How to Download Files#

Best Practice for Browser Automation#

Instead of using the click.button() method to download files, you get more control with the dedicated click.download() and click.download_and_get_file_path() methods.

Read on to learn how to automate file downloads in an easy and stable way.

Destination Directory for Downloads#

First, make sure you know where files are downloaded to. The default is the user's Downloads folder, or you can set a custom download directory in the download_dir parameter of BrowserSettings.

Python
from browserist import Browser, BrowserSettings

settings = BrowserSettings(download_dir="/my/downloads")

with Browser(settings) as browser:
    browser.open.url("https://example.com")
    browser.click.download("//xpath/to/button")

Note

It's only possible to set a single download directory for each browser session, not different destinations for different downloads.

Avoid that multiple browser instances have access to the same download directory. As Browserist monitors the download directory for file changes, it may cause unexpected behaviour if multiple files are downloaded to the same directory at the same time.

Methods#

There are two main methods you can use to download files:

Method	Description
`click.download()`	Download file as background task or await completion
`click.download_and_get_file_path()`	Download file and return its path after completion

Simple Download#

Use the click.download() method for simple file downloads, either as a background task or await the download to complete. Options:

Parameters	Advantage	Disadvantage
`"//xpath/to/button"`	Faster	If the browser closes during a download, the download may be aborted or left incomplete
... `await_download=True`	Stable download as we wait for download to complete	This will attempt to guess the file name, which may be slower
... `expected_file_name="file.zip"`	Stable download as we wait for download to complete	Slower than background task, yet faster if you know the file name

Examples in context:

Python
from browserist import Browser

with Browser() as browser:
    browser.open.url("https://example.com")
    browser.click.download("//xpath/to/button")
    browser.click.download("//xpath/to/button", await_download=True)
    browser.click.download("//xpath/to/button", await_download=True, expected_file_name="file.zip")

Get the Path to the Downloaded File#

Use the click.download_and_get_file_path() method to download a file and get its file path once the download is complete. As downloads are handled automatically by the browser, this is useful if you don't know the file name beforehand. For example:

Python
from browserist import Browser

with Browser() as browser:
    browser.open.url("https://example.com")
    file_path = browser.click.download_and_get_file_path("//xpath/to/button")

The return type is Path from the standard pathlib library, and so you can easily get the file name or absolute path.

For instance, this will output the file name file.zip in the terminal:

    print(file_path.name)

And this will output the absolute file path /home/user/downloads/file.zip in the terminal:

    print(file_path.absolute())