Headless Browsers
Headless browsers are web browsers that operate without a graphical user interface (GUI), allowing automated interaction with web pages programmatically. They enable tasks like web scraping, automated testing, and performance monitoring by simulating user actions such as clicking, typing, and navigating. Popular examples include Puppeteer, Playwright, and Selenium with headless Chrome or Firefox.
Developers should use headless browsers for automated testing of web applications to ensure functionality across different scenarios without manual intervention. They are essential for web scraping when extracting data from dynamic websites that rely on JavaScript, as they can render pages fully before processing. Additionally, they are valuable for performance analysis, SEO auditing, and generating screenshots or PDFs of web pages in automated workflows.