Creating a headless Chrome instance in Python

Question

This question describes my conclusion after researching available options for creating a headless Chrome instance in Python and asks for confirmation or resources that descr

Answer 1

I use this to get the driver:

def get_browser(storage_dir, headless=False):
    """
    Get the browser (a "driver").

    Parameters
    ----------
    storage_dir : str
    headless : bool

    Results
    -------
    browser : selenium webdriver object
    """
    # find the path with 'which chromedriver'
    path_to_chromedriver = '/usr/local/bin/chromedriver'

    from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
    chrome_options = Options()
    if headless:
        chrome_options.add_argument("--headless")
    chrome_options.add_experimental_option('prefs', {
        "plugins.plugins_list": [{"enabled": False,
                                  "name": "Chrome PDF Viewer"}],
        "download": {
            "prompt_for_download": False,
            "default_directory": storage_dir,
            "directory_upgrade": False,
            "open_pdf_in_system_reader": False
        }
    })

    browser = webdriver.Chrome(path_to_chromedriver,
                               chrome_options=chrome_options)
    return browser

By switching the headless parameter you can either watch it or not.