Troubleshooting PhantomJS as a headless browser with Selenium in Python

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1

I’m having trouble with my Python-Selenium tests when using PhantomJS. The tests work fine with Firefox, but I need a headless browser for AWS deployment.

Here’s what’s happening:

  1. The test tries to log in to a webpage
  2. It should find elements like ‘user_email’ input
  3. With Firefox, everything works as expected
  4. With PhantomJS, I get a ‘NoSuchElementException’

The page content when using PhantomJS is just an empty HTML structure:

<html><head></head><body></body></html>

My Selenium driver setup looks like this:

def setup_driver(browser_type='phantomjs'):
    if browser_type == 'phantomjs':
        driver = webdriver.PhantomJS()
        driver.set_window_size(1120, 550)
    elif browser_type == 'firefox':
        driver = webdriver.Firefox()
    # ... other browser options ...
    else:
        raise ValueError(f'Unknown browser: {browser_type}')
    return driver

Any ideas on how to get PhantomJS working correctly? I’m stumped and could use some help!

2

hey there, i’ve had similar issues with phantomjs before. have u tried using a wait before looking for elements? sometimes phantomjs needs more time to load. also, check if javascript is enabled - phantomjs can be finicky with that. if nothing works, maybe switch to headless chrome? its more reliable in my experience

3

I’ve encountered similar challenges with PhantomJS. One approach that’s worked for me is explicitly setting the page load strategy. Try adding this line after initializing your driver:

driver.set_page_load_strategy(‘eager’)

This can help ensure the page is fully loaded before Selenium attempts to interact with elements. Additionally, consider implementing a custom wait condition that checks for specific elements you know should be present on the page. This can be more reliable than relying on default timeouts.

If these steps don’t resolve the issue, you might want to explore alternatives like headless Chrome or Firefox. They tend to be more stable and better maintained than PhantomJS for Selenium testing.

4

I’ve dealt with PhantomJS quirks before, and it can be a real pain. One thing that often helps is to use explicit waits instead of implicit ones. Try something like this:

from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 10)
element = wait.until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, ‘user_email’)))

This waits up to 10 seconds for the element to appear. Also, make sure you’re not dealing with iframes or shadow DOM, as PhantomJS struggles with those. If all else fails, consider switching to headless Chrome or Firefox. They’re more modern and better supported these days. PhantomJS is pretty much abandoned at this point.