Best practices

  • Use `wait_until='networkidle'` in the `page.goto()` method to ensure all network requests have finished before proceeding.

  • Set `wait_until='domcontentloaded'` to wait only for the HTML document to be fully loaded and parsed, which is faster when you don't need to wait for stylesheets, images, and subframes to finish loading.

  • Opt for `wait_until='load'` when you need to ensure that the whole page, including all dependent resources, is fully loaded.

  • Regularly update Playwright to leverage improvements and new features in handling page load strategies.

from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

# Initialize Playwright and start a browser
with sync_playwright() as p:
browser = p.chromium.launch()
page = browser.new_page()

# Navigate to the URL and wait until network is idle
page.goto('https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products', wait_until='networkidle')

# Alternative: wait until DOM is fully loaded
page.goto('https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products', wait_until='domcontentloaded')

# Another method: wait until everything is loaded
page.goto('https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products', wait_until='load')

# Perform actions or extract data
# Example: print the page title
print(page.title())

# Close the browser
browser.close()

Common issues

  • Ensure that your network conditions are stable and fast enough to avoid timeouts during page loads in Playwright.

  • Increase the default timeout in `page.goto()` if your application consistently takes longer to load, to prevent premature termination.

  • Utilize `page.wait_for_selector(selector)` to wait for specific elements to appear on the page, ensuring that dynamic content is fully loaded.

  • Check for any JavaScript errors in the console after page load that might indicate issues with complete page rendering.

# Incorrect: Using a very short timeout might lead to errors if the page takes longer to load
page.goto('https://example.com', timeout=1000)

# Correct: Increasing the timeout to handle slow page loads
page.goto('https://example.com', timeout=10000)

# Incorrect: Assuming page elements are available immediately after page.goto
page.goto('https://example.com')
button = page.query_selector('button#submit') # Might be None if the button loads dynamically

# Correct: Waiting for a specific element to ensure it's loaded
page.goto('https://example.com')
page.wait_for_selector('button#submit')
button = page.query_selector('button#submit')

# Incorrect: Not checking for JavaScript errors which might affect page functionality
page.goto('https://example.com')

# Correct: Checking for JavaScript errors after loading the page
page.goto('https://example.com')
errors = page.evaluate('''() => {
return window.console.errors || [];
}''')
if errors:
print("JavaScript errors found:", errors)

# Incorrect: Ignoring network conditions that might affect loading times
page.goto('https://example.com')

# Correct: Adjusting settings based on network speed assumptions
if slow_network:
page.set_extra_http_headers({'Cache-Control': 'no-cache'})
page.goto('https://example.com', timeout=30000)
else:
page.goto('https://example.com')

Try Oyxlabs' Proxies & Scraper API

Residential Proxies

Self-Service

Human-like scraping without IP blocking

From

8

Datacenter Proxies

Self-Service

Fast and reliable proxies for cost-efficient scraping

From

1.2

Web scraper API

Self-Service

Public data delivery from a majority of websites

From

49

Useful resources

Get the latest news from data gathering world

I'm interested