README

This library lets you start playing with chrome/chromium in headless mode from PHP.

/!\ The library is still young and some features you need might be missing. We add feature as feature requests are submitted, feel free to rise an issue if you want to see a new feature to be supported by the library. Additionally the library follows semver. That means that until version 1.0.0 a lot of changes might occur.

Features

• Open chrome or chromium browser from php
• Create pages and navigate to pages
• Take screenshots
• Evaluate javascript in the page
• Make PDF
• Emulate mouse
• TODO Emulate keyboard
• Always IDE friendly

Happy browsing!

Requirements

Requires php 5.6 and a chrome/chromium executable.

As of version 65 of chrome/chromium the library proved to work correctly. Please try to keep using latest version of chrome.

Note that the library is only tested on linux but is compatible with osX and windows.

Install

The library can be installed with composer and is available on packagist under infostars/headless-chromium-php

composer require infostars/headless-chromium-php

Usage

It uses a simple and understandable API to start chrome, to open pages, to take screenshots, to crawl websites... and almost everything that you can do with chrome as a human.

    use HeadlessChromium\BrowserFactory;

    $browserFactory = new BrowserFactory();

    // starts headless chrome
    $browser = $browserFactory->createBrowser();

    // creates a new page and navigate to an url
    $page = $browser->createPage();
    $page->navigate('http://example.com')->waitForNavigation();
    
    // get page title
    $pageTitle = $page->evaluate('document.title')->getReturnValue();
    
    // screenshot - Say "Cheese"! 😄
    $page->screenshot()->saveToFile('/foo/bar.png');
    
    // pdf
    $page->pdf(['printBackground'=>false])->saveToFile('/foo/bar.pdf');
    
    // bye
    $browser->close();

Using different chrome executable

When starting the factory will look for the environment variable "CHROME_PATH" to find the chrome executable. If the variable is not found then it will use "chrome" as the executable.

You can use any executable of your choice. For instance "chromium-browser":

    use HeadlessChromium\BrowserFactory;

    // replace default 'chrome' with 'chromium-browser'
    $browserFactory = new BrowserFactory('chromium-browser');

Debugging

The following example adds some development-oriented features to help debugging

    use HeadlessChromium\BrowserFactory;

    $browserFactory = new BrowserFactory();

    $browser = $browserFactory->createBrowser([
        'headless'        => false,         // disable headless mode
        'connectionDelay' => 0.8,           // add 0.8 second of delay between each instruction sent to chrome,
        'debugLogger'     => 'php://stdout' // will enable verbose mode
    ]);

About debugLogger: this can be any of a resource string, a resource or an object implementing LoggerInterface from Psr\Log (such as monolog or apix/log).

API

Browser Factory

    use \HeadlessChromium\BrowserFactory;
  
    $browserFactory = new BrowserFactory();
    $browser = $browserFactory->createBrowser([
        'windowSize' => [1920, 1000],
        'enableImages' => false
    ]);

Options

Here are the options available for the browser factory:

Browser API

Create a new page (tab)

    $page = $browser->createPage();
    
    // destination can be specified
    $uri = 'http://example.com';
    $page = $browser->createPage($uri);

Close the browser

    $browser->close();

Set a script to evaluate before every page created by this browser will navigate

    $script = 
     '// Simulate navigator permissions;
      const originalQuery = window.navigator.permissions.query;
      window.navigator.permissions.query = (parameters) => (
          parameters.name === 'notifications' ?
              Promise.resolve({ state: Notification.permission }) :
              originalQuery(parameters)
      );'

    $browser->setPagePreScript($script);

Page API

Navigate to an url

    // navigate
    $navigation = $page->navigate('http://example.com');
    
    // wait for the page to be loaded
    $navigation->waitForNavigation();

When Using $navigation->waitForNavigation() you will wait for 30sec until the page event "loaded" is triggered. You can change the timeout or the event to listen for:

    // wait 10secs for the event "DOMContentLoaded" to be triggered
    $navigation->waitForNavigation(Page::DOM_CONTENT_LOADED, 10000)

Available events (in the order they trigger):

• Page::DOM_CONTENT_LOADED: dom has completely loaded
• Page::LOAD: (default) page and all resources are loaded
• Page::NETWORK_IDLE: page has loaded, and no network activity has occurred for at least 500ms

When you want to wait for the page to navigate there are 2 main issues that may occur. First the page is too long to load and second the page you were waiting to be loaded has been replaced. The good news is that you can handle those issues using a good old try catch:

  use HeadlessChromium\Exception\OperationTimedOut;
  use HeadlessChromium\Exception\NavigationExpired;

  try {
    $navigation->waitForNavigation()
  } catch (OperationTimedOut $e) {
    // too long to load
  } catch (NavigationExpired $e) {
    // An other page was loaded
  }

Evaluate script on the page

Once the page has completed the navigation you can evaluate arbitrary script on this page:

    // navigate
    $navigation = $page->navigate('http://example.com');
        
    // wait for the page to be loaded
    $navigation->waitForNavigation();
    
    // evaluate script in the browser
    $evaluation = $page->evaluate('document.documentElement.innerHTML');
    
    // wait for the value to return and get it
    $value = $evaluation->getReturnValue();

Sometime the script you evaluate will click a link or submit a form, in this case the page will reload and you will want to wait for the new page to reload.

You can achieve this by using $page->evaluate('some js that will reload the page')->waitForPageReload(). An example is available in form-submit.php

Call a function

This is an alternative to evaluate that allows to call a given function with the given arguments in the page context:

    $evaluation = $page->callFunction(
      'function(a, b) {
          window.foo = a + b;
       }', 
      [1, 2]
    );
    
    $value = $evaluation->getReturnValue();

Add a script tag

That's useful if you want to add jQuery (or anything else) to the page:

    $page->addScriptTag([
        'content' => file_get_contents('path/to/jquery.js')
    ])->waitForResponse();
    
    $page->evaluate('$(".my.element").html()');

You can also use an url to feed the src attribute:

    $page->addScriptTag([
        'url' => 'https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.3.1.min.js'
    ])->waitForResponse();
    
    $page->evaluate('$(".my.element").html()');

Add a script to evaluate upon page navigation

    $script = 
     '// Simulate navigator permissions;
      const originalQuery = window.navigator.permissions.query;
      window.navigator.permissions.query = (parameters) => (
          parameters.name === 'notifications' ?
              Promise.resolve({ state: Notification.permission }) :
              originalQuery(parameters)
      );'

    $page->addPreScript($script);

If your script needs the dom to be fully populated before it runs then you can use the option "onLoad":

    $page->addPreScript($script, ['onLoad' => true]);

Set viewport size

This features allows to change the size of the viewport (emulation) for the current page without affecting the size of all the browser's pages (see also option "windowSize" of BrowserFactory::createBrowser).

    $width = 600;
    $height = 300;
    $page->setViewportSize($width, $height)
        ->await(); // wait for operation to complete

Make a screenshot

    // navigate
    $navigation = $page->navigate('http://example.com');
        
    // wait for the page to be loaded
    $navigation->waitForNavigation();
    
    // take a screenshot
    $screenshot = $page->screenshot([
        'format'  => 'jpeg',  // default to 'png' - possible values: 'png', 'jpeg',
        'quality' => 80       // only if format is 'jpeg' - default 100 
    ]);
    
    // save the screenshot
    $screenshot->saveToFile('/some/place/file.jpg');

choose an area

You can use the option "clip" in order to choose an area for the screenshot (TODO exemple)

take a full page screenshot

You can also take a screenshot for the full layout (not only the layout) using $page->getFullPageClip (TODO exemple)

TODO Page.getFullPageClip();

    use HeadlessChromium\Clip;

    // navigate
    $navigation = $page->navigate('http://example.com');
        
    // wait for the page to be loaded
    $navigation->waitForNavigation();
    
    // create a rectangle by specifying to left corner coordinates + width and height
    $x = 10;
    $y = 10;
    $width = 100;
    $height = 100;
    $clip = new Clip($x, $y, $width, $height);
    
    // take the screenshot (in memory binaries)
    $screenshot = $page->screenshot([
        'clip'  => $clip'
    ]);
    
    // save the screenshot
    $screenshot->saveToFile('/some/place/file.jpg');

Print as PDF

    // navigate
    $navigation = $page->navigate('http://example.com');
        
    // wait for the page to be loaded
    $navigation->waitForNavigation();
    
    $options = [
                  'landscape'       => true,  // default to false
                  'printBackground' => true,   // default to false
                  'displayHeaderFooter' => true, // default to false
                  'preferCSSPageSize' => true, // default to false ( reads parameters directly from @page )
                  'marginTop' => 0.0, // defaults to ~0.4 (must be float, value in inches)
                  'marginBottom' => 1.4, // defaults to ~0.4 (must be float, value in inches)
                  'marginLeft' => 5.0, // defaults to ~0.4 (must be float, value in inches)
                  'marginRight' => 1.0 // defaults to ~0.4 (must be float, value in inches)
               ];
    
    // print as pdf (in memory binaries)
    $pdf = $page->pdf($options);
    
    // save the pdf
    $pdf->saveToFile('/some/place/file.pdf');
    
    // or directly output pdf without saving
    header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
    header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
    header('Content-Disposition: inline; filename=filename.pdf');
    header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
    header('Expires: 0');
    header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
    header('Pragma: public');
    
    echo base64_decode($pdf->getBase64());

Mouse API

The mouse API is dependent on the page instance and allows you to control the mouse's moves and clicks.

    $page->mouse()
        ->move(10, 20)                              // Moves mouse to position x=10;y=20
        ->click()                                   // left click on position set above
        ->move(100, 200, ['steps' => 5])            // move mouse to x=100;y=200 in 5 equal steps
        ->click(['button' => Mouse::BUTTON_RIGHT];  // right click on position set above
        
    // given the last click was on a link, the next step will wait for the page to load after the link was clicked
    $page->waitForReload();

Cookie API

You can set and get cookies for a page:

Set Cookie

    use HeadlessChromium\Cookies\Cookie;

    $page = $browser->createPage();
    
    // example 1: set cookies for a given domain
    
    $page->setCookies([
        Cookie::create('name', 'value', [
            'domain' => 'example.com',
            'expires' => time() + 3600 // expires in 1 day
        ])
    ])->await();
    
    
    // example 2: set cookies for the current page
    
    $page->navigate('http://example.com')->waitForNavigation();
    
    $page->setCookies([
        Cookie::create('name', 'value', ['expires'])
    ])->await();
    

Get Cookies

    use HeadlessChromium\Cookies\Cookie;

    $page = $browser->createPage();
    
    // example 1: get all cookies for the browser
    
    $cookies = $page->getAllCookies();
    
    // example 2: get cookies for the current page
    
    $page->navigate('http://example.com')->waitForNavigation();
    $cookies = $page->getCookies();
    
    // filter cookies with name == 'foo'
    $cookiesFoo = $cookies->filterBy('name', 'foo'); 

    // find first cookie with name == 'bar'
    $cookieBar = $cookies->findOneBy('name', 'bar');
    if ($cookieBar) {
        // do something
    }
    

Set user agent

You can set an user agent per page :

$page->setUserAgent('my user agent');

See also BrowserFactory option userAgent to set it for the whole browser.

Advanced usage

The library ships with tools that hide all the communication logic but you can use the tools used internally to communicate directly with chrome debug protocol.

Example:

  use HeadlessChromium\Communication\Connection;
  use HeadlessChromium\Communication\Message;

  // chrome devtools uri
  $webSocketUri = 'ws://127.0.0.1:9222/devtools/browser/xxx';

  // create a connection
  $connection = new Connection($webSocketUri);
  $connection->connect();

  // send method "Target.activateTarget"
  $responseReader = $connection->sendMessage(new Message('Target.activateTarget', ['targetId' => 'xxx']));

  // wait up to 1000ms for a response
  $response = $responseReader->waitForResponse(1000);

  if ($response) {
    // ok
  }else {
    // not ok
  }

Create a session and send message to the target

  // given a target id
  $targetId = 'yyy';

  // create a session for this target (attachToTarget)
  $session = $connection->createSession($targetId);

  // send message to this target (Target.sendMessageToTarget)
  $response = $session->sendMessageSync(new Message('Page.reload'));

Debugging

You can ease the debugging by setting a delay before each operation is made:

  $connection->setConnectionDelay(500); // wait for 500 ms between each operation to ease debugging

Browser (standalone)

    use HeadlessChromium\Communication\Connection;
    use HeadlessChromium\Browser;

    // chrome devtools uri
    $webSocketUri = 'ws://127.0.0.1:9222/devtools/browser/xxx';

    // create connection given a web socket uri
    $connection = new Connection($webSocketUri);
    $connection->connect();

    // create browser
    $browser = new Browser($connection);

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution details.

Credits

Thanks to puppeteer that served as an inspiration.

Roadmap

• Make pdf
• Create a DOM manipulation framework
• Inspect network traces
• Emulate keyboard
• Adding api documentation (https://github.com/victorjonsson/PHP-Markdown-Documentation-Generator/blob/master/docs.md)

Authors

• Soufiane Ghzal - Initial work - gsouf

See also the list of contributors who participated in this project.

License

This project is licensed under the Fair License.