What scenarios are benefited by using a Headless Browser?

Help
,
#1

Good afternoon UiPath Forum, I am on a project where we are doing automations for a client targeting a system deployed fully in a browser. Early efforts are focused on IE but Chrome is an option for us. We are trying to identify all options for improving automation performance.

The 2019.10 platform release references use of the Webdriver protocol and headless capabilities from Chrome. In reviewing Forum and Go! posts to date, I do not see any other information provided on specific use of the Webdriver in an automation and how it can specifically target a headless browser. Would doing this improve automation performance when targeting an application based in the browser?

I welcome all feedback. Most appreciated.

1 Like
How do I Test my automation once I have generated output to a headless Chrome browser?
#2

Hi
Did this document helped us on this

Cheers @jamiejam

#3

Thanks very much @Palaniyappan for the fast reply. I read that and I reviewed the material in taking the Academy course for 2019.10 platform updates. The material sparked my interest but I didn’t present an approach for using the webdriver or headless browser that I could understand.

Here is what I would like to do and am wondering if the webdriver and headless Chrome would make it possible. Can I

  • build a transaction automation using the system in regular chrome against
  • use the webdriver and headless chrome to run the automation for better performance

If the answers are yes, generally what steps are needed to perform the second item above?

#4

Hi

Yes we can
And

Headless Automation via Webdriver

  1. Headless automation does not rely on visual elements. As such, the Webdriver protocol doesn’t actually open a visible browser window when it is used in Headless mode. Because of this, Headless automation cannot function with some activities which use hardware events (such as Click or Type Into ) in their default state. They must be configured to use the SimulateClick, SimulateType , or SimulateHover properties.
  2. Activities which interact with images (such as Click Image or Find Image ) are not supported because they rely on the browser window itself.
  3. Events monitoring (such as Click Trigger or Hotkey Trigger ) is not supported, because they rely on hardware events.
  4. Using <WND> tags in the Close Application activity only closes the browser session and not the corresponding webdriver process. It is recommended to use <HTML> tags instead.
  5. When using Chrome, the browser window opened via the Webdriver protocol always opens in the same visual space and with the same size specifications. Moreover, some websites have adaptive page layout and this can lead to invalid selectors when the window size is changed. In this regard, it is recommended to use the default browser window size when you create your automation project.

For more details

Cheers @jamiejam

2 Likes
#5

That configuration doc was a huge help @Palaniyappan. I really appreciate that. I am going to work with that outside the client site to get something up and running and then identify the necessary steps inside my client organization regarding versions and setup. Thanks very much.

1 Like
#6

Cheers @jamiejam

#7

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