Integrating puppeteer-extra and stealth plugin in Apify's Puppeteer crawler

Other Questions Puppeteer
1

Using advanced Puppeteer plugins with Apify

I’m working on a web scraping project and I’m trying to figure out how to combine puppeteer-extra and its stealth plugin with Apify’s Puppeteer crawler. Has anyone successfully done this before?

I’ve heard that puppeteer-extra can be really useful for avoiding detection, and I’m particularly interested in the stealth plugin. But I’m not sure how to set it up within the Apify ecosystem.

Here are some questions I have:

  1. Is it even possible to use these plugins with Apify?
  2. If so, how do I configure them in my Apify project?
  3. Are there any potential conflicts or issues I should be aware of?
  4. Does using these plugins impact performance on Apify’s platform?

Any tips, code examples, or resources would be super helpful. Thanks in advance for any insights!

2

I’ve successfully implemented puppeteer-extra and the stealth plugin in Apify’s Puppeteer crawler. It’s indeed possible and quite effective. To integrate, modify your main.js file to import the required modules and apply the StealthPlugin. In the crawler configuration, use the customized puppeteer instance with the ‘stealth’ option set to true. Be aware that this setup might slightly increase resource usage and initialization time. However, the enhanced ability to avoid detection generally outweighs these minor drawbacks. I’d recommend testing thoroughly to ensure compatibility with your specific use case and Apify’s latest version. If you encounter any issues, Apify’s documentation and support forums are excellent resources for troubleshooting.

3

I’ve actually integrated puppeteer-extra and the stealth plugin with Apify’s Puppeteer crawler in a recent project. It’s definitely possible and can be quite effective for avoiding detection.

To set it up, you’ll need to modify your Apify project’s main.js file. First, import the necessary modules:

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-extra')
const StealthPlugin = require('puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth')

Then, before launching the crawler, apply the plugin:

puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin())

In your crawler configuration, you’ll need to use the customized puppeteer instance:

const crawler = new Apify.PuppeteerCrawler({
    launchPuppeteerOptions: {
        stealth: true,
        puppeteerModule: puppeteer,
    },
    // other options...
})

I haven’t encountered any major conflicts, but keep in mind that using these plugins might slightly increase memory usage and startup time. Overall, the benefits in terms of avoiding detection usually outweigh the minor performance impact.

Hope this helps you get started!

4

hey, i’ve used puppeteer-extra with apify before. it’s pretty straightforward. just import modules, apply the plugin, and use the custom puppeteer instance in ur crawler config. works great for avoiding detection. didn’t notice any performance hits, but might take a lil longer to start up. give it a shot!