I have a local HTML file of a single webpage saved on my computer without any alterations. When I generate a PDF with Puppeteer, it fails to include certain images whose paths are relative. Additionally, the relative href attributes in the produced PDF point to a non-existent local address instead of the correct URL from the original webpage, which should be http://www.example.com/ plus the respective relative URL. Is there a method in Puppeteer that allows me to set a base URL so that it automatically appends http://www.example.com/ to all relative paths that begin with / in my HTML document, including for images, stylesheets, and scripts?
Hi FlyingEagle,
To prepend an absolute URL to all relative links in Puppeteer when generating a PDF, you can manipulate the HTML content before converting it into a PDF. Here's a practical way to do it using Puppeteer:
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');
(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
// Load your local HTML file
await page.goto('file:///absolute/path/to/your/localfile.html');
// Evaluate and modify relative links
await page.evaluate(() => {
const base = 'http://www.example.com';
const elements = document.querySelectorAll('[href], [src]');
elements.forEach(el => {
const attr = el.hasAttribute('href') ? 'href' : 'src';
if (el.getAttribute(attr).startsWith('/')) {
el.setAttribute(attr, base + el.getAttribute(attr));
}
});
});
// Generate PDF
await page.pdf({ path: 'output.pdf', format: 'A4' });
await browser.close();
})();
This snippet modifies the href and src attributes of all elements in your HTML that start with '/' by prepending http://www.example.com. This should ensure that all resources are properly linked in the resulting PDF.
Hope this solution helps you efficiently resolve the issue!
You can handle relative URLs in Puppeteer by manipulating HTML content before PDF generation. Here's a quick approach to prepend the base URL to all relative links:
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');
const fs = require('fs');
(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
// Load and modify HTML file
let html = fs.readFileSync('path/to/your/localfile.html', 'utf8');
const baseUrl = 'http://www.example.com';
html = html.replace(/(href|src)="\//g, `$1="${baseUrl}/`);
// Set modified content
await page.setContent(html, { waitUntil: 'networkidle0' });
// Generate PDF
await page.pdf({ path: 'output.pdf', format: 'A4' });
await browser.close();
})();
This snippet replaces all href and src attributes starting with "/" with complete URLs, ensuring resources are correctly loaded in the PDF.
If you're looking at an alternative approach to handling relative URLs before generating a PDF with Puppeteer, you might consider using the page.setContent method with an adjusted HTML content as another way to tackle this.
Here's an example:
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');
const fs = require('fs');
(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
// Read your HTML file
let html = fs.readFileSync('path/to/your/localfile.html', 'utf8');
// Modify relative paths directly in the HTML string
const baseUrl = 'http://www.example.com';
html = html.replace(/(href|src)="\//g, `$1="${baseUrl}/`);
// Set the modified HTML content
await page.setContent(html, { waitUntil: 'networkidle0' });
// Generate PDF
await page.pdf({ path: 'output.pdf', format: 'A4' });
await browser.close();
})();
In this approach, the code reads the original HTML file and uses a regular expression to search for all href and src attributes beginning with "/", replacing them with the full path including the base URL. This way, you ensure all relative paths are correctly transformed in one go before Puppeteer processes the content.
This might be a more suitable method if you're dealing with a large document or need to ensure no elements are missed due to attribute-specific checks as seen in the previous solution.