional information about what's going on:
horseman .setup() creating phantom instance 1 0ms
horseman load finished, injecting jquery and client scripts 401ms
horseman injected jQuery 0ms
horseman .open: http://www.google.com 66ms
horseman .type() horseman into input[name='q'] 51ms
Automated tests for Horseman itself are run using Mocha and Should,
both of which will be installed via npm install
.
To run Horseman's tests, just do npm test
.
When the tests are done, you'll see something like this:
$ npm test
102 passing (42s)
2 pending
WWWWWW||WWWWWW
W W W||W W W
||
( OO )__________
/ | \
/o o| MIT \
\___/||_||__||_|| *
|| || || ||
_||_|| _||_||
(__|__|(__|__|
Copyright (c) John Titus [email protected]
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.