Render Instruction Set 🆕
Last updated
Last updated
The Render Instruction Set is a set of instructions that can be used to instruct the browser on specific actions to execute during page rendering. By combining these instructions, you can execute complex operations such as completing a search form or scrolling through an endlessly scrolling page. This capability enables efficient automation of dynamic web content interactions.
To send an instruction set to the browser, you send a JSON object to the API as a header, along with any other necessary parameters, including the "render=true" parameter.
In the following example, we enter a search term into a form, click the search icon, and then wait for the search results to load.
To send the above instruction set to our API endpoint, it must be formatted as a single string and passed as a header.
Please note that the "x-sapi-" prefix should be used on each header to prevent collisions with headers used by target sites.
API REQUEST
PROXY MODE
Browser instructions are organized as an array of objects within the instruction set, each with a specific structure. Below are the various instructions and the corresponding data they require:
Click on an element on the page.
| type: str = "click" selector: dict type: Enum["xpath", "css", "text"] value: str timeout: int (optional) |
| [{ "type": "click", "selector": { "type": "css", "value": "#search-form button[type="submit\"]" } }] |
Enter a value into an input field on the page.
| type: str = "input" selector: dict type: Enum["xpath", "css", "text"] value: str value: str timeout: int (optional) |
| [{ "type": "input", "selector": { "type": "css", "value": "#searchInput" }, "value": "cowboy boots" }] |
Execute a set of instructions in a loop a specified number of times by using the loop instruction with a sequence of standard instructions in the “instructions” argument.
Note that nesting loops isn't supported, so you can't create a “loop” instruction inside another “loop” instruction. This method is effective for automating actions on web pages with infinitely scrolling content, such as loading multiple pages of results by scrolling to the bottom of the page and waiting for additional content to load.
Args | type: str="loop" for: int instructions: array |
Example | [{ "type": "loop", "for": 3, "instructions": [ { "type": "scroll", "direction": "y", "value": "bottom" }, { "type": "wait", "value": 5 } ] }] |
Scroll the page in the X or Y direction, by a given number of pixels or to the top or bottom of the page.
Args | type: str = "scroll" direction: Enum["x", "y"] value: int or Enum["bottom", "top"] |
Example | [{ "type": "scroll", "direction": "y", "value": "bottom" }] |
Waits for a given number of seconds to elapse.
| Description | |
|---|---|
Args | type: str = "wait" value: int |
Example | [{ "type": "wait", "value": 10 }] |
Waits for an event to occur within the browser.
Args | type: str = "wait_for_event" event: Enum["domcontentloaded", "load", "navigation", "networkidle"] timeout: int (optional) |
Example | [{ "type": "wait_for_event", "event": "networkidle", "timeout": 10 }] |
Waits for an element to appear on the page. Takes a 'value' argument that instructs the rendering engine to wait for a specified number of seconds for the element to appear.
Args | type: str = "wait_for_selector" selector: dict type: Enum["xpath", "css", "text"] value: str timeout: int (optional) |
Example | [{ "type": "wait_for_selector", "selector": { "type": "css", "value": "#content" }, "timeout": 5 }] |
