Can Node.js invoke Chrome?

Question

Is it possible for Node.js running on a desktop to spawn a Chrome Browser window? I would like to start a Chrome Browser providing the window size and location when Node.js rece

Answer 1

On MacOSX

var childProc = require('child_process');
childProc.exec('open -a "Google Chrome" http://your_url', callback);
//Or could be: childProc.exec('open -a firefox http://your_url', callback);

A bit more:

• Use "open -a" with the name of your app from /Applications and append your args
• callback function is called with the output after completion
• Link to API: https://nodejs.org/api/child_process.html#child_process_child_process_exec_command_options_callback

Answer 2

This can be done using open npm package.

app.listen(PORT, (err) => {
  if (err) console.log(err);
  else open(`http://localhost:${PORT}`, { app: "google chrome" });
});

We can specify any browser in second parameter with open function.

Answer 3

var exec = require('child_process').exec

exec('open firefox www.google.pt' , function(err) {
if(err){ //process error
}

else{ console.log("success open")
}

})

This opens firefox in google page from a nodejs script, for chrome should be the same

Answer 4

With opn:

const opn = require('opn');
opn('http://siteurl.com/', {app: ['google chrome']});

Answer 5

I open a new firefox tab on windows here: https://github.com/Sequoia/FTWin/blob/master/FTWin.n.js

The most salient portion:

var cp = require('child_process'),
    url_to_open = 'http://duckduckgo.com/';

cp.spawn('c:\\Program Files (x86)\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe', ['-new-tab', url_to_open]);

Note:

1. Passing the full path of firefox to child_process.spawn
2. Escaping of slashes
3. Passing switches/arguments to firefox.exe: passed as the second parameter of cp.spawn as an array (one entry per switch).

This call is the equivalent of typing "c:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -new-tab http://duckduckgo.com at the windows command line.

For chrome you'd want something like D:\Users\sequoia\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --new-tab http://duckduckgo.com/ I'll let you work out the child_process version on your own ;)

References:

http://peter.sh/experiments/chromium-command-line-switches/

http://nodejs.org/docs/v0.3.1/api/child_processes.html

Answer 6

Node can only do that if you call a UNIX / Windows command, so sys shell command only.