can phantomjs work with node.js?

Question

I would like to use phantomjs in my node.js script. there is a phantomjs-node library.. but unfortunately the author used this weird coffee script code to explain what he\'s

Answer 1

Seems this is working..

var phantom = require('phantom');

phantom.create().then(function(ph) {
  ph.createPage().then(function(page) {
    page.open('https://stackoverflow.com/').then(function(status) {
      console.log(status);
      page.property('content').then(function(content) {
        console.log(content);
        page.close();
        ph.exit();
      });
    });
  });
});

But I am trying to generate an html page with some external script file. It is unable to inject a script file. I tried like following. Callback is not returning from the line page.injectJs('./jQuery.min.js',function() {

var phantom = require('phantom');

    phantom.create().then(function(ph) {
      ph.createPage().then(function(page) {
        page.injectJs('./jQuery.min.js', function() {
          page.property('content').then(function(content) {
            console.log(content);
            page.close();
            ph.exit();
          });
        });
      });
    });

Answer 2

You could just ditch PhantomJS like I did because it was just too much a pain with these wrappers not working well, and go with Zombie.js which is pretty popular too.

Answer 3

You could also give phridge a try. Your example would've been written like this:

var phantom;

// spawn a new PhantomJS process
phridge.spawn()
    .then(function (ph) {
        phantom = ph;
        return phantom.openPage("http://www.google.com");
    })
    .then(function (page) {
        return page.run(function () {
            // this function runs inside PhantomJS with this bound to a webpage instance
            return this.title;
        });
    })
    .then(function (title) {
        console.log('Page title is ' + title);
        // terminates the process cleanly
        phantom.dispose();
    });

Answer 4

change your code to this, and it will be working:

 var phantom = require('phantom');
 phantom.create(function(ph) {
   ph.createPage(function(page) {
     page.open("http://www.google.com", function(status) {
       console.log("opened google? ", status);
       page.evaluate((function() {
         return document.title;
       }), function(result) {
         console.log('Page title is ' + result);
         ph.exit();
       });
     });
   });
 });

Answer 5

phantomjs-node isn't an official supported npm package for phantomjs. Instead, it implements a "nauseously clever bridge" between node and phantom by creating a web server that uses websockets to serve as an IPC channel between node and phantom. I'm not making this up:

So we communicate with PhantomJS by spinning up an instance of ExpressJS, opening Phantom in a subprocess, and pointing it at a special webpage that turns socket.io messages into alert() calls. Those alert() calls are picked up by Phantom and there you go!

So I wouldn't be surprised if phantomjs-node works, doesn't work, fails silently, or fails spectacularly. Nor would I expect anyone other than the author of phantomjs-node to be able to troubleshoot phantomjs-node.

The answer to your original question is the answer from the phantomjs faq: No. Phantom and node have irreconcilable differences. Both expect to have complete control over fundamental low-level functionality like the event loop, the network stack, and JS execution so they can't cooperate within the same process.

Answer 6

I experienced the same problems as you do, and apparently, there is a known issue with phantomjs-node and newer versions of nodejs. Seems like it stopped working somewhere around node 0.9.3, according to the comments in the issue. So until that has been resolved, you either have to downgrade nodejs, or try a different module, like node-phantom, or just use exec/spawn.