PhantomJS

A headless browser is a browser without a GUI, used by developers mainly for testing purposes, to simulate the presence of a browser, in this case the WebKit engine.

A headless browser like PhantomJS can access Web pages without actually showing them to anybody, get the content of the page, compile it and when deemed ready to be displayed in a normal browser to users, then sent off for further processing to other software programs.

Because of this, because it can compile the page to its final state, it's the perfect tool to use when testing websites, mainly JavaScript and AJAX-heavy projects.

This is because PhantomJS does not only parse JavaScript, CoffeeScript or CSS and assembles the HTML, but it can mimic mouse clicks as well, taking testing to a whole new level.

PhantomJS is actually a well-known testing toolkit in the development industry, being used by hundreds of companies and for famous open source software like Bootstrap, CodeMirror, Ember, Grunt.js, Modernizr, YUI and Zepto.js.

Features:

• DOM handling
• CSS selector
• JSON support
• Canvas support
• SVG support
• CoffeeScript support
• Screen capturing
• Page automation
• Network monitoring
• Command line interface
• Can be scripted via JavaScript

What is new in this release:

• Reverted to GhostDriver 1.1.0 instead of 1.1.1.
• Fixed another warning of obsolete userSpaceScaleFactor on OS X 10.9.

What is new in version 1.9.2:

• Fixed graphical artifacts with transparent background on Windows.
• Updated GhostDriver to version 1.0.4.

What is new in version 1.8.0:

• It integrated GhostDriver, a remote WebDriver (Wire Protocol) implementation, and many related API addition.

What is new in version 1.6.0:

• Added support for passing arguments to WebPage's evaluate
• Added callbacks for JavaScript onConfirm and onAlert
• Added stack trace when error occurs
• Added initial support for cookies handling
• Added support for header footer when printing the page
• Added headers support in the loading request
• Added support to render the web page as base64-encoded string
• Added hooks for navigation event
• Added command-line option to show debug messages
• Added support for the zoom factor for web page rendering
• Added crash reporter for Mac OS X and Linux, based on Google Breakpad
• Added 'os' object to the system module

What is new in version 1.5.0:

• No more support for Flash and other plugins
• Pure headless (no X11) on Linux
• Improved troubleshooting
• Control web security

What is new in version 1.4.0:

• New features:
• Added embedded HTTP server.
• Added convenient build script for Linux.
• Added support for SOCKS5 proxy.
• Updated CoffeeScript compiler to version 1.2.
• Bug fixes:
• Fix potential crash in QUrl with Qt 4.8.
• Fix bug in CookieJar with QSettings and string.
• Prevent showing the icon on Mac OS X Dock.

What is new in version 1.2.0:

• Bug fixes:
• Fixed rendering a very large web page.
• Fixed reporting of CoffeeScript compile error.
• New features:
• Added callback for console message.
• Improved security model via WebPage object.
• Added support for POST, HEAD, PUT, and DELETE.
• Scripts filename is now passed as phantom.scriptName.
• Added callback to capture resource requests and responses.
• Added the ability to load external JavaScript.
• Examples:
• Ported examples to use WebPage object.
• Added a new example to upload an image to imagebin.org.
• Added a new example to show HTTP POST feature.
• Added a new example to sniff network traffic and save it in HAR format.