File Handling (Downloads & Uploads)

Browser Swarm provides robust capabilities for automating file downloads and uploads within your browser sessions. Whether you're scraping data, testing file uploads, or automating workflows, our platform ensures seamless file handling.

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📥 Handling Downloads

🔧 Triggering Downloads

To initiate a file download within a browser session:

1. Create a browser session using the SDK or API.

2. Connect to the session using your preferred automation framework (e.g., Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium).

3. Configure the download behavior to allow file downloads.

4. Perform the download action within your automation script.

Here's an example using Playwright in Node.js:

import { chromium } from 'playwright-core';
import { BrowserSwarm } from 'browser-swarm-sdk';

const bs = new BrowserSwarm({ apiKey: process.env.BROWSER_SWARM_API_KEY });

(async () => {
  const session = await bs.sessions.create({
    projectId: process.env.BROWSER_SWARM_PROJECT_ID,
  });

  const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(session.connectUrl);
  const context = browser.contexts()[0];
  const page = context.pages()[0];

  // Set download behavior
  const cdpSession = await context.newCDPSession(page);
  await cdpSession.send('Browser.setDownloadBehavior', {
    behavior: 'allow',
    downloadPath: '/tmp/downloads',
    eventsEnabled: true,
  });

  await page.goto('https://example.com/download');
  await page.click('#download-button');

  // Close session
  await browser.close();
})();

📦 Retrieving Downloaded Files

After triggering downloads, you can retrieve the files using the Session Downloads API. The files are returned as a ZIP archive.

Here's how to retrieve downloads using Node.js:

import fs from 'fs';
import { BrowserSwarm } from 'browser-swarm-sdk';

const bs = new BrowserSwarm({ apiKey: process.env.BROWSER_SWARM_API_KEY });

(async () => {
  const sessionId = 'your-session-id';
  const response = await bs.sessions.downloads.list(sessionId);
  const buffer = await response.arrayBuffer();
  fs.writeFileSync('downloads.zip', Buffer.from(buffer));
})();

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📤 Handling Uploads

Uploading files is straightforward with Browser Swarm. You can simulate file uploads by setting the file input's value in your automation script.

Here's an example using Playwright in Node.js:

import { chromium } from 'playwright-core';
import { BrowserSwarm } from 'browser-swarm-sdk';
import path from 'path';

const bs = new BrowserSwarm({ apiKey: process.env.BROWSER_SWARM_API_KEY });

(async () => {
  const session = await bs.sessions.create({
    projectId: process.env.BROWSER_SWARM_PROJECT_ID,
  });

  const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(session.connectUrl);
  const context = browser.contexts()[0];
  const page = context.pages()[0];

  await page.goto('https://example.com/upload');

  const fileInput = await page.$('input[type="file"]');
  await fileInput.setInputFiles(path.resolve(__dirname, 'file-to-upload.txt'));

  // Submit the form if necessary
  await page.click('#submit-button');

  // Close session
  await browser.close();
})();

Ensure that the file path provided to setInputFiles is accessible from the environment where your automation script is running.

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💡 Best Practices

• Download Management: Always set the download behavior to ensure files are saved correctly during automation.

• Upload File Paths: Use absolute paths for files to avoid issues with relative paths, especially in CI/CD environments.

• Error Handling: Implement retry logic when retrieving downloads to handle any delays in file availability.

• Security: Validate and sanitize file inputs to prevent potential security vulnerabilities during uploads.

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By leveraging Browser Swarm's file handling capabilities, you can automate complex workflows involving file downloads and uploads with ease and reliability.