How to pass dynamic page automation commands to puppeteer from external file? - node.js

Question

I'm trying to pass dynamic page automation commands to puppeteer from an external file. I'm new to puppeteer and node so I apologize in advance.
// app.js
// ========
app.get('/test', (req, res) =>
(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('http://testurl.com');
var events = require('./events.json');
for(var i=0;i<events.length;i++){
var tmp = events[i];
await page.evaluate((tmp) => { return Promise.resolve(tmp.event); }, tmp);
}
await browser.close();
})());
My events json file looks like:
// events.json
// ========
[
{
"event":"page.waitFor(4000)"
},
{
"event":"page.click('#aLogin')"
},
{
"event":"page.waitFor(1000)"
}
]
I've tried several variations of the above as well as importing a module that passes the page object to one of the module function, but nothing has worked. Can anyone tell me if this is possible and, if so, how to better achieve this?

Answer 1

The solution is actually very simple and straightforward. You just have to understand how this works.
First of all, you cannot pass page elements like that to evaluate. Instead you can do the following,
On a seperate file,
module.exports = async function getCommands(page) {
return Promise.all([
await page.waitFor(4000),
await page.click("#aLogin"),
await page.waitFor(1000)
]);
};
Now on your main file,
await require('./events.js').getCommands(page);
There, it's done! It'll execute all commands for you one by one just as you wanted.
Here is a complete code with some adjustments,
const puppeteer = require("puppeteer");
async function getCommands(page) {
return Promise.all([
await page.title(),
await page.waitFor(1000)
]);
};
(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto("https://example.com");
let data = await getCommands(page);
console.log(data);
await page.close();
await browser.close();
})();