Working with Selenium in Rstudio cloud

RGIS · January 4, 2023, 5:50am

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/mlane3/4731dde506f4a6e0e21441e013f358d2

SeleniumRstudioCloudExample

# *----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# | @PROGRAM NAME:
# | @DATE: 05/21/2020
# | @CREATED BY: Abhi Patel
# *----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# | @PURPOSE:  This scripts uses Selenium to log into the EReadKids
# |            website used by the County Library to track usage of various 
# |            fields and help fund book purchases
# *----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# | @UPDATES:  Many parts of this script that do the webscraping have been omitted.

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@JaRiCo So I figured out how to do it.
Above is some working Selenium code that works in the Rstudio Cloud. There are a ton of caveats some that apply all versions of Selenium that have to do with the latest release. I need to find someone who actually works on Rstudio Cloud to answer them.(*)

@EconomiCurtis @andy_kipp I need your help with those caveats there is a "configuration" folder that needs to be edited after RSelenium is installed. There is a way for users to find this folder. There is a R command line-like way, but it may be easier to have a good way of navigating.

@EconomiCurtis is there a way for me to share an Rstudio cloud instance. The test build that I got RSelenium working is here. https://posit.cloud/spaces/68239/content/5172629 ... however... I don't know where the "share" button is for Rstudio cloud.

@andy_kipp I also asked this related question. I am honestly curious to know because there could be more advantage to using Rstudio if it were possible. Can you have Firefox/GeckoDriver or Chrome/ChromeDriver in any version of Posit Cloud/Shiny/Workbench?
Based on EconomicCurtis answer, it might be know.

Also @andy_kipp (Profile - andy_kipp - Posit Community) indeed needs to run headless. As the general answer is that Selenium cannot run in google/AWS/Rstudio/Azure is because there is no /usr/bin/google-chrome executable. Which is why there is actually a 2 Selenium python packages and 2 free Selenium cloud options (Selenium Grid and a python Selenium docker container).

(*)P.S. @EconomiCurtis I am not just asking for the sake of this question, but in a broader scope that has to do with operating system crashes. I don't want the Rstudio Cloud to face the mess that is R on Windows 11. The operating system concern while figuring out a solution JaRiCo post is why I am continuing this thread

P.P.S. RSelenium is looking for a package maintainer. And Selenium technical lead has offer support of whoever the new maintainer is. There are several people including Fulton County Government (my workplace) and a second developer who have offered to support the maintainer. If you know someone who can maintain a package it is need.