CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptweb-scrapingcasperjs
Slater Victoroff
Slater Victoroff

Reputation: 21904

Casperjs click method

I'm pretty new to casperjs and javascript in general, but I have pretty extensive coding experience in other realms. Currently the code I'm trying to get running is just going to a website and clicking on a link, which should be straightforward, but I'm having trouble.

var casper = require('casper').create();
var x = require('casper').selectXPath;

casper.start('http://www.guru.com/emp/search.aspx?keyword=#&&page=1&sort=Earnings');

casper.then(function() {
    this.test.assertExists({
        type: 'xpath',
        path: '//*[@class="paddingLeft5 txt11px txt666"]/a[text()="Next"]'
    }, "Got Here");
});

casper.then(function() {
    var firstUrl = this.getCurrentUrl()
});

casper.thenClick(x('//*[@class="paddingLeft5 txt11px txt666"]/a[text()="Next"]'), function() {
    console.log("Woop!");
});

casper.waitFor(function check() {
    return this.evaluate(function() {
        return this.getCurrentUrl() != firstUrl;
    });
}, function then() {
    console.log(this.getCurrentUrl());
});


casper.run();

currently this times out after 5000ms without wrapping in the waitFor it simply prints the same url twice.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 15726

Answers (2)

hexid
hexid

Reputation: 3811

This should be what you are looking for. Note that I moved firstUrl to be a global variable; this way, the Casper.waitFor() has access to it.

Also, using this.evaluate() inside of the Casper.waitFor() was unnecessary and actually inhibiting receiving the error message because neither this nor firstUrl existed on the remote page. This is because any variables that you want to have access to inside of an Casper.evaluate() must be passed as arguments after the function.

var casper = require('casper').create();
var x = require('casper').selectXPath;
var firstUrl;
casper.start('http://www.guru.com/emp/search.aspx?keyword=#&&page=1&sort=Earnings');

casper.then(function() {
    this.test.assertExists({
        type: 'xpath',
        path: '//*[@class="paddingLeft5 txt11px txt666"]/a[text()="Next"]'
    }, "Got Here");
});

casper.then(function() {
    firstUrl = this.getCurrentUrl()
});

casper.thenClick(x('//*[@class="paddingLeft5 txt11px txt666"]/a[text()="Next"]'), function() {
    console.log("Woop!");
});

casper.waitFor(function check() {
    return this.getCurrentUrl() != firstUrl;
}, function then() {
    console.log(this.getCurrentUrl());
});


casper.run();

This is the result that I get when running the code above:

Woop!
http://www.guru.com/emp/search.aspx?keyword=#&&sort=Earnings&page=2

Upvotes: 8

NiKo
NiKo

Reputation: 11414

Looks like a website heavily relying on JavaScript for its navigation…

You should probably try to waitFor the url to change before processing your next step.

Upvotes: 0

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