I’m attempting to hide FirefoxDriver using a headless Phantom substitute, but LocateElement produces errors. See below:
var configOptions = new HeadlessParams();
configOptions.SetOption("user.agent", "Mozilla/5.0");
var serviceInstance = HeadlessService.CreateDefaultService();
serviceInstance.SecurityProtocol = "all";
var browserSession = new HeadlessBrowser(serviceInstance, configOptions);
browserSession.GoToUrl("https://www.example.com/");
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(3000);
browserSession.LocateElement(By.XPath("//input[@id='searchbox']")).SendKeys("demo");
Console.WriteLine(browserSession.Url);
Any alternative suggestions?
In my experience, I’ve encountered similar challenges while trying to disguise headless browsers. I discovered that instead of trying to emulate a full-featured browser using a substitute, it was more effective to work directly with the native headless options provided by modern browsers. In my tests, configuring the driver to operate in true headless mode while applying tweaks to properties like navigator.webdriver helped minimize detection issues. Although it required additional setup to mirror a typical browsing context, the result was a more stable automation environment with fewer element location errors and improved overall consistency.