Skip to main content
Version: Next

puppeteerClickElements

Index

References

Interfaces

Functions

References

enqueueLinksByClickingElements

Re-exports enqueueLinksByClickingElements

Interfaces

EnqueueLinksByClickingElementsOptions

EnqueueLinksByClickingElementsOptions:

optionalclickOptions

clickOptions?: ClickOptions

Click options for use in Puppeteer's click handler.

optionalforefront

forefront?: boolean = ```ts false ```

If set to true:

  • while adding the request to the queue: the request will be added to the foremost position in the queue.
  • while reclaiming the request: the request will be placed to the beginning of the queue, so that it's returned in the next call to RequestQueue.fetchNextRequest. By default, it's put to the end of the queue.

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 = ```ts 5 ```

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

Puppeteer 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: RequestProvider

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.

optionalskipNavigation

skipNavigation?: boolean = ```ts false ```

If set to true, tells the crawler to skip navigation and process the request directly.

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

Sets Request.userData for newly enqueued requests.

optionalwaitForPageIdleSecs

waitForPageIdleSecs?: number = ```ts 1 ```

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

isTargetRelevant

  • isTargetRelevant(page: Page, target: Target): boolean

  • We're only interested in pages created by the page we're currently clicking in. There will generally be a lot of other targets being created in the browser.

    Parameters

    • page: Page
    • target: Target

    Returns boolean