Can the Firefox Web Console be accessed while in headless mode?

Is it possible to interact with the Firefox console when starting Firefox in headless mode?

Alternatively, is there a way to programmatically access the console in scripts?

My attempts so far:

I have been experimenting with the Javascript bindings to Selenium without success. Starting Firefox with the -devtools option from Selenium opens the dev tools, but I am unable to switch to the actual console or interact with the open devtools window using my .js script.

Edit

Despite trying various methods, such as sending CTRL+SHIFT+k to the body tag of google.com using Selenium, the console does not open as expected.

// code example here

Although no errors are returned and the page loads successfully, the console remains inaccessible.

Sending other key combinations works fine, indicating that the issue lies specifically with CTRL+SHIFT+k.

2nd edit:

Upon further exploration, a solution using Python instead of node has proven successful in accessing the Firefox console as intended.

javascriptseleniumfirefox

Answer №1

The solution provided by Karthik addresses the issue, and I want to summarize it here while documenting automated solutions for accessing Firefox-Web-Console.

The main idea in the linked answer (in my 2nd edit) is that to fully control key elements in Firefox browser, one needs to:

  • Switch Firefox context to chrome (from default content context)
  • Instruct the automated browser driver to find the element with id tabbrowser-tabs
  • Send the key combination (e.g., Ctrl+Shift+k) to that element.

Practical working solutions:

Python

The Python script is as follows:

from selenium.webdriver import Firefox, DesiredCapabilities, FirefoxProfile
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.firefox.options import Options
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

import time

options = Options()
webdriver = Firefox(options=options)
webdriver.get("https://google.com")
try:
    time.sleep(3)
    with webdriver.context(webdriver.CONTEXT_CHROME):
        console = webdriver.find_element(By.ID, "tabbrowser-tabs")
        console.send_keys(Keys.LEFT_CONTROL + Keys.LEFT_SHIFT + 'k')
                
except:
    pass

Executing this script with python <path-to-script> will display a Firefox window with google.com open and the console visible at the bottom.

Javascript

Below is the full Javascript script:

var webdriver = require('selenium-webdriver'),
    By = webdriver.By,
    until = webdriver.until;

var firefox = require('selenium-webdriver/firefox');
var inpt = require('selenium-webdriver/lib/input');

var options = new firefox.Options();

var driver = new webdriver.Builder()
    .forBrowser('firefox')
    .setFirefoxOptions(options)
    .build();

(async function(){
    await driver.get('https://google.com');
    await driver.setContext("chrome");

    var tabs = await driver.findElement(By.id('tabbrowser-tabs'));
    await tabs.sendKeys(inpt.Key.CONTROL + inpt.Key.SHIFT + 'k');
    
})();

Running this script with node <path-to-script> will produce the same result: a Firefox window opening on google.com with the console visible below.

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