Using a headless browser allows easy access to this content because the content is rendered exactly as it would be in a full browser. In addition to this, traditional web-oriented tasks like web scraping can be difficult to do if the content is rendered dynamically (say, via Javascript). If you’re trying to check how a page may render in a different browser or confirm that page elements are present after a user initiates a certain workflow, using a headless browser can provide a lot of assistance. One of the many use cases for headless browsers is automating usability testing or testing browser interactions. In short, headless browsers are web browsers without a graphical user interface (GUI) and are usually controlled programmatically or via a command-line interface. Since the respective flags are already available on Chrome Canary, the Duo Labs team thought it would be fun to test things out and also provide a brief introduction to driving Chrome using Selenium and Python.īefore we dive into any code, let’s talk about what a headless browser is and why it’s useful. Back in April, Google announced that it will be shipping Headless Chrome in Chrome 59.
