Frequently Asked Question

Headless - Capture a web page as an image

Last Updated 10 months ago

Headless API

Overview

The Headless API provides functionality to capture screenshots, generate PDFs, and retrieve the DOM of web pages using a headless browser. It allows for remote rendering and content extraction from web pages.

Version

1.002

Endpoint

/v2/headless

Authentication

This API requires authentication using an API key. The key should be passed in the X_API_Key header.

Request Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
f	string	Function to perform: 'screenshot', 'pdf', or 'dom' (required)
p	string	URL of the web page to process (required)
w	string	Window size in format "width,height" (optional, default: "1920,1080")

Response

The API returns different content types based on the requested function:

Function	Content-Type	Description
screenshot	image/png	PNG image of the web page
pdf	application/pdf	PDF document of the web page
dom	text/html	HTML content of the web page's DOM

Example Usage


curl "https://api_url/v2/headless.php?f=pdf&p=https://www.gen.uk" -H "X-API-KEY: your_api_key_here" --output downloads/test.pdf

curl "https://api_url/v2/headless.php?f=screenshot&p=https://www.gen.uk" -H "X-API-KEY: your_api_key_here" --output downloads/test.png

Note: Replace 'your_api_key_here' with your actual API key.

Apply

Error Handling

If an invalid function is specified: Error; invalid function passed
If there's an authentication error: JSON response with {"status": "[validation status]"}

Notes

For PDF generation, you can add custom CSS to the target page to control the layout, e.g., setting page size to A4 landscape.
Temporary files are created and then deleted after processing.

Security

Ensure that the API key is kept secure and not exposed in client-side code.

Limitations

Processing time may vary depending on the complexity and size of the target web page.
The API may not handle JavaScript-heavy pages or single-page applications perfectly in all cases.