TL;DR: This package works with Splash rendering servers which are really just a REST API & `lua` scripting interface to a QT browser. It's an alternative to the Selenium ecosystem which was really engineered for application testing & validation.
Sometimes, all you need is a page scrape after javascript has been allowed to roam wild and free over your meticulously crafted HTML tags. So, this package does not do _everything_ Selenium can in pure R (the Lua interface is equally as powerful and accessible via R), but if you're just trying to get a page back that needs javascript rendering, this is a nice, lightweight, consistent alternative.
Sometimes, all you need is a page scrape after javascript has been allowed to roam wild and free over meticulously crafted HTML tags. So, this package does not do _everything_ Selenium can in pure R (though, the Lua interface is equally as powerful and accessible via R), but if you're just trying to get a page back that needs javascript rendering, this is a nice, lightweight, consistent alternative.
It's also an alternative to `phantomjs` (which you can use in R within or without a Selenium context as it's it's own webdriver) and it may be useful to compare renderings between this package & `phantomjs`.
TL;DR: This package works with Splash rendering servers which are really just a REST API &`lua` scripting interface to a QT browser. It's an alternative to the Selenium ecosystem which was really engineered for application testing & validation.
Sometimes, all you need is a page scrape after javascript has been allowed to roam wild and free over your meticulously crafted HTML tags. So, this package does not do *everything* Selenium can in pure R (the Lua interface is equally as powerful and accessible via R), but if you're just trying to get a page back that needs javascript rendering, this is a nice, lightweight, consistent alternative.
Sometimes, all you need is a page scrape after javascript has been allowed to roam wild and free over meticulously crafted HTML tags. So, this package does not do *everything* Selenium can in pure R (though, the Lua interface is equally as powerful and accessible via R), but if you're just trying to get a page back that needs javascript rendering, this is a nice, lightweight, consistent alternative.
It's also an alternative to `phantomjs` (which you can use in R within or without a Selenium context as it's it's own webdriver) and it may be useful to compare renderings between this package &`phantomjs`.