Casperjs Passing Data Back to PHP

CasperJS passing data back to PHP

You can redirect output from stdout to an array.

On this page it says you can do:

string exec ( string $command [, array &$output [, int &$return_var ]] )

It goes on to say:

If the output argument is present, then the specified array will be filled with every line of output from the command.

So basically you can do exec('casperjs command here, $array_here);

Pass parameter from php to casperjs/phantomjs

I found the answer myself.

It seems phantomjs and casperjs support command line arguments http://phantomjs.org/api/system/property/args.html

My script now looks like this.

test.php

$user_input = $_POST['user_input'];

putenv("PHANTOMJS_EXECUTABLE=/usr/local/bin/phantomjs");
exec('/usr/local/bin/casperjs hello.js $user_input 2>&1',$output);

print_r($output);

hello.js

var system = require('system');
var args = system.args;
var address = args[4]; //In my case 4 was the argument for $user_input, yours might be different, depending on your server setup.

var casper = require('casper').create({
  verbose: true,
  logLevel: 'error',
  pageSettings: {
    loadImages: false,
    loadPlugins: false
  }
});

casper.start(address, function() {
    this.echo(this.getTitle());
});

casper.run();

Installing casperJS and phantomJS in WIndows Apache 2.4 to pass data to PHP

So I ended up figuring out the proper path to casperJS and phantomJS. I placed both of the .exe in C:\casperjs\bin and did not even need to add them to my PATH, and it worked very well. This is my index.php, which sends AJAX for a php page executing my casperJ-script (I have added a counter for each successful/failed test, as well as allowed the user to select how frequently the test should run):

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" type="text/css" media="screen, projection"/>
        <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/ico" href="favicon_jdoe.png" />
        <script src="jquery-2.1.1.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
        <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="jquery.dropdownPlain.js"></script>
        <title>CasperJS Automated Testing Unit</title>
    </head>
    <center>
    <body>
    <div id="mainContent">
<p>Welcome to the CasperJS Automated Testing Unit</p>
<br>
  <button id="button_AJAX">Run CasperJS</button>
  <button id="button_STOP" onclick="myStopFunction()" style="display: none">Stop CasperJS</button>
    </div>

<p>
<select id="multi">
<option value="1">1 min</option>
<option value="2">2 min</option>
<option value="5">5 min</option>
<option value="10">10 min</option>
<option value="30" selected="selected">30 min</option>
<option value="60">1 hour</option>
<option value="360">6 hours</option>
<option value="720">12 hours</option>
<option value="1440">1 day</option>
</select>
</p>

<p>
    <div class="centered">
    <div style="float:left; margin-right:20px">
        <div style="float:left">Success count:</div>
        <div id="succcount" style="float:left">0</div> 
    </div>
    <div style="float:left">
        <div style="float:left">Fail count:</div>
        <div id="failcount" style="float:left">0</div>
    </div>
    </div>
</p>

    <br>

    <br>
    <div id="loading"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">

    var succcount = 0;
    var failcount = 0;

    $('#button_AJAX').click(function executecasperJS() {
       $('#loading').html('<img src="rays.gif"><br><i>Web harvesting in progress; please wait for test results.</i>');  // Loading image
            $.ajax({    // Run ajax request
            type: "GET",
            dataType: "text",
            url: "casperJS.php",
            success: function (data) {        
                    $('#loading').html(data);

                    if( data.indexOf('Fail: 0') !== -1 ) {
                        succcount++;
                    } else {
                        failcount++;
                    }
                    $('#succcount').html(succcount);
                    $('#failcount').html(failcount);
            }   
        });

multi = $( "#multi option:selected" ).val();
console.log("multi="+multi);        

timeout = setTimeout(executecasperJS,multi*60000); //1 min == 60000 
});
    $("#button_AJAX").click(function() {$("#button_AJAX").text("CasperJS Executed");});
    $("#button_STOP").click(function() {$("#button_AJAX").text("Run CasperJS");});
    function myStopFunction() {
        clearTimeout(timeout);
    } 

    $("#button_AJAX").click(function(){
       $("#button_STOP").show();
     });

     $("#button_STOP").click(function(){
        $("#button_STOP").hide();
      });

</script>
</div>
    <div id="page-wrap">
            <ul class="dropdown"> 
            <li><a href="#">CasperJS Logs</a>
                <ul class="sub_menu">
                     <li><a href="casperjs_log.txt" target="_blank">Testing Log</a></li>
                     <li><a href="casperjs_error.txt" target="_blank">Error Log</a></li>
        </ul>
    </div>
</center>
    </body>
</html>

and here is the casperJS.php; which sends out an email if a failure occurs:

<?php

set_time_limit(3600);

date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');
$date = date('m/d/Y h:i:s a', time());
$time_start = microtime(true);
$output = exec("C:\casperjs\bin\casperjs casperJScript.js");
    if (strpos($output, 'Fail: 0') === FALSE) {
        require_once('PHPMailer_5.2.4/class.phpmailer.php');
        $mail             = new PHPMailer();
        $mail->IsSMTP();     
        $mail->SMTPDebug  = 1;                   
        $mail->SMTPAuth   = true;                  
        $mail->SMTPSecure = "ssl";                
        $mail->Host       = "smtp.gmail.com";      
        $mail->Port       = 465;                   
        $mail->IsHTML(true);     
        $mail->Username   = "email@host.com";  
        $mail->Password   = "password";            
        $mail->SetFrom('email@host.co');
        $mail->AddReplyTo("email@host.co");
        $mail->Subject    = "casperJS: Server failure occured on $date";
        $mail->Body    = "The casperJS testing unit has picked up a server fault: $output
        $mail->AddAddress("email@host.co");
        if(!$mail->Send()) {
        //echo "Mailer Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;
        } else {
        //  echo "An error has occured and an email with the fault has been sent.";
        echo '<span style="color:#FF0000">An error has occured; it was logged and an email notification has been sent.</span>';
        $userip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
        $file = 'casperjs_error.txt';
        $oldContents = file_get_contents($file);
        $fr = fopen($file, 'w');
        $txt = "ERROR log: $output. Requested by: $userip on $date." . PHP_EOL . PHP_EOL ;
        fwrite($fr, $txt);
        fwrite($fr, $oldContents);
        fclose($fr);    
        echo "<br />";
        echo "<br />";
        }
    }
    echo "Test Results: $output";
    $userip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
    $time_end = microtime(true);
    $time = $time_end - $time_start;
    echo "<br />";
    echo "<br />";
    echo "Last test completed in $time seconds\n on $date";
    $file = 'casperjs_log.txt';
    $oldContents = file_get_contents($file);
    $fr = fopen($file, 'w');
    $txt = "Log: $output. Test completed in $time seconds\n on $date. Requested by: $userip" . PHP_EOL . PHP_EOL ;
    fwrite($fr, $txt);
    fwrite($fr, $oldContents);
    fclose($fr);        
?>

Using casperjs and PHP to save data

Not sure to fully understand your question (see my comment above it), but basically:

var casper = require('casper').create();
var username = 'foo';
var password = 'bar';

casper.start('http://service.domain.tld/register.html', function() {
    this.fill('form[action="/register"]', {
        'username': username,
        'password': password
    }, true);
});

casper.then(function() {
    if (/Your account was created/.test(this.fetchText('.success'))) {
        this.echo('Created account: ' + username + '/' + password);
    } else {
        this.echo('Failed creating account for ' + username);
    }
});

casper.run();

You could also return some JSON serialization of any supplementary information to ease their consumption by a PHP script.

Send data from CasperJS script to PHP

Not 100% on CasperJS, but looking at your PHP code try using json_encode in your script like this:

$casperjs = "casperjs";
$script = 'add_site.js';
$arg0 = $_POST['new_site'];  
$command = "$casperjs $script $arg0";
$result = shell_exec($command);
echo json_encode($result);

Also try setting explicit JSON headers for your output like this:

$casperjs = "casperjs";
$script = 'add_site.js';
$arg0 = $_POST['new_site'];  
$command = "$casperjs $script $arg0";
$result = shell_exec($command);
$json_data = json_encode($result);
header('X-JSON: (' . $json_data . ')');
header('Content-type: application/x-json');
echo $json_data;

Clicking a button to run casperJS in PHP and echo results in same PHP page with button

So I figured that I could use AJAX to display the casperjs echoed results in the same page. I made an HTML page with two buttons: 1) Run casperjs AJAX to run the AJAX, and 2) Run casperjs to simply load a PHP page executing the casperjs script and printing the results in a new page. Here is the HTML (with help from How to link external javascript file onclick of button for AJAX button click):

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>casperJS testing</title>
    </head>
    <center>
    <body>
    <div id="mainContent">
<p>Welcome to the Automated Testing Utility</p>
<table>
<tr>
  <td><button id="button_AJAX">Run casperjs AJAX</button></td>
  <td><form action="runscript.php">
    <input type="submit" value="Run casperJS">
</form></td> 
</tr>
</table>
    </div>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    var button = document.getElementById('button_AJAX');
    button.onclick = function(){
        var script = document.createElement("script");
        script.type = "text/javascript";
        script.src = "casperjsajax.js"; 
        document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(script);
        return false;
    }
    </script>
    </center>
    </body>
</html>

The casperjsajax.js code (with the aid of JS Essential Training):

// 1: Create the request 
var myRequest;

// feature check!
if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {  // does it exist? we're in Firefox, Safari etc.
    myRequest = new XMLHttpRequest();
} else if (window.ActiveXObject) { // if not, we're in IE
    myRequest = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}

// 2: Create an event handler for request to call back
myRequest.onreadystatechange = function(){
    if (myRequest.readyState === 4) {
        var p = document.createElement("p");
        var t = document.createTextNode(myRequest.responseText);
        p.appendChild(t);
        document.getElementById("mainContent").appendChild(p);
    }
};

// Open and send it
myRequest.open('GET', 'scriptresults.php', true);
// any parameters?
myRequest.send(null);

The scriptresults.php code:

<?php
echo "Here are your test results!";
echo "<br />";
echo exec("/home/user/casperjs/bin/casperjs /full/path/to/your_script.js");
?>

And the runscript.php link for non-AJAX

<html>
<head>
<title>casperJS Test Results</title>
</head>
<body>
    <center>
<p>Here are your results!</p>
<br>
<?php
    echo exec("/usr/local/bin/casperjs /full/path/to/your_script.js");
?>
    </center>   
</body>
</html>

Casperjs Passing Data Back to PHP