Chrome PHP

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

Can be used synchronously and asynchronously!

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
Emulate keyboard
Always IDE friendly

Happy browsing!

Requirements

Requires PHP 7.4 or 8.0 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 both macOS and Windows.

Installation

The library can be installed with Composer and is available on packagist under chrome-php/chrome:

$ composer require chrome-php/chrome

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();

try {
    // 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');
} finally {
    // bye
    $browser->close();
}

Using different chrome executable

When starting, the factory will look for the environment variable "CHROME_PATH" to use as the chrome executable. If the variable is not found, it will try to guess the correct executable path according to your OS or use "chrome" as the default.

You also explicitly set any executable of your choice when creating a new object. For instance "chromium-browser":

use HeadlessChromium\BrowserFactory;

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

Debugging

The following example disables headless mode to ease debugging

use HeadlessChromium\BrowserFactory;

$browserFactory = new BrowserFactory();

$browser = $browserFactory->createBrowser([
    'headless'        => false,          // disable headless mode
]);

Other debug options:

[
    '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:

Option name	Default	Description
`connectionDelay`	`0`	Delay to apply between each operation for debugging purposes
`customFlags`	none	Array of flags to pass to the command line. Eg: `['--option1', '--option2=someValue']`
`debugLogger`	`null`	A string (e.g "php://stdout"), or resource, or PSR-3 logger instance to print debug messages
`enableImages`	`true`	Toggles loading of images
`headless`	`true`	Enable or disable headless mode
`ignoreCertificateErrors`	`false`	Set chrome to ignore ssl errors
`keepAlive`	`false`	true to keep alive the chrome instance when the script terminates
`noSandbox`	`false`	Useful to run in a docker container
`sendSyncDefaultTimeout`	`5000`	Default timeout (ms) for sending sync messages
`startupTimeout`	`30`	Maximum time in seconds to wait for chrome to start
`userAgent`	none	User agent to use for the whole browser (see page api for alternative)
`userDataDir`	none	chrome user data dir (default: a new empty dir is generated temporarily)
`windowSize`	none	Size of the window. usage: `$width, $height` - see also Page::setViewport

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

$browser->setPagePreScript('// 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 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) {\n    window.foo = a + b;\n}",
    [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()');

Get the page HTML

You can get the page HTML as a string using the getHtml method.

$html = $page->getHtml();

Add a script to evaluate upon page navigation

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

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;
$page->setViewport($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)
    'paperWidth'          => 6.0,              // defaults to 8.5 (must be float, value in inches)
    'paperHeight'         => 6.0,              // defaults to 8.5 (must be float, value in inches)
    'headerTemplate'      => '<div>foo</div>', // see details above
    'footerTemplate'      => '<div>foo</div>', // see details above
    'scale'               => 1.2,              // defaults to 1.0 (must be float)
];

// 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());

Options headerTempalte and footerTempalte:

Should be valid HTML markup with following classes used to inject printing values into them:

date: formatted print date
title: document title
url: document location
pageNumber: current page number
totalPages: total pages in the document

Save downloads

You can set the path to save downloaded files.

// After creating a page.
$page->setDownloadPath('/path/to/save/downloaded/files');

Mouse API

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

$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();

You can emulate the mouse wheel to scroll up and down in a page, frame or element.

$page->mouse()
    ->scrollDown(100) // scroll down 100px
    ->scrollUp(50);   // scroll up 50px

Keyboard API

The keyboard API is dependent on the page instance and allows you to type like a real user.

$page->keyboard()
    ->typeRawKey('Tab') // type a raw key, such as Tab
    ->typeText('bar');  // type the text "bar"

To impersonate a real user you may want to add a delay between each keystroke using the setKeyInterval method:

$page->keyboard()->setKeyInterval(10); // sets a delay of 10 miliseconds between keystrokes

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);

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.

License

This project is licensed under the The MIT License (MIT).

Files

README.md

Latest commit

History

README.md

File metadata and controls

Chrome PHP

Features

Requirements

Installation

Usage

Using different chrome executable

Debugging

API

Browser Factory

Options

Browser API

Create a new page (tab)

Close the browser

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

Page API

Navigate to an url

Evaluate script on the page

Call a function

Add a script tag

Get the page HTML

Add a script to evaluate upon page navigation

Set viewport size

Make a screenshot

Print as PDF

Save downloads

Mouse API

Keyboard API

Cookie API

Set Cookie

Get Cookies

Set user agent

Advanced usage

Create a session and send message to the target

Debugging

Browser (standalone)

Contributing

License