#chrome_remote_shell
###Client for the Google Chrome browser's remote debugging api.
New update replaces old api code with new - no longer compatibile with 3+ year old chrome, now compatible with Chrome Remote Debugging Protocol
See https://developer.chrome.com/devtools/docs/debugger-protocol for details on Chrome's remote debugging protocol.
The protocol is composed of json messages described on the site above.
This library makes it easier to communicate with the Google Chrome remote debugging api from Python. To enable the debugging api port, start Chrome with this option::
google-chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222
Note that Chromecast devices also open a remote debugging port and speak this same api, on devices in development mode, and which are currently running a dev app.
Then you can connect from Python through code like this:
Example
>>> import chrome_remote_shell, json
>>> shell = chrome_remote_shell.Shell(host='localhost', port=9222)
>>> shell.connect(0)
>>> url = 'http://www.clift.org/fred' # shameless
>>> navcom = json.dumps({"id":0, "method":"Page.navigate", "params":{"url":url}})
>>> shell.soc.send(navcom)
>>> response = json.loads(shell.recv())
As a convenience, the shell connection object offers a method that, by injecting JavaScript into the first tab, commands Chrome to open a URL in a new tab::
# equivalent to the api call above
>>> shell.open_url('http://www.aldaily.com/')
Installation
pip install --user greenlet
sudo pip install websocket-client
sudo python setup.py install
Useful links
- If you want to run chrome unattended, you need command line flags. The full list is available here: http://peter.sh/experiments/chromium-command-line-switches/
- The list of all API commands and events is here: https://chromedevtools.github.io/debugger-protocol-viewer/tot/
#CHANGELOG 2016 Dec 8. Added helper routines to Close tabs, to send arbitrary commands. Included example for network profiling.
2016 Dec 7. Pulled together useful stuff from unmerged pull requests and forks on Github
2014 Sept 15. Updated to work with modern Chrome Remote Debugging protocol
2014 Sept 15. Package maintaince transitioned to Fred Clift
2014 Sept 15. Package migrated to GitHub.
2009 Feb 26. Added a conditional import of simplejson so that the
module runs under Python 2.5.