catalyst-smartbrowz

Prerequisites

Before using SmartBrowz, activate it once per project in the console:

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

Skipping this step prevents access to Headless, Browser Logic, PDF & Screenshot, Templates, Browser Grid, and Dataverse components.

For Browser Logic functions: Requires Catalyst CLI installation. Initialize and deploy Browser Logic functions via CLI (cannot be created directly in console, but can be uploaded).

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

Use this skill for: "SmartBrowz", "headless browser", "Headless Browser", "remote browser", "Puppeteer", "Playwright", "Selenium", "browser automation", "Browser Logic", "PDF generation", "screenshot webpage", "HTML to PDF", "URL to PDF", "template PDF", "PDF/Screenshot generation", "PDF & Screenshot", "SmartBrowz templates", "Browser Grid", "parallel browsers", "web scraping", "Dataverse", "CDP endpoint", "Webdriver endpoint", "headless Chrome", "headless Firefox", "browser testing", or "automation library".

References