Server side browser that can execute JavaScript

Question

Is there any programming libraries available that will parse an HTML document, execute JavaScript and then allow me to navigate the DOM?  This needs to be performed server s

Answer 1

Java has support for javascript with Rhino, also look at this page for server side javascript solutions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server-side_JavaScript

Answer 2

PHP has DOMDocument for navigating the DOM. I haven't heard of anything for executing JavaScript.

Answer 3

For Java, be sure to check out HtmlUnit and HttpUnit.

Answer 4

Start from this post and follow a links. Or just search for Rhino.

Answer 5

node.js ?

Node can run any javascript file in its console. I would try node first & see if it can do what you want as it likely has the largest user base & documentation.

Answer 6

There are now several projects that do a really good job of this:

• PhantomJS is a headless version of WebKit, and there are some helpful wrappers such as CasperJS.

• Zombie.js which is a wrapper over jsdom written in Javascript (Node.js).

You need to write JavaScript code to interact with both of these projects. I like Zombie.js better so far, since it is easier to set up, and you can use any Node.js/npm modules in your code.