Foxdriver

Foxdriver is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control Firefox over the Remote Debugging Protocol. Version 0.6.0 now supports adding custom profile files (i.e. cert9.db) before launching the browser

Getting Started

Installation

To use Foxdriver in your project, run:

$ npm i @benmalka/foxdriver

Usage

The Firefox Remote Debugging Protocol consists of multiple actors that provide different methods. The Foxdriver API allows you to launch a Firefox instance and connects to the protocol interface automatically. From there you can access the methods of all actors.

Example - opening page and get console.logs

import Foxdriver from '@benmalka/foxdriver'

(async () => {
    const { browser, tab } = await Foxdriver.launch({
        url: 'https://www.mozilla.org/en-US'
    });

    // enable actor
    await tab.console.startListeners();
    // wait until page is loaded
    await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 3000));
    // receive logs and page errors
    const logs = await tab.console.getCachedMessages();
    console.log(logs);

    // close browser
    browser.close();
})()

You can also attach yourself to an already running Firefox browser. This requires to start the browser with the -start-debugger-server=<port> cli argument and have the following settings set:

• devtools.chrome.enabled: true
• devtools.debugger.prompt-connection: false
• devtools.debugger.remote-enabled: true

To attach yourself to the browser you then need to create a Foxdriver instance with the correct port and host and call the connect() method:

import Foxdriver from '@benmalka/foxdriver'

(async () => {
    const { browser, tab } = await Foxdriver.attach('localhost', 9222);
    const preferences = await browser.preference.getAllPrefs();

    // ...
})()

API

• Foxdriver
  • class: Foxdriver
    • Foxdriver.attach(options)
    • Foxdriver.launch(options)
  • class: Browser
    • browser.close()
    • browser.preference
    • browser.actorRegistry
    • browser.addons
    • browser.device
    • browser.heapSnapshotFile
  • class: Tab
    • tab.attach()
    • tab.detach()
    • tab.reload()
    • tab.cacheDisabled(disable)
    • tab.navigateTo(url)
    • tab.onTabNavigated(callback)
    • tab.console
    • tab.network
    • tab.storage
    • tab.memory
    • tab.performance
    • tab.profiler
    • tab.timeline
    • tab.styleSheets
    • tab.cssUsage
    • tab.cssProperties
    • tab.emulation
    • tab.inspector

Foxdriver

Foxdriver.attach(host, port)

Attaches client to an already running instance.

• host <String> host where Firefox instance was launched
• port <Number> port on which the Firefox instance was launched
• returns: <Promise<Object>>
  • tab <[Tab]> list of opened tabs
  • browser <Browser> browser instance

Foxdriver.launch(options)

Attaches client to an already running instance.

• options <Object>
  • port <Number> port on which the Firefox instance should get launched
  • bin <String> path to Firefox binary (default: OS default path)
  • args <[String]> list of arguments pass to fs.spawn (default: [])
  • customPrefs <Object> you may set your own preferences before the browser is being launched by setting key value pairs of prefs. Note that it is not possible to override the required prefs, i.e.
    • devtools.chrome.enabled: true
    • devtools.debugger.prompt-connection: false
    • devtools.debugger.remote-enabled: true
  • customProfileFiles <[String]> A array of absolute file paths to be copied into the randomaly generated profile folder. This is very helpful when working with self-signed certificates in firefox. See more here How to use self-signed certificate in Firefox
• returns: <Promise<Object>>
  • tab <Tab> opened tab
  • browser <Browser> browser instance

class: Browser

close()

Disconnects from the browser instance and closes browser if launched via launch() method

class: Tab

tab.attach()

Attaches to this tab

• returns: <Promise> fulfills once request was sent

tab.detach()

Detaches from this tab

• returns: <Promise> fulfills once request was sent

tab.reload()

Reloads current page url.

• returns: <Promise> fulfills once request was sent

tab.cacheDisabled(disable)

Disable cache.

• disable <Boolean> if true, caching is disbled
• returns: <Promise> fulfills once request was sent

tab.navigateTo(url)

Navigates to a certain url

• url <String> url to navigate to
• returns: <Promise> fulfills once request was sent

tab.onTabNavigated(callback)

Event fired on tab navigation end

• callback <Function> to be called on event

For more information please see API docs.