PhantomJS Persistent Server Meteor Package

Synchronously spawn a PhantomJS instance then pass functions to its context for execution.

Installation

$ meteor add numtel:phantomjs-persistent-server

Implements

phantomLaunch({...})

Launch a PhantomJS instance that can listen for requests. If PhantomJS is installed, the installed version will be used. If not available, the package gadicohen:phantomjs will be used.

Options:

Key	Type	Description
port	Integer	Port to run PhantomJS server, leave unspecified for any open port
forcePort	Boolean	Kill PhantomJS if currently using port
debug	Boolean	Forward PhantomJS stdout as well as other debug info

Notes:

• When using an automatically selected port, automatic code pushes will result in orphaned PhantomJS processes that will exist until the Meteor server closes.
• If specifying a port, forcePort must be set to true for automatic code pushes to restart the PhantomJS server.

Returns: Function for executing methods.

phantomLaunch() -> function(func, args...)

The first argument, func (function), is copied as a string to the PhantomJS server. This means that it is not included in the context of the surrounding code but within the PhantomJS context. All parameters must be passed in as JSON-serializable objects in the following arguments and no external functions may be called.

The returned function also contains the following properties and methods:

var phantomExec = phantomLaunch();
console.log(phantomExec.port) // Print port number
phantomExec.kill() // Kill server (will not kill orphaned processes)

Example in CoffeeScript

Load Google.com and print the page title.

if Meteor.isServer
  # Launch PhantomJS server and wait for the server to be ready.
  phantomExec = phantomLaunch()

  # Define a function that will be copied to the server by string and executed
  # in the PhantomJS context. Its arguments include the arguments passed as
  # well as a callback function in the normal style (error, result).
  titleTest = (url, callback) ->
    webpage = require 'webpage'
    page = webpage.create()
    page.open url, (status) ->
      if status == 'fail'
        callback 'load-failure'
      else
        title = page.evaluate ()->
          return document.title
        callback undefined, title

  # Perform the request.
  result = phantomExec titleTest, 'http://google.com/'
  console.log result # Print 'Google'

Run Tests

$ git clone https://github.com/numtel/phantomjs-persistent-server.git
$ cd phantomjs-persistent-server
$ meteor test-packages ./

License

MIT