Is Symfony Panther compatible with headless browsers like Chrome and Firefox?

Yes, Symfony Panther is fully compatible with headless browsers including Chrome and Firefox. Panther is a PHP library that provides a unified API for browser automation using the WebDriver protocol, making it ideal for both automated testing and web scraping applications.

Browser Support

Symfony Panther supports:

Chrome/Chromium via ChromeDriver
Firefox via GeckoDriver
Headless mode (default behavior)
Non-headless mode for debugging

Installation

Install Symfony Panther using Composer:

composer require symfony/panther

Prerequisites

Before using Panther, ensure you have the required drivers:

For Chrome

Chrome or Chromium browser
ChromeDriver (can be installed via chromedriver-binary package)

composer require --dev dbrekelmans/bdi
vendor/bin/bdi detect drivers

For Firefox

Firefox browser
GeckoDriver

# Download GeckoDriver from GitHub releases
wget https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver/releases/download/v0.33.0/geckodriver-v0.33.0-linux64.tar.gz
tar -xzf geckodriver-v0.33.0-linux64.tar.gz
sudo mv geckodriver /usr/local/bin/

Usage Examples

Basic Chrome Setup (Default)

<?php
use Symfony\Component\Panther\PantherTestCase;

class WebScrapingTest extends PantherTestCase
{
    public function testScraping()
    {
        // Creates headless Chrome client by default
        $client = static::createPantherClient();
        $crawler = $client->request('GET', 'https://example.com');

        // Extract data
        $title = $crawler->filter('title')->text();
        $headings = $crawler->filter('h1, h2, h3')->each(function ($node) {
            return $node->text();
        });

        $this->assertStringContainsString('Example', $title);
    }
}

Firefox Configuration

<?php
use Symfony\Component\Panther\PantherTestCase;

class FirefoxScrapingTest extends PantherTestCase
{
    public function testWithFirefox()
    {
        // Configure Firefox as browser
        $client = static::createPantherClient([
            'browser' => static::FIREFOX,
        ]);

        $crawler = $client->request('GET', 'https://example.com');

        // Wait for dynamic content
        $client->waitFor('h1');

        $heading = $crawler->filter('h1')->text();
        $this->assertNotEmpty($heading);
    }
}

Environment Variables Configuration

<?php
// Set environment variables for Firefox
$_SERVER['PANTHER_BROWSER'] = 'firefox';
$_SERVER['PANTHER_NO_HEADLESS'] = 0; // 0 = headless, 1 = with GUI
$_SERVER['PANTHER_WEB_SERVER_PORT'] = 9080;

use Symfony\Component\Panther\PantherTestCase;

class ConfiguredTest extends PantherTestCase
{
    public function testWithEnvironmentConfig()
    {
        $client = static::createPantherClient();
        // Will use Firefox in headless mode due to environment variables

        $crawler = $client->request('GET', 'https://httpbin.org/json');
        $jsonText = $crawler->filter('pre')->text();
        $data = json_decode($jsonText, true);

        $this->assertIsArray($data);
    }
}

Custom Browser Options

<?php
use Symfony\Component\Panther\PantherTestCase;

class CustomOptionsTest extends PantherTestCase
{
    public function testWithCustomOptions()
    {
        $client = static::createPantherClient([
            'browser' => static::CHROME,
        ], [
            '--window-size=1920,1080',
            '--user-agent=Custom Bot 1.0',
            '--disable-web-security',
            '--disable-features=VizDisplayCompositor'
        ]);

        $crawler = $client->request('GET', 'https://httpbin.org/user-agent');
        $userAgent = json_decode($crawler->filter('pre')->text(), true);

        $this->assertStringContainsString('Custom Bot', $userAgent['user-agent']);
    }
}

Web Scraping with Form Interaction

<?php
use Symfony\Component\Panther\PantherTestCase;

class FormScrapingTest extends PantherTestCase
{
    public function testFormInteraction()
    {
        $client = static::createPantherClient();
        $crawler = $client->request('GET', 'https://httpbin.org/forms/post');

        // Fill and submit form
        $form = $crawler->selectButton('Submit')->form([
            'custname' => 'John Doe',
            'custtel' => '123-456-7890',
            'custemail' => 'john@example.com',
        ]);

        $client->submit($form);
        $client->waitFor('pre'); // Wait for response

        $response = json_decode($client->getCrawler()->filter('pre')->text(), true);
        $this->assertEquals('John Doe', $response['form']['custname']);
    }
}

Configuration Options

Environment Variables

| Variable | Description | Default | |----------|-------------|---------| | PANTHER_BROWSER | Browser to use (chrome or firefox) | chrome | | PANTHER_NO_HEADLESS | Disable headless mode (0=headless, 1=GUI) | 0 | | PANTHER_CHROME_DRIVER_BINARY | Path to ChromeDriver binary | Auto-detected | | PANTHER_FIREFOX_DRIVER_BINARY | Path to GeckoDriver binary | Auto-detected | | PANTHER_WEB_SERVER_PORT | Port for built-in web server | 9080 |

Client Options

$client = static::createPantherClient([
    'browser' => static::FIREFOX,           // Browser type
    'hostname' => 'localhost',              // Hostname
    'port' => 4444,                        // WebDriver port
    'base_uri' => 'http://localhost:8000', // Base URI for requests
]);

Best Practices

Performance Optimization

Use headless mode for production scraping
Disable unnecessary browser features
Set appropriate timeouts

$client = static::createPantherClient([], [
    '--no-sandbox',
    '--disable-gpu',
    '--disable-dev-shm-usage',
    '--disable-extensions',
    '--disable-images', // Skip image loading
]);

Error Handling

try {
    $client = static::createPantherClient();
    $crawler = $client->request('GET', 'https://example.com');

    // Wait for element with timeout
    $client->waitFor('.content', 10);
    $content = $crawler->filter('.content')->text();

} catch (\Exception $e) {
    // Handle WebDriver exceptions
    echo "Error: " . $e->getMessage();
} finally {
    if (isset($client)) {
        $client->quit(); // Clean up browser session
    }
}

Key Advantages

Unified API: Same code works with both Chrome and Firefox
JavaScript Support: Fully renders dynamic content
Selenium Integration: Compatible with existing WebDriver infrastructure
Symfony Integration: Seamlessly works with Symfony applications
Testing Framework: Built-in PHPUnit integration

Symfony Panther provides a robust solution for headless browser automation in PHP, making it an excellent choice for both web scraping and end-to-end testing scenarios.

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