What is a DOM Node?

DOM nodes are the individual components that make up a webpage. Some DOM nodes map 1-to-1 with HTML elements like <input> and <picture>, while others represent clumps of raw text or invisible elements providing interactivity on the page. These nodes are organized into a nested tree, starting from the top-level document node, including every single thing you see (and don’t see) as you navigate within the browser. Each DOM node also contains metadata and utilities related to the behavior it provides.

During browser automation projects, you will often find yourself interacting with the DOM. For instance, an e2e test might search through DOM nodes to find particular elements on a page, trigger a click, then scan the DOM again for the resulting changes.

For another example, consider a task where you need to extract pricing details of all products listed on an e-commerce webpage with infinite scroll. To load all of the products, you would have to find the correct “container” node, then trigger a scroll event repeatedly, until no new products were found.

How can BrowserCat help with targeting DOM nodes?

BrowserCat improves upon conventional web scrapers by offering you complete programmatic control over a live browser. Everything a user could do with a mouse and keyboard, you can do with code. As such, any changes you make to existing DOM nodes will result in immediate changes on the page. This can have profound implications for automated testing and dynamic media generation.

Try BrowserCat today, and automate everything!