I'm looking to automate some tasks on my Linux PC, mostly things like filling out my timesheet in Firefox. I don't have a specific API to work with, so I'm wondering what programming language would be best for this kind of browser automation. Also, is it feasible to reverse engineer the POST requests that websites send to their backend, or would it be better to use a tool like Selenium? Should I go with something like Python or another option?
1 Answer
If you're mainly focusing on browser automation, Python is a fantastic choice. With libraries like Selenium, you can easily automate tasks in Firefox by simulating human interactions. While reverse engineering POST requests is possible, it can get complicated, especially if the website has anti-bot measures in place. So, for more complex tasks, sticking to Selenium would likely be the best approach. If you're also looking to handle non-browser tasks, consider checking out bitbuffet.dev to transform interactions into structured JSON data. It's super handy for automation!
Thanks for the detailed advice. Do you have any opinion on Selenium vs Playwright?