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Introduction

Puppeteer is a Node.js library that provides a high-level API to control Chrome/Chromium. This guide covers deploying Puppeteer scripts on Shard Cloud.

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Creating Your Project

Ensure you have Node.js and npm installed.

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Installing Dependencies

npm init -y
npm install puppeteer

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Basic Puppeteer Script

Create an index.js file:
index.js
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

async function run() {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
    headless: 'new',
    args: [
      '--no-sandbox',
      '--disable-setuid-sandbox',
      '--disable-dev-shm-usage',
      '--disable-gpu'
    ]
  });

  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.setViewport({ width: 1920, height: 1080 });

  try {
    // Navigate to a page
    await page.goto('https://example.com');
    console.log('Page title:', await page.title());

    // Take a screenshot
    await page.screenshot({ path: 'screenshot.png' });
    console.log('Screenshot saved!');

  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error:', error);
  } finally {
    await browser.close();
  }
}

run();
The --no-sandbox and --disable-setuid-sandbox flags are required for Puppeteer to work in containerized environments.

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Package.json Configuration

package.json
{
  "name": "puppeteer-app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node index.js"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "puppeteer": "^21.0.0"
  }
}

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Shard Cloud Configuration

Create a .shardcloud file:
.shardcloud
DISPLAY_NAME=Puppeteer Bot
DESCRIPTION=Browser Automation with Puppeteer
MAIN=index.js
MEMORY=1024
VERSION=recommended
Puppeteer applications require at least 512MB-1024MB of memory due to the browser overhead.

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Continuous Screenshot Example

index.js
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

async function continuousScreenshots() {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
    headless: 'new',
    args: [
      '--no-sandbox',
      '--disable-setuid-sandbox',
      '--disable-dev-shm-usage'
    ]
  });

  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.setViewport({ width: 1920, height: 1080 });

  await page.goto('https://example.com');

  // Take screenshots every minute
  setInterval(async () => {
    try {
      await page.screenshot({ path: 'latest.png' });
      console.log('Screenshot updated at', new Date().toISOString());
    } catch (error) {
      console.error('Screenshot error:', error);
    }
  }, 60000);

  console.log('Puppeteer running...');
}

continuousScreenshots();

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Web Scraping Example

scraper.js
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

async function scrape(url) {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
    headless: 'new',
    args: ['--no-sandbox', '--disable-setuid-sandbox']
  });

  const page = await browser.newPage();
  
  try {
    await page.goto(url, { waitUntil: 'networkidle2' });

    // Extract data
    const data = await page.evaluate(() => {
      return {
        title: document.title,
        heading: document.querySelector('h1')?.textContent,
        links: Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('a')).map(a => a.href).slice(0, 10)
      };
    });

    console.log('Scraped data:', data);
    return data;

  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Scraping error:', error);
  } finally {
    await browser.close();
  }
}

scrape('https://example.com');

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PDF Generation Example

pdf.js
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

async function generatePDF(url, outputPath) {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
    headless: 'new',
    args: ['--no-sandbox', '--disable-setuid-sandbox']
  });

  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.goto(url, { waitUntil: 'networkidle2' });

  await page.pdf({
    path: outputPath,
    format: 'A4',
    printBackground: true
  });

  console.log('PDF saved to', outputPath);
  await browser.close();
}

generatePDF('https://example.com', 'page.pdf');

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Deploying

1

Prepare Your Files

Ensure you have:
  • index.js (or your script)
  • package.json
  • .shardcloud
2

Exclude Unnecessary Files

Remove: node_modules/, package-lock.json
3

Create ZIP Archive

Compress your project folder.
4

Upload to Shard Cloud

Go to Shard Cloud Dashboard and upload.

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Accessing Output Files

Screenshots and PDFs saved by your script can be downloaded from Shard Cloud’s file manager in the dashboard.

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Additional Resources

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Troubleshooting

  • Ensure headless mode is enabled
  • Add all required flags (--no-sandbox, --disable-setuid-sandbox, --disable-dev-shm-usage)
  • Increase memory allocation to at least 1024MB
  • Increase the timeout in page.goto() options
  • Use waitUntil: 'networkidle2' for dynamic pages
  • Close browser instances after each task
  • Increase MEMORY in your config
  • Avoid keeping multiple pages open