Launchpad

You can launch browsers! With NodeJS!

• Local browsers for MacOS, Windows and Linux (like) operating systems
• BrowserStack browsers using the BrowserStack API

API

The general API for any launcher (<type>) looks like this:

1var launch = require('launchpad');
2launch.<type>(configuration, function(error, launcher) {
3  launcher.browsers(function(error, browsers) {
4    // -> List of available browsers with version
5  });
6
7  launcher(url, configuration, function(error, instance) {
8    instance // -> A browser instance
9    instance.id // -> unique instance id
10    instance.stop(callback) // -> Stop the instance
11    instance.status(callback) // -> Get status information about the instance
12  });
13
14  launcher.<browsername>(url, function(error, instance) {
15    // Same as above
16  });
17});

Local launchers

Local launchers look up all currently installed browsers (unless limited by LAUNCHPAD_BROWSERS - see below for details) and allow you to start new browser processes.

1// Launch a local browser
2launch.local(function(err, local) {
3  local.browsers(function(error, browsers) {
4    // -> List of all browsers found locally with version
5  });
6  
7  local.firefox('http://url', function(err, instance) {
8    // An instance is an event emitter
9    instance.on('stop', function() {
10      console.log('Terminated local firefox');
11    });
12  });
13});

Environment variables impacting local browsers detection

By default Launchpad looks up all installed browsers. To speed-up this process you can define the following env variables:

• LAUNCHPAD_BROWSERS - comma delimited list of browsers you want to use, e.g. LAUNCHPAD_BROWSERS=chrome,firefox,opera. Other browsers will not be detected even if they are installed.
• LAUNCHPAD_<browser> - specifies where given browser is installed so that Launchpad does not need to look for it, e.g. LAUNCHPAD_CHROME=/usr/bin/chromium

The following browser names are recognized: chrome, firefox, safari, ie, edge, opera, canary, aurora, electron, phantom, nodeWebKit. Not all platforms support all browsers - see platform for details.

Browserstack

BrowserStack is a great cross-browser testing tool and offers API access to any account that is on a monthly plan. Launchpad allows you to start BrowserStack workers through its API like this:

1launch.browserstack({
2    username : 'user',
3    password : 'password'
4  },
5  function(err, browserstack) {
6    browserstack.browsers(function(error, browsers) {
7      // -> List of all Browserstack browsers
8    });
9    
10    browserstack.ie('http://url', function(err, instance) {
11      // Shut the instance down after 5 seconds
12      setTimeout(function() {
13        instance.stop(function (err) {
14          if(err) {
15            console.log(err);
16          }
17          console.log('Browser instance has stopped');
18        });
19      }, 5000);
20  });
21});

Behind the scenes we have the node-browserstack module do all the work (API calls) for us.