Since we are using Selenium with Python, it’s a good idea to make a Python virtual environment. $ mv Downloads/chromedriver going_headless/ Now we can move the ChromeDriver into the directory that we just made: Next, let’s make a folder that will contain all of our files: Going Headless Setupīefore we get started, we need to install Chrome Canary and download the latest ChromeDriver (currently 5.29). As a result, we can expect lower memory overhead and faster execution for the scripts that we write. When using a headless browser, we don’t have to worry about that. Both are associated with having to display the browser with the rendered graphics from the URL that was requested. Prior to the release of Headless Chrome, any time that you did any automated driving of Chrome that potentially involved several windows or tabs, you had to worry about the CPU and/or memory usage.

Using a headless browser allows easy access to this content because the content is rendered exactly as it would be in a full browser. In addition to this, traditional web-oriented tasks like web scraping can be difficult to do if the content is rendered dynamically (say, via Javascript). If you’re trying to check how a page may render in a different browser or confirm that page elements are present after a user initiates a certain workflow, using a headless browser can provide a lot of assistance. One of the many use cases for headless browsers is automating usability testing or testing browser interactions. In short, headless browsers are web browsers without a graphical user interface (GUI) and are usually controlled programmatically or via a command-line interface.

Since the respective flags are already available on Chrome Canary, the Duo Labs team thought it would be fun to test things out and also provide a brief introduction to driving Chrome using Selenium and Python.īefore we dive into any code, let’s talk about what a headless browser is and why it’s useful. Back in April, Google announced that it will be shipping Headless Chrome in Chrome 59.

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