I’m looking for a Java browser component that can handle dynamic web pages with AJAX functionality. I need something that can do one of these two things:
Option 1: Set up listeners on DOM elements that trigger when the server updates the HTML content dynamically.
Option 2: Run custom JavaScript code inside the page that can create custom events or communicate back to my Java application through some kind of bridge.
Basic browser components that just show web pages and handle clicks won’t work for my use case. I specifically need to detect when the DOM content gets modified by JavaScript or server responses.
Has anyone worked with Java browser libraries that support this kind of functionality? I’d appreciate any recommendations for components that can handle dynamic content monitoring and JavaScript injection.
Had the same issue about two years back when I built a web scraping tool for a client. Their dashboard was all dynamic content, which was a pain.
Tried a bunch of options and settled on JavaFX WebView with custom JavaScript injection. The trick is setting up a bridge between Java and JavaScript - use executeScript and create custom event listeners in your injected JS. For tracking DOM changes, MutationObserver API works great, then just callback to Java through the bridge.
Takes some upfront work to nail the communication layer, but once it’s dialed in, it handles dynamic content changes really well. Performance was solid for what we needed, though it ate more memory than I expected when watching multiple elements at once.
CEF (Chromium Embedded Framework) with Java bindings might be perfect for this. I built something similar for a monitoring app that tracked real-time dashboard updates. The JCEF wrapper gives you full access to Chromium’s engine - proper JavaScript execution and network request interception. What worked great was combining DOM mutation observers with network interception. You can catch client-side DOM changes and server responses before they hit the page. The debugging tools blow other embedded solutions out of the water since you’re basically using Chrome DevTools. Setup’s more work than simpler components, but the flexibility’s worth it for complex dynamic content.
you might want to check out JxBrowser. it supports dynamic content and provides good JS execution. I’ve had some success using it for AJAX-heavy apps. it might be worth trying!