Puppeteer Sharp Documentation

You can launch a browser, open a new page, navigate to a URL, and take a screenshot using the following pattern. This example uses LaunchOptions to run in headless mode.

using var browser = await Puppeteer.LaunchAsync(new LaunchOptions { Headless = true });
var page = await browser.NewPageAsync();
await page.GoToAsync("https://example.com");
await page.ScreenshotAsync("screenshot.png");

To capture a screenshot of a web page, launch a browser, navigate to a URL using GoToAsync, and call ScreenshotAsync. You can use SetViewportAsync to define the dimensions of the viewport before taking the screenshot.

using var browser = await Puppeteer.LaunchAsync(new LaunchOptions { Headless = true });
var page = await browser.NewPageAsync();
await page.GoToAsync("https://www.google.com");
await page.ScreenshotAsync("screenshot.png");

// Optional: Set viewport size before screenshot
await page.SetViewportAsync(new ViewPortOptions
{
    Width = 500,
    Height = 500
});

Locators provide a high-level API to find and interact with elements on a page. Use page.Locator(selector) followed by action methods like ClickAsync() to interact with elements using CSS selectors.

using var browser = await Puppeteer.LaunchAsync(new LaunchOptions { Headless = true });
var page = await browser.NewPageAsync();
await page.GoToAsync("https://example.com");
await page.Locator("button.submit").ClickAsync();

Instead of launching a local browser instance, you can connect to an existing browser via a WebSocket endpoint using Puppeteer.ConnectAsync and ConnectOptions.BrowserWSEndpoint.

var options = new ConnectOptions()
{
    BrowserWSEndpoint = $"wss://www.externalbrowser.io?token={apikey}"
};

using var browser = await Puppeteer.ConnectAsync(options);
using var page = await browser.NewPageAsync();
await page.GoToAsync("https://www.google.com/");
await page.PdfAsync("output.pdf");

To test a Chrome extension, use Puppeteer.LaunchAsync with specific command-line arguments passed via LaunchOptions. You must set Headless = false because extensions generally do not work in headless mode.

Use the following arguments in the Args array:

• --disable-extensions-except="{pathToExtension}"
• --load-extension="{pathToExtension}"

using var browserFetcher = new BrowserFetcher();
await browserFetcher.DownloadAsync(BrowserFetcher.DefaultRevision);

var pathToExtension = "path/to/extension";
var launchOptions = new LaunchOptions()
{
    Headless = false,
    Args = new []
    {
        $@"--disable-extensions-except=""{pathToExtension}""",
        $@"--load-extension=""{pathToExtension}"""
    }
};

using (var browser = await Puppeteer.LaunchAsync(launchOptions))
using (var page = await browser.NewPageAsync())
{
    // test your extension here
}

To retrieve all hyperlinks (href attributes) from a web page, use Page.EvaluateExpressionAsync<T> to execute JavaScript within the browser context. This allows you to run DOM queries like document.querySelectorAll('a') and map the results directly to a C# array or list.

using (var browser = await Puppeteer.LaunchAsync(options))
using (var page = await browser.NewPageAsync())
{
    await page.GoToAsync("http://www.google.com");
    var jsSelectAllAnchors = @"Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('a')).map(a => a.href);";
    var urls = await page.EvaluateExpressionAsync<string[]>(jsSelectAllAnchors);
    foreach (string url in urls)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Url: {url}");
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Press any key to continue...");
    Console.ReadLine();
}

Puppeteer Sharp is a .NET port of the Node.js Puppeteer API that controls headless Chrome or Chromium via the DevTools Protocol.

Prerequisites:

• Target Frameworks: Available as a NetStandard 2.0 library (for .NET Framework 4.6.1 and .NET Core 2.0+) and a dedicated .NET 8 version.
• Linux Users: An X-server is required. If you encounter issues running Chrome on Linux, refer to the official Puppeteer troubleshooting guide.

To avoid downloading Chrome to the default location every time, you can use BrowserFetcherOptions to specify a custom directory for the browser download. This allows you to reuse a previously downloaded Chrome instance from a specific path.

var downloadPath = "/Users/dario/chrome";
var browserFetcherOptions = new BrowserFetcherOptions { Path = downloadPath };
var browserFetcher = new BrowserFetcher(browserFetcherOptions);
var installedBrowser = await browserFetcher.DownloadAsync();

You can save a web page as a PDF using PdfAsync. For advanced layouts, use PdfOptions to specify Format (e.g., PaperFormat.A4), DisplayHeaderFooter, MarginOptions, and custom FooterTemplate or HeaderTemplate HTML strings.

using var browser = await Puppeteer.LaunchAsync(new LaunchOptions { Headless = true });
var page = await browser.NewPageAsync();
await page.GoToAsync("https://www.google.com");
await page.PdfAsync("output.pdf", new PdfOptions
{
    Format = PaperFormat.A4,
    DisplayHeaderFooter = true,
    MarginOptions = new MarginOptions
    {
        Top = "20px",
        Right = "20px",
        Bottom = "40px",
        Left = "20px"
    },
    FooterTemplate = "<div id=\"footer-template\" style=\"font-size:10px !important; color:#808080; padding-left:10px\">Footer Text</div>"
});