5 ms·

Chrome and Firefox gaining headless modes is the ultimate goal Phantom could've achieved. So I consider it a complete success. Kudos to all contributors.

tyingq 9y ago
I feel the same. No failure here. It served its purpose very well, while it was needed. It’s retiring while it’s still better than it’s replacement in a few areas...like proxy support.
- overdrivetg 9y ago
  This is the main blocker for me right now for sure.
tnolet 9y ago
Agree 100%. Headless & programmable browsing is a hard nut to crack. PhantomJs paved the way.
BinaryIdiot 9y ago
I really hope Microsoft offers a headless IE / Edge at some point. It would be amazing to be able to use all 3 major browsers like this. Heck, get Safari in there too (though I feel like it should be doable with WebKit already).
- luisrudge 9y ago
  they have webdriver support. Is that enough? I'm not sure what's the difference between headless and webdriver (if any) https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2015/07/23/bringing-automated-testing-to-microsoft-edge-through-webdriver/ https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2015/07/23/bringing-auto...
  - alxlu 9y ago
    Running Edge with webdriver still includes the GUI.
- poizan42 9y ago
  Huh? They have had the WebBrowser ActiveX control since IE3 I think. That works as headless as you get on Windows.
  - BinaryIdiot 9y ago
    Not quite. It's my understanding it's not as up to date or equivalent to the latest IE. When I tried looking around I just got a lot of confusing information about the control, how it applies (or doesn't) traditional IE hacks, etc. Though I could be wrong but it didn't seem like an equivalent to headless chrome or firefox.
    - poizan42 9y ago
      That is not correct, it just runs in compatibility mode by default, see https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/patricka/2015/01/12/controlling-webbrowser-control-compatibility/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/patricka/2015/01/12/control...
fareesh 9y ago
Does headless chrome do PDF generation? That's the only thing I'm using phantom for at the moment.
- madeofpalk 9y ago
  Yes. In fact, there's a command line switch for it https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-chrome#create_a_pdf_dom https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-c... The Chrome team also make Puppeteer, a node's library for interfacing with headless chrome, and has methods for making PDFs as well https://github.com/GoogleChrome/puppeteer https://github.com/GoogleChrome/puppeteer
- dewey 9y ago
  First result: --print-to-pdf https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-chrome https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-c...
- itslennysfault 9y ago
  Yes. It's really easy to do using [puppeteer](https://github.com/GoogleChrome/puppeteer https://github.com/GoogleChrome/puppeteer). The 2nd or 3rd example is PDF.
  - jonaswi 9y ago
    I just recently switched from using PhantomJS to pupeteer for PDF generation in a production application. Works like a charm and has a very clean API.
  - fareesh 9y ago
    Thanks that looks like a very clean library. Will switch to this.
kodablah 9y ago
Sadly, Chrome won't support extensions: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=706008 https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=706008
- rnnr 9y ago
  but... i think you can attach it to an existing chrome with remote debugging enabled, so not that big a deal!
  - kodablah 9y ago
    Sure can, I've done it with puppeteer. Just can't enable headless.
ricardobeat 9y ago
The main advantage of PhantomJS at this point is the way it's built and distributed as a single binary, unlike Chrome. Much easier to maintain.
- ris 9y ago
  Correction: much easier to maintain irresponsibly. That binary you just downloaded and stuck somewhere some time ago - when was the last time it was updated? What about all of its underlying bundled static libraries? How certain were you ever of their up-to-dateness? Did you ever check what version of zlib it was using? Distributions attempting to package phantomjs properly had one hell of a time trying to reproduce its builds reliably. Most gave up. Distribution from author as binaries is a whole bundle of fail from the get-go.

tyingq 9y ago

I feel the same. No failure here. It served its purpose very well, while it was needed. It’s retiring while it’s still better than it’s replacement in a few areas...like proxy support.

overdrivetg 9y ago
This is the main blocker for me right now for sure.

tnolet 9y ago

Agree 100%. Headless & programmable browsing is a hard nut to crack. PhantomJs paved the way.

BinaryIdiot 9y ago

I really hope Microsoft offers a headless IE / Edge at some point. It would be amazing to be able to use all 3 major browsers like this. Heck, get Safari in there too (though I feel like it should be doable with WebKit already).

luisrudge 9y ago
they have webdriver support. Is that enough? I'm not sure what's the difference between headless and webdriver (if any) https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2015/07/23/bringing-automated-testing-to-microsoft-edge-through-webdriver/ https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2015/07/23/bringing-auto...
- alxlu 9y ago
  Running Edge with webdriver still includes the GUI.
poizan42 9y ago
Huh? They have had the WebBrowser ActiveX control since IE3 I think. That works as headless as you get on Windows.
- BinaryIdiot 9y ago
  Not quite. It's my understanding it's not as up to date or equivalent to the latest IE. When I tried looking around I just got a lot of confusing information about the control, how it applies (or doesn't) traditional IE hacks, etc. Though I could be wrong but it didn't seem like an equivalent to headless chrome or firefox.
  - poizan42 9y ago
    That is not correct, it just runs in compatibility mode by default, see https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/patricka/2015/01/12/controlling-webbrowser-control-compatibility/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/patricka/2015/01/12/control...

fareesh 9y ago

Does headless chrome do PDF generation? That's the only thing I'm using phantom for at the moment.

madeofpalk 9y ago
Yes. In fact, there's a command line switch for it https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-chrome#create_a_pdf_dom https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-c... The Chrome team also make Puppeteer, a node's library for interfacing with headless chrome, and has methods for making PDFs as well https://github.com/GoogleChrome/puppeteer https://github.com/GoogleChrome/puppeteer
dewey 9y ago
First result: --print-to-pdf https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-chrome https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-c...
itslennysfault 9y ago
Yes. It's really easy to do using [puppeteer](https://github.com/GoogleChrome/puppeteer https://github.com/GoogleChrome/puppeteer). The 2nd or 3rd example is PDF.
- jonaswi 9y ago
  I just recently switched from using PhantomJS to pupeteer for PDF generation in a production application. Works like a charm and has a very clean API.
- fareesh 9y ago
  Thanks that looks like a very clean library. Will switch to this.

kodablah 9y ago

Sadly, Chrome won't support extensions: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=706008 https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=706008

rnnr 9y ago
but... i think you can attach it to an existing chrome with remote debugging enabled, so not that big a deal!
- kodablah 9y ago
  Sure can, I've done it with puppeteer. Just can't enable headless.

ricardobeat 9y ago

The main advantage of PhantomJS at this point is the way it's built and distributed as a single binary, unlike Chrome. Much easier to maintain.

ris 9y ago
Correction: much easier to maintain irresponsibly. That binary you just downloaded and stuck somewhere some time ago - when was the last time it was updated? What about all of its underlying bundled static libraries? How certain were you ever of their up-to-dateness? Did you ever check what version of zlib it was using? Distributions attempting to package phantomjs properly had one hell of a time trying to reproduce its builds reliably. Most gave up. Distribution from author as binaries is a whole bundle of fail from the get-go.