Explain headless browsers and when I need one
Explains what a headless browser is in plain words, with one analogy and a short test to tell whether your scraping job actually needs one.
Task:
Explain what a headless browser is and how to tell whether my scraping job needs one.
Context:
I have [technical background] and I am scraping [type of page]. Right now I fetch pages with [current method] and I get [what goes wrong, for example empty content].
Rules:
- Use one everyday analogy and say where it stops working.
- Show the cost of using a headless browser, such as speed, memory and more moving parts, so I see why it is not the default.
- Give the cheaper things to try first, such as looking for the data in the page source or in the network requests the page makes.
Result:
About 300 words in plain language. End with a test of exactly four yes or no questions that tells me whether I need a headless browser.