puppeteer headless false

Puppeteer Headless False#

When working with Puppeteer, a popular Node.js library for controlling headless Chrome/Chromium, you may come across the option headless: false. This option specifies whether to run Chrome in a headless mode or not.

What is Headless Mode?#

Headless mode is a way to run Chrome without the user interface. It is useful when you need to automate tasks that don't require any user interaction. For example, you may want to scrape data from a website, take screenshots, or generate PDF reports. Headless mode allows you to do all of this without opening a visible browser window.

Why Use Headless False?#

When headless: false is specified, Puppeteer launches Chrome with a window. This is the opposite of headless mode. Using headless: false can be useful for debugging or testing purposes. For example, you may want to visually inspect the page that you are scraping or see how your automated tests are interacting with the page.

How to Use Headless False in Puppeteer?#

To use headless: false in Puppeteer, you need to set it as an option when launching Chrome:

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
    headless: false
  });
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://www.example.com');
  // Do something here
  await browser.close();
})();

In the above example, we launch Chrome with headless: false, create a new page, navigate to a website, and do something with the page. Finally, we close the browser.

Alternatively, you can pass the --headless=false option when running Puppeteer from the command line:

$ node myscript.js --headless=false

Conclusion#

Overall, headless: false is a useful option in Puppeteer when you need to run Chrome with a window instead of in headless mode. It is particularly helpful for debugging and testing purposes. However, in most cases, you will likely want to use headless mode for its speed and simplicity.