~hrbrmstr/htmlunitjars

89fb7c1ff9bd55a24d7afd7de7e3c5c767835198 — boB Rudis 5 years ago eea9a4f
example
3 files changed, 190 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

M R/htmlunitjars-package.R
M README.Rmd
M README.md
M R/htmlunitjars-package.R => R/htmlunitjars-package.R +8 -0
@@ 4,6 4,14 @@
#'
#' Library JavaDoc: <http://htmlunit.sourceforge.net/apidocs/index.html>
#'
#' HtmlUnit is a "GUI-Less browser for Java programs". It models HTML documents and provides an API that allows you to invoke pages, fill out forms, click links, etc... just like you do in your "normal" browser.
#'
#' It has fairly good JavaScript support (which is constantly improving) and is able to work even with quite complex AJAX libraries, simulating Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer depending on the configuration used.
#'
#' It is typically used for testing purposes or to retrieve information from web sites.
#'
#' HtmlUnit is not a generic unit testing framework. It is specifically a way to simulate a browser.
#'
#' @md
#' @name htmlunitjars
#' @docType package

M README.Rmd => README.Rmd +68 -2
@@ 1,19 1,32 @@
---
output: rmarkdown::github_document
---

```{r include=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(message=FALSE, warning=FALSE)
```
# htmlunitjars

Java Archive Wrapper Supporting the 'htmlunit' Package

## Description

Contents of the 'HtmlUnit' & supporting Java archives <http://htmlunit.sourceforge.net/>. Version number reflects the version number of the included 'JAR' file.
Contents of the `HtmlUnit` & supporting Java archives <http://htmlunit.sourceforge.net/>. Version number reflects the version number of the included 'JAR' file.

>_`HtmlUnit` is a "GUI-Less browser for Java programs". It models HTML documents and provides an API that allows you to invoke pages, fill out forms, click links, etc... just like you do in your "normal" browser._
>
>_It has fairly good JavaScript support (which is constantly improving) and is able to work even with quite complex AJAX libraries, simulating Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer depending on the configuration used._
>
>_It is typically used for testing purposes or to retrieve information from web sites._
>
>_`HtmlUnit` is not a generic unit testing framework. It is specifically a way to simulate a browser._
    

## What's Inside The Tin

Everything necessary to use the HtmlUnit library directly via `rJava`.

`HtmlUnit` Library JavaDoc: <http://htmlunit.sourceforge.net/apidocs/index.html>

## Installation

```{r eval=FALSE}


@@ 34,3 47,56 @@ packageVersion("htmlunitjars")

```

### Give It A Go

`xml2::read_html()` cannot execute javascript so the traditional approach won't work:

```{r}
library(rvest)

test_url <- "https://hrbrmstr.github.io/htmlunitjars/index.html"

doc <- read_html(test_url)

html_table(doc)
```

☹️

We _can_ do this with the classes from `HtmlUnit` proivided by this JAR wrapper package:

```{r}
library(htmlunitjars)
```

Tell `HtmlUnit` to work like FireFox:

```{r}
browsers <- J("com.gargoylesoftware.htmlunit.BrowserVersion")

wc <- new(J("com.gargoylesoftware.htmlunit.WebClient"), browsers$FIREFOX_17)
```

Tell it to wait for javascript to execute and not throw exceptions on page resource errors:

```{r}
invisible(wc$waitForBackgroundJavaScriptStartingBefore(.jlong(2000L)))

wc_opts <- wc$getOptions()
wc_opts$setThrowExceptionOnFailingStatusCode(FALSE)
wc_opts$setThrowExceptionOnScriptError(FALSE)
```

Now, acccess the site again and get the table:

```{r}
pg <- wc$getPage(test_url)

doc <- read_html(pg$asXml())

html_table(doc)
```

No need for Selenium or Splash!

The ultimate goal is to have an `htmlunit` package that provides a nicer API than needing to know how to work with `rJava` directly.

M README.md => README.md +114 -0
@@ 1,2 1,116 @@

# htmlunitjars

Java Archive Wrapper Supporting the ‘htmlunit’ Package

## Description

Contents of the `HtmlUnit` & supporting Java archives
<http://htmlunit.sourceforge.net/>. Version number reflects the version
number of the included ‘JAR’ file.

> *`HtmlUnit` is a “GUI-Less browser for Java programs”. It models HTML
> documents and provides an API that allows you to invoke pages, fill
> out forms, click links, etc… just like you do in your “normal”
> browser.*
> 
> *It has fairly good JavaScript support (which is constantly improving)
> and is able to work even with quite complex AJAX libraries, simulating
> Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer depending on the configuration
> used.*
> 
> *It is typically used for testing purposes or to retrieve information
> from web sites.*
> 
> *`HtmlUnit` is not a generic unit testing framework. It is
> specifically a way to simulate a browser.*

## What’s Inside The Tin

Everything necessary to use the HtmlUnit library directly via `rJava`.

`HtmlUnit` Library JavaDoc:
<http://htmlunit.sourceforge.net/apidocs/index.html>

## Installation

``` r
devtools::install_github("hrbrmstr/htmlunitjars")
```

## Usage

``` r
library(htmlunitjars)

# current verison
packageVersion("htmlunitjars")
```

    ## [1] '2.33.0'

### Give It A Go

`xml2::read_html()` cannot execute javascript so the traditional
approach won’t work:

``` r
library(rvest)

test_url <- "https://hrbrmstr.github.io/htmlunitjars/index.html"

doc <- read_html(test_url)

html_table(doc)
```

    ## list()

☹️

We *can* do this with the classes from `HtmlUnit` proivided by this JAR
wrapper package:

``` r
library(htmlunitjars)
```

Tell `HtmlUnit` to work like FireFox:

``` r
browsers <- J("com.gargoylesoftware.htmlunit.BrowserVersion")

wc <- new(J("com.gargoylesoftware.htmlunit.WebClient"), browsers$FIREFOX_17)
```

Tell it to wait for javascript to execute and not throw exceptions on
page resource errors:

``` r
invisible(wc$waitForBackgroundJavaScriptStartingBefore(.jlong(2000L)))

wc_opts <- wc$getOptions()
wc_opts$setThrowExceptionOnFailingStatusCode(FALSE)
wc_opts$setThrowExceptionOnScriptError(FALSE)
```

Now, acccess the site again and get the table:

``` r
pg <- wc$getPage(test_url)

doc <- read_html(pg$asXml())

html_table(doc)
```

    ## [[1]]
    ##      X1   X2
    ## 1   One  Two
    ## 2 Three Four
    ## 3  Five  Six

No need for Selenium or Splash\!

The ultimate goal is to have an `htmlunit` package that provides a nicer
API than needing to know how to work with `rJava` directly.