catalyst-smartbrowz

Prerequisites

Console → your project → SmartBrowz (left sidebar) → click "Start Exploring"

How It Works

1. Multi-component service — SmartBrowz offers 6 independent components in one unified platform:
   • Headless: Connect to remote Chrome/Firefox in Catalyst cloud with automation libraries
   • Browser Logic: Serverless functions (Java/Node.js) containing browser automation logic
   • PDF & Screenshot: Generate visual documents programmatically
   • Templates: Design and store templates for dynamic content
   • Browser Grid (Early Access): Parallel headless browsers with auto-scaling
   • Dataverse: Data scraping APIs
2. Choose your workflow:
   • Headless mode: Copy console-provided endpoints and code snippets to connect with Puppeteer/Playwright/Selenium
   • Browser Logic: Initialize via CLI, code in IDE, deploy to console — for persistent browser automation tasks
   • PDF & Screenshot: Use console Playground, SDKs (Java/Node.js/Python), or API to generate documents
   • Browser Grid: Configure node/browser count, connect via CDP/Webdriver endpoints, process requests in parallel
3. Load

   references/smartbrowz-basics.md

   — for component details, automation library setup, Browser Logic structure, PDF/Screenshot SDK usage, Browser Grid configurations, and troubleshooting
4. SDK-first rule — When writing implementation code, always prefer SDK methods over raw REST API calls:
   • Node.js:

     app.SmartBrowz()

     →

     smartbrowz.convertToPdf()

     ,

     smartbrowz.generateFromTemplate()

     ,

     app.SmartBrowz().browserGrid()

     →

     grid.getGrid()

     ,

     grid.stopGrid()

   • Python:

     app.smart_browz()

     →

     smart_browz.convert_to_pdf()

     ,

     smart_browz.generate_from_template()

     ,

     app.smart_browz().browser_grid()

     →

     grid.get_all_grid()

   • Java:

     ZCSmartBrowz.getInstance()

     →

     smartBrowz.convertToPdf()

     ,

     smartBrowz.generateFromTemplate()

   • Use REST API only when no SDK equivalent exists (e.g., checking

     free_sessions

     on Browser Grid live stats)
5. Key concepts:
   • Remote browsers run in Catalyst cloud — not local. Endpoints are auto-generated by console.
   • No api-key in connection code — Puppeteer/Playwright/Selenium connect using only the endpoint URL. The

     api-key

     is only used for Browser Grid REST API calls (e.g., live stats).
   • Chrome browser only (currently) — Firefox support in Browser Grid (Early Access)
   • Browser Logic functions = Serverless function type — created with CLI, not console UI
   • Browser Grid = auto-scaling — nodes and browsers spawn on demand based on configuration
   • Code Recipes available in console for testing automation library use cases
6. Security note — Any browser automation or web scraping is at your own risk. Only use on domains that permit such actions or with proper approval.

Security Checklist

• API Key protection: Endpoints for Headless and Browser Grid are secured with auto-generated API keys. Regenerate keys if compromised (note: this resets grid stats).
• Browser Logic logs: All function activity is logged in Console → DevOps → Logs. Review logs for debugging and security audits.
• Browser Grid queue limits: Selenium requests queue for 30 seconds, Puppeteer/Playwright for 5 minutes. After timeout, requests are killed.
• Browser Grid alerts: Monitor Dashboard for alerts (Browser Creation Rejected, 90% Disk Exhausted, 80% Memory/CPU Exhausted, Nodes Crashed).
• Default storage: Browser Grid nodes have 10GB disk limit. Monitor disk usage to prevent failures.
• Rate considerations: Browser automation can generate high network traffic. Be mindful of target website rate limits and terms of service.

Triggers

References

references/smartbrowz-basics.md