CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phantomjs
SAM
SAM

Reputation: 281

Is PhantomJS client side or server side?

Does PhantomJS work client side or server side? I know JavaScript can work client and server side, but I don't know which one PhantomJS is based on?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1281

Answers (2)

Zv_oDD
Zv_oDD

Reputation: 1878

PhantomJS is a headless browser. The PhantomJS API is used to control the browser itself, as well as allowing you to inject Javascript within the DOM context.

PhantomJS is a HTTP client.

You can put PhantomJS on a server to act as an automated client. In that way it you could consider it server side. But it is still a HTTP client at it's core.

The purpose of PhantomJS is instead of using a mouse and keyboard to control a browser and complete some actions, for instance: open a new window, type a url, enter, find a link and click it. You can automate those actions programmatically with Javascript.

If you are considering the conventional terminology meaning; code inside a loaded webpage being Client Side and code running on a HTTP Server being Server Side. Usually PhantomJS is Client Side that is run on Server Side.

Upvotes: 0

user663031
user663031

Reputation:

Is PhantomJS client side or server side?

Is it client-side?

  • Yes, if you mean, does PhantomJS emulate/replace the browser which we usually think of as "client-side"--that is its purpose in life!

  • No, if by "client-side", you mean "runs in a browser"--because PhantomJS itself is a browser (albeit with no visual display of the screen--hence the term "headless").

Is it server-side?

  • Yes, if by "server-side" you mean PhantomJS could run on some computer which I might think of as a server, including one off in the cloud somewhere.

  • No, if by "server-side" you mean PhantomJS implements, or would be used to implement, a web server handling HTTP calls and implementing some API.

Do you have some specific issue you were trying to solve, or is this just curiosity and clarification of terminology?

Upvotes: 6

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