Mechanize and Javascript

Question

I want to use Mechanize to simulate browsing to a web page with active JavaScript, including DOM Events and AJAX, and so far I\'ve found no way to do that.

I looked

Answer 1

Basically if you want something that deals with javascript then you need a real javascript engine, these invariably involve automating a real browser (I'm including headless ones in this).

Java’s HtmlUnit doesn't do a very good job as it doesn't use a javascript engine from an actual browser. Phantom JS sounds ideal (as newz2000 points out) however I find that when manipulating pages with javascript it can be very difficult to debug your script if you can't actually see the page you're dealing with.

This leads to solutions such as Selenium Webdriver which has a full python API to automate various browsers, however you must run a java jar and it actually launches the browser, so not the pure python solution you're after (but I think this is as close as you can get).