Best practices

  • Use the `DOMContentLoaded` event to run JavaScript as soon as the HTML document has been fully loaded, without waiting for stylesheets, images, and subframes to finish loading.

  • For scripts that depend on all resources (including images, stylesheets, and iframes), use the window.onload event. It fires only after everything on the page is fully loaded.

  • Incorporate jQuery's `$(document).ready()` method for a simple and cross-browser compatible way to ensure all DOM elements are fully accessible before running script, provided jQuery is included in your project.

  • Polling document.readyState in intervals using setTimeout can be useful when dealing with pages that load content dynamically. This allows you to wait until the document is in the complete state before proceeding.

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Common issues

  • Ensure your JavaScript code accounts for different loading states by using `document.readyState` and setting up a recursive check with `setTimeout` to handle dynamically loaded content.

  • When dealing with heavy scripts or multiple API calls, debounce or throttle your load event handlers to avoid performance issues and unnecessary executions.

  • For modern web applications, consider using the `Promise` or `async/await` syntax with `fetch` API calls within your load event handlers to manage asynchronous operations more effectively.

  • Avoid using jQuery's `$(document).ready()` if you are working on performance-critical applications, as native JavaScript methods like `DOMContentLoaded` are generally faster and do not require an additional library.

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Useful resources

Puppeteer vs Selenium: Which to Choose
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Yelyzaveta Hayrapetyan

2025-05-27

Web Scraping in JavaScript With Node.js & Puppeteer
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2024-10-29

Crawlee Tutorial: Easy Web Scraping and Browser Automation
Crawlee Tutorial: Easy Web Scraping and Browser Automation
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