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Version: 3.1

playwrightClickElements

Index

Interfaces

Functions

Interfaces

EnqueueLinksByClickingElementsOptions

EnqueueLinksByClickingElementsOptions:

optionalclickOptions

clickOptions?: { button?: left | middle | right; clickCount?: number; delay?: number; force?: boolean; modifiers?: (Shift | Control | Alt | Meta)[]; noWaitAfter?: boolean; position?: { x: number; y: number }; strict?: boolean; timeout?: number; trial?: boolean }

Click options for use in Playwright click handler.

Type declaration

  • externaloptionalbutton?: left | middle | right

    Defaults to left.

  • externaloptionalclickCount?: number

    defaults to 1. See [UIEvent.detail].

  • externaloptionaldelay?: number

    Time to wait between mousedown and mouseup in milliseconds. Defaults to 0.

  • externaloptionalforce?: boolean

    Whether to bypass the actionability checks. Defaults to false.

  • externaloptionalmodifiers?: (Shift | Control | Alt | Meta)[]

    Modifier keys to press. Ensures that only these modifiers are pressed during the operation, and then restores current modifiers back. If not specified, currently pressed modifiers are used.

  • externaloptionalnoWaitAfter?: boolean

    Actions that initiate navigations are waiting for these navigations to happen and for pages to start loading. You can opt out of waiting via setting this flag. You would only need this option in the exceptional cases such as navigating to inaccessible pages. Defaults to false.

  • externaloptionalposition?: { x: number; y: number }

    A point to use relative to the top-left corner of element padding box. If not specified, uses some visible point of the element.

    • externalx: number
    • externaly: number
  • externaloptionalstrict?: boolean

    When true, the call requires selector to resolve to a single element. If given selector resolves to more than one element, the call throws an exception.

  • externaloptionaltimeout?: number

    Maximum time in milliseconds, defaults to 30 seconds, pass 0 to disable timeout. The default value can be changed by using the browserContext.setDefaultTimeout(timeout) or page.setDefaultTimeout(timeout) methods.

  • externaloptionaltrial?: boolean

    When set, this method only performs the actionability checks and skips the action. Defaults to false. Useful to wait until the element is ready for the action without performing it.

optionalglobs

globs?: GlobInput[]

An array of glob pattern strings or plain objects containing glob pattern strings matching the URLs to be enqueued.

The plain objects must include at least the glob property, which holds the glob pattern string. All remaining keys will be used as request options for the corresponding enqueued Request objects.

The matching is always case-insensitive. If you need case-sensitive matching, use regexps property directly.

If globs is an empty array or undefined, then the function enqueues all the intercepted navigation requests produced by the page after clicking on elements matching the provided CSS selector.

optionallabel

label?: string

Sets Request.label for newly enqueued requests.

optionalmaxWaitForPageIdleSecs

maxWaitForPageIdleSecs?: number = <p>5</p>

This is the maximum period for which the function will keep tracking events, even if more events keep coming. Its purpose is to prevent a deadlock in the page by periodic events, often unrelated to the clicking itself. See waitForPageIdleSecs above for an explanation.

page

page: Page

Playwright Page object.

optionalpseudoUrls

pseudoUrls?: PseudoUrlInput[]

NOTE: In future versions of SDK the options will be removed. Please use globs or regexps instead.

An array of PseudoUrl strings or plain objects containing PseudoUrl strings matching the URLs to be enqueued.

The plain objects must include at least the purl property, which holds the pseudo-URL pattern string. All remaining keys will be used as request options for the corresponding enqueued Request objects.

With a pseudo-URL string, the matching is always case-insensitive. If you need case-sensitive matching, use regexps property directly.

If pseudoUrls is an empty array or undefined, then the function enqueues all the intercepted navigation requests produced by the page after clicking on elements matching the provided CSS selector.

@deprecated

prefer using globs or regexps instead

optionalregexps

regexps?: RegExpInput[]

An array of regular expressions or plain objects containing regular expressions matching the URLs to be enqueued.

The plain objects must include at least the regexp property, which holds the regular expression. All remaining keys will be used as request options for the corresponding enqueued Request objects.

If regexps is an empty array or undefined, then the function enqueues all the intercepted navigation requests produced by the page after clicking on elements matching the provided CSS selector.

requestQueue

requestQueue: RequestQueue

A request queue to which the URLs will be enqueued.

selector

selector: string

A CSS selector matching elements to be clicked on. Unlike in enqueueLinks, there is no default value. This is to prevent suboptimal use of this function by using it too broadly.

optionaltransformRequestFunction

transformRequestFunction?: RequestTransform

Just before a new Request is constructed and enqueued to the RequestQueue, this function can be used to remove it or modify its contents such as userData, payload or, most importantly uniqueKey. This is useful when you need to enqueue multiple Requests to the queue that share the same URL, but differ in methods or payloads, or to dynamically update or create userData.

For example: by adding useExtendedUniqueKey: true to the request object, uniqueKey will be computed from a combination of url, method and payload which enables crawling of websites that navigate using form submits (POST requests).

Example:

{
    transformRequestFunction: (request) => {
        request.userData.foo = 'bar';
        request.useExtendedUniqueKey = true;
        return request;
    }
}

optionaluserData

userData?: Dictionary<any>

Sets Request.userData for newly enqueued requests.

optionalwaitForPageIdleSecs

waitForPageIdleSecs?: number = <p>1</p>

Clicking in the page triggers various asynchronous operations that lead to new URLs being shown by the browser. It could be a simple JavaScript redirect or opening of a new tab in the browser. These events often happen only some time after the actual click. Requests typically take milliseconds while new tabs open in hundreds of milliseconds.

To be able to capture all those events, the enqueueLinksByClickingElements() function repeatedly waits for the waitForPageIdleSecs. By repeatedly we mean that whenever a relevant event is triggered, the timer is restarted. As long as new events keep coming, the function will not return, unless the below maxWaitForPageIdleSecs timeout is reached.

You may want to reduce this for example when you're sure that your clicks do not open new tabs, or increase when you're not getting all the expected URLs.

Functions

enqueueLinksByClickingElements

  • The function finds elements matching a specific CSS selector in a Playwright page, clicks all those elements using a mouse move and a left mouse button click and intercepts all the navigation requests that are subsequently produced by the page. The intercepted requests, including their methods, headers and payloads are then enqueued to a provided RequestQueue. This is useful to crawl JavaScript heavy pages where links are not available in href elements, but rather navigations are triggered in click handlers. If you're looking to find URLs in href attributes of the page, see enqueueLinks.

    Optionally, the function allows you to filter the target links' URLs using an array of PseudoUrl objects and override settings of the enqueued Request objects.

    IMPORTANT: To be able to do this, this function uses various mutations on the page, such as changing the Z-index of elements being clicked and their visibility. Therefore, it is recommended to only use this function as the last operation in the page.

    USING HEADFUL BROWSER: When using a headful browser, this function will only be able to click elements in the focused tab, effectively limiting concurrency to 1. In headless mode, full concurrency can be achieved.

    PERFORMANCE: Clicking elements with a mouse and intercepting requests is not a low level operation that takes nanoseconds. It's not very CPU intensive, but it takes time. We strongly recommend limiting the scope of the clicking as much as possible by using a specific selector that targets only the elements that you assume or know will produce a navigation. You can certainly click everything by using the * selector, but be prepared to wait minutes to get results on a large and complex page.

    Example usage

    await playwrightUtils.enqueueLinksByClickingElements({
      page,
      requestQueue,
      selector: 'a.product-detail',
      pseudoUrls: [
          'https://www.example.com/handbags/[.*]'
          'https://www.example.com/purses/[.*]'
      ],
    });

    Parameters

    Returns Promise<BatchAddRequestsResult>

    Promise that resolves to BatchAddRequestsResult object.

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