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PhantomJS vs jsdom: What are the differences?
Browser Environment: PhantomJS is a headless browser, which means it provides a full browser environment to interact with web pages, execute JavaScript, and render web content. On the other hand, jsdom is a lightweight JavaScript implementation of the DOM and HTML standards, which simulates a browser environment in Node.js without an actual browser engine.
Execution Speed: PhantomJS tends to be faster in executing scripts and rendering web content since it utilizes a full browser engine. In contrast, jsdom may have slower execution speeds as it relies on a subset of browser functionalities implemented in JavaScript.
Dependencies: PhantomJS requires a separate installation as it is an independent headless browser. In comparison, jsdom can be easily integrated into Node.js projects as it is a JavaScript library that can be installed via package managers like npm.
Compatibility: PhantomJS provides better compatibility with complex web applications and websites due to its full browser environment. Jsdom, however, may struggle with certain advanced features and functionalities found in modern web applications that require a comprehensive browser environment.
Support and Maintenance: PhantomJS has been discontinued, which means it may not receive updates or bug fixes, potentially leading to compatibility issues with newer web technologies. Jsdom, being an active open-source project, receives regular updates and contributions, ensuring better support and maintenance.
Community and Documentation: PhantomJS, being an older tool, has a larger community and more extensive documentation available. In contrast, jsdom, while actively maintained, may have a smaller community and slightly less comprehensive documentation.
In Summary, PhantomJS offers a complete headless browsing experience with better performance and outdated support, while jsdom is a lightweight alternative for simulating browser environments within Node.js but may lack some advanced features and community support.
I am using Node 12 for server scripting and have a function to generate PDF and send it to a browser. Currently, we are using PhantomJS to generate a PDF. Some web post shows that we can achieve PDF generation using Puppeteer. I was a bit confused. Should we move to puppeteerJS? Which one is better with NodeJS for generating PDF?
You better go with puppeteer. It is basically chrome automation tool, written in nodejs. So what you get is PDF, generated by chrome itself. I guess there is hardly better PDF generation tool for the web. Phantomjs is already more or less outdated as technology. It uses some old webkit port that's quite behind in terms of standards and features. It can be replaced with puppeteer for every single task.
I suggest puppeteer to go for. It is simple and easy to set up. Only limitaiton is it can be used only for chrome browser and currently they are looking into expanding into FF. The next thing is Playwright which is just a scale up of Puppeteer. It supports cross browsers.
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