Using Selenium without using any browser

Question

I have been trying to do web automation using Selenium. Is there any way to use a browser like Chrome or Firefox without actually installing them, like using some alternate options, or having portable versions of them. If I can use portable versions how do I tell Selenium to use it?

This comment is to get the attention of experienced developers to get an updated answer. I'll delete it soon. — Cyber Avater, Aug 04 '22 at 07:20

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 18 '20 at 11:57

1

To use the browsers like google-chrome and firefox you have to install the full-blown browser.

You can find a detailed discussion in Is Chrome installation needed or only chromedriver when using Selenium?

As an alternative you can use the headless phantomjs browser as follows:

Code Block:

from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.PhantomJS(executable_path=r'C:\WebDrivers\phantomjs.exe', service_args=['--ignore-ssl-errors=true', '--ssl-protocol=tslv1.0'])
driver.set_window_size(1920, 1080)
driver.get("https://account.booking.com/register?op_token=EgVvYXV0aCJ7ChQ2Wjcyb0hPZDM2Tm43emszcGlyaBIJYXV0aG9yaXplGhpodHRwczovL2FkbWluLmJvb2tpbmcuY29tLyo2eyJwYWdlIjoiL3JlZGlyZWN0LXRvLWpvaW5hcHAtbHA_bGFuZz1pdCZhaWQ9MTE4NzM2MCJ9QgRjb2RlKg4QAToAQgBY5dGK8gVgAQ")
print(driver.page_source)
driver.quit()

You can find a detailed discussion in PhantomJS can't load correctly web page

References

A couple of relevent discussions:

answered Jun 18 '20 at 11:57

undetected Selenium

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Isn't Phantom dead? – Daniel Williams May 12 '21 at 21:58
phantom is dead. good luck guys. i hope there's alternative to this problem – greendino Apr 22 '22 at 02:56
@undetected Selenium phantom is dead, can you provide some alternative? It doesn't have to selenium, any portable library would do actually. – Cyber Avater Aug 04 '22 at 07:22
@CyberAvater [BeautifulSoup](https://stackoverflow.com/a/47871704/7429447)/Requests either will be a good candidate. Even [Headless Chrome](https://stackoverflow.com/a/49582462/7429447)/[Headless Firefox](https://stackoverflow.com/a/46768243/7429447) – undetected Selenium Aug 04 '22 at 07:52

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 09 '23 at 20:57

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Install Selenium typing pip install selenium.

It comes with a portable version of Chrome browser, no need to manually install any browser for this.

Chrome will show this message to indicate that it is being 'remote controlled:

"Chrome is controlled by automated test software"

edited Jan 09 '23 at 20:57

nicolaus-hee

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answered Jun 18 '20 at 04:55

Vignesh

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But still your machine has to have a chrome browser to open from selenium code!! – Hari Jun 18 '20 at 04:56
yeah its a different version of chrome , it doesn't need your usual chrome browser – Vignesh Jun 18 '20 at 04:58
it will automatically comes inside python libs – Vignesh Jun 18 '20 at 04:58
As others said, check this. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53330322/is-chrome-installation-needed-or-only-chromedriver-when-using-selenium – MendelG Jun 18 '20 at 05:00

Using Selenium without using any browser

2 Answers2

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