Create Persistent Browser¶

Description

This component lets the user create a persistent browser, that is, a browser that is kept active after the wrapper that created it finishes its execution. This way, another wrapper executed later can reuse the browser state.

This is useful for instance when, in the middle of a web automation process, we need to dynamically receive information from the user. In these situations, we can split the process in two wrappers: the first one will execute the process until the information from the user is required and will return the identifier of the persistent browser used. The second wrapper will receive as input this identifier and will continue the browsing from the same point and using the same browser.

Input Parameters

This component does not require any input parameter.

Output Values

The component returns a browser identifier of the created persistent browser. This identifier can be use later by a GetPage component in other wrapper to obtain the page that ITPilot internally recognizes as belonging to the persistent browser.

Using the Component Create Persistent Browser

There are occasions in which it is necessary to “stop” the execution of a process, but in a way that it is possible to keep its state. For instance, a web automation process may require at a specific moment some information manually typed by a user (e.g. a password) in order to continue the process. In those cases, the components Create Persistent Browser (section Create Persistent Browser), Get Page (section Get Page) and Release Persistent Browser (section Release Persistent Browser) allow that management to take place.

In general, a process will be the responsible for creating a persistent browser by using the Create Persistent Browser component. This component returns a browser-type object that can be internally stored in the process for its latter use, and/or returned as result of the process execution. Using Create Persistent browser shows a simple example. It can be seen how a Create Persistent Browser component has been created that returns a browser value. This value can be immediately used by a Get Page component to obtain a Page object that can be used in other components such as Sequence, Extractor Sequence, and so on.

Using Create Persistent browser¶

This process returns a browser value as a result, so that it can be reused by another wrapper at a later stage. Using Record Constructor to return a persistent browser shows how the Record Constructor component contains the browser value created by the Create Persistent Browser component as a result.

Using Record Constructor to return a persistent browser¶

Another process can recover the state of that browser if its identifier is passed as an input argument. Obviously, the state of the browser depends on characteristics such as its cookies’ expiration time, or the session expiration time. Any process desiring to use these components must take into account the inherent behavior of the web applications to be accessed.

Finally, the Release Browser component is used to free that browser.

The CreatePersistentBrowser component wizard can be configured for the type of browser to be used. The options are:

1. Default: default browser.

2. MSIE Browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer.

3. Denodo Browser: http client able to manage JavaScript.