Puppeteer browser automation
Updated 1 week ago
by
Igor Vilinchuk
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Puppeteer is a library for Node.js that provides an opportunity to automate processes with a Chromium-based browser through high-level API over the Chrome DevTools Protocol. For example, you can create web crawlers that search and collect data by using the Mimic browser with masked fingerprints.
Multilogin port allocation
In Multilogin, you need to predefine the application port in order to utilize Puppeteer automation. Here is how you can predefine the Multilogin port:
- Go to the C:\Users\%username%\.multiloginapp.com directory and open the app.properties file
- Add the following string: multiloginapp.port=[PORT_NUMBER]
- Save the app.properties file
For more detailed instructions and different OS, check this guide. Thereafter, you will be able to refer to the Multilogin application through this port.
How to start
Step 1
Make sure that you have Node.js and npm package manager installed on your PC. Node.js and npm can be downloaded from the official Node.js website (the latest versions of Node.js include npm by default). Alternatively, you can use yarn for Node.js packages management.
You can check the version of your Node.js and npm by executing the following commands in the terminal:
nodejs -v || node -v && npm -v
Step 2
Create a new npm project in current directory.
npm init -y
Step 3
Install Puppeteer in the project directory.
npm install [email protected] --save
Chromium 87 (starting from Multilogin version 5.12) | Puppeteer 5.4.1 |
Chromium 86 (starting from Multilogin version 5.10) | Puppeteer 5.3.1 |
Step 4
Create a .js file with your automation code. Please use the following code example for reference:
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');
const http = require('http');
async function startProfile(){
//Replace profileId value with existing browser profile ID.
let profileId = 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx';
let mlaPort = 35000;
/*Send GET request to start the browser profile by profileId.
Returns web socket as response which should be passed to puppeteer.connect*/
http.get(`http://127.0.0.1:${mlaPort}/api/v1/profile/start?automation=true&puppeteer=true&profileId=${profileId}`, (resp) => {
let data = '';
let ws = '';
//Receive response data by chunks
resp.on('data', (chunk) => {
data += chunk;
});
/*The whole response data has been received. Handling JSON Parse errors,
verifying if ws is an object and contains the 'value' parameter.*/
resp.on('end', () => {
let ws;
try {
ws = JSON.parse(data);
} catch(err) {
console.log(err);
}
if (typeof ws === 'object' && ws.hasOwnProperty('value')) {
console.log(`Browser websocket endpoint: ${ws.value}`);
run(ws.value);
}
});
}).on("error", (err) => {
console.log(err.message);
});
}
async function run(ws) {
try{
//Connecting Puppeteer with Mimic instance and performing simple automation.
const browser = await puppeteer.connect({browserWSEndpoint: ws, defaultViewport:null});
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://multilogin.com');
await page.screenshot({ path: `/home/${process.env.USER}/Desktop/multiloginScreenshot.png` });
await browser.close();
} catch(err){
console.log(err.message);
}
}
startProfile();Step 5
Launch the .js file through the terminal in order to start your automation script.
nodejs example.js