From version 1.5 PhantomJS will provide an Interactive Mode, also known as REPL: Read-Eval-Print Loop.
Sometimes you feel the urge to test out some small/medium size Javascript code to see how x or y works. Usually you would open the Javascript console in Firebug, the Webkit Inspector, Opera Dragonfly or Chrome DevTools and type away. The addition of a REPL now allows you to do the same from PhantomJS.
As mentioned above, REPL stands for READ-EVAL-PRINT LOOP: every line you type (READ) (i.e. type then press ⏎) is sent to the interpreter for immediate execution (EVAL) and feedback (PRINT).
This is (from version 1.5 onward) the new default mode in which PhantomJS starts if you don’t provide any parameter.
Here is an example use that will probably explain better than many words:
$ phantomjs⏎
phantomjs> phantom.version⏎
{
"major": 1,
"minor": 5,
"patch": 0
}
phantomjs> console.log("phantom is awesome")⏎
phantom is awesome
undefined
phantomjs> window.navigator⏎
{
"cookieEnabled": true,
"language": "en-GB",
"productSub": "20030107",
"product": "Gecko",
"appCodeName": "Mozilla",
"mimeTypes": {
"length": 0
},
"vendorSub": "",
"vendor": "Apple Computer, Inc.",
"platform": "MacIntel",
"appName": "Netscape",
"appVersion": "5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.34 (KHTML, like Gecko) PhantomJS/1.6.0 (development) Safari/534.34",
"userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.34 (KHTML, like Gecko) PhantomJS/1.6.0 (development) Safari/534.34",
"plugins": {
"length": 0
},
"onLine": false
}
Every command gets evaluated on the spot, and the actual return value is printed.
To exit? The usual: either type phantom.exit() or CTRL+C or CTRL+D.
The entire API is available to use in this mode, so you can follow the examples and enter them line by line in REPL and they will work.
One of the feature that we saw could bring a lot of value is auto-completion. Sometimes, as much as people like documentation, if they could get a list of methods or properties by just tapping TAB (i.e. →|) it could make all the difference:
phantomjs> phantom.→| phantomjs> phantom.injectJs→| phantomjs> phantom.exit→| phantomjs> phantom.version→| phantomjs> phantom.outputEncoding⏎ "UTF-8" phantomjs>
So, if you remember there was a method that did just x but can’t just remember what it was called, now the fastest way to the answer can be just few characters away.
And, of course, the REPL couldn’t be one without history support: just use your UP and DOWN arrow keys to navigate through the list of commands you typed before, for quick reference.
The history file is saved at:
QDesktopServices::DataLocation + "/phantom_repl_history"
where DataLocation is defined by Qt and it depends on the operating system. On Mac, for example, it is at:
"~/Library/Application Support/Ofi Labs/PhantomJS/phantom_repl_history"
Ehm, no. This is a new functionality and it’s built making all sorts of JavaScript manipulation: there are bugs and we are listening (or waiting for a pull request).
We couldn’t have built the REPL and all it’s nice console-like features without Linenoise project (an improved fork of the original).