Puppeteer UI Testing: Automate with Ease

Unlock the Power of Web Scraping and Automation with Puppeteer

In today’s digital landscape, harnessing the potential of web scraping, testing, and monitoring can be a daunting task. However, with the right tools, you can unlock a world of possibilities. Enter Puppeteer, a game-changing API developed by the Google Chrome team that allows you to programmatically control the Chromium or Chrome browser using JavaScript.

What is Puppeteer?

Puppeteer is a Node library that provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium over the DevTools Protocol. This powerful tool enables you to scrape websites, generate screenshots and PDFs, act as crawlers for SPAs, and automate form submissions, UI testing, and performance analysis.

Getting Started with Puppeteer

To begin, you’ll need basic knowledge of JavaScript and Node.js. Set up your Node project by installing Node.js 12.12.0 or later and yarn or npm. Create a jobScript.js file and add the following code:

“`javascript
class Jobs {
async init() {
// Initialize Puppeteer instance and create a browser object
}

async resolve() {
// Evaluate the page and query for all HTML elements with.search-card
}

async getJobs() {
// Call the resolve method to get the list of all the jobs found
}
}
“`

Scraping a Job Portal with Puppeteer

Let’s demonstrate how Puppeteer works by scraping a job portal. Create a server.js file to display the scraped jobs:

“`javascript
const express = require(‘express’);
const app = express();

app.get(‘/’, async (req, res) => {
const jobs = await jobScript.getJobs();
res.json(jobs);
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
console.log(‘Server listening on port 3000’);
});
“`

Automated UI Testing with Puppeteer Recorder

Puppeteer Recorder is a Chrome extension that allows you to record your browser interactions and generate a Puppeteer script for automated testing. With Puppeteer Recorder, you can:

• Record website clicks and different event types
• Show executed events and current executing events
• Use useful clauses such as waitForNavigation and setViewPort
• Utilize built-in copy-to-clipboard feature
• Configure options and query elements with data-id attribute
• Generate automatic Puppeteer scripts

Recording a Session with Puppeteer Recorder

To begin, install the Chrome extension for Puppeteer Recorder. Then, navigate to the basics of recording a session:

1. Select the icon and click on Record.
2. Type in an input element, hit tab, and click on different links and input elements to record your session.
3. Wait for each page to load fully after clicking on it.
4. Stop recording by clicking on Pause.
5. Resume recording with the Resume button, and stop recording completely with Stop.
6. Copy the generated script by clicking Copy to Clipboard.

Running the Puppeteer Script

Running the Puppeteer script is straightforward once you have set up your testing environment. Using Node/Express, you can simply paste in the generated code and execute it:

“`javascript
const puppeteer = require(‘puppeteer’);

(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto(‘https://www.google.com’);
// Record events and interactions
await browser.close();
})();
“`

With Puppeteer and Puppeteer Recorder, you can unlock the full potential of web scraping and automation. Start exploring the possibilities today!