netsurf/docs/using-monkey.md

Usage Instructions for Monkey NetSurf

This document provides usage instructions for the Monkey version of NetSurf.

Monkey NetSurf has been tested on Ubuntu and Debian.

Automated testing

If you want to run the monkey_driver.py or monkey-see-monkey-do tools then you will need python3 and pyyaml installed. The latter also needs internet access to test.netsurf-browser.org to acquire test data.

Overview

What it is

The NetSurf Monkey front end is a developer debug tool used to test how the core interacts with the user interface. It allows the developers to profile NetSurf and to interact with the core directly as though the developer were a front end.

What it is not

Monkey is not a tool for building web-crawling robots or indeed anything other than a debug tool for the NetSurf developers.

How to interact with nsmonkey

In brief, nsmonkey will produce tagged output on stdout and expect commands on stdin. Windows are numbered and for the most part tokens are space separated. In some cases (e.g. title or status) the final element on the output line is a string which might have spaces embedded within it. As such, output from nsmonkey should be parsed a token at a time, so that when such a string is encountered, the parser can stop splitting and return the rest.

Commands to nsmonkey are namespaced. For example commands related to browser windows are prefixed by WINDOW.

Top level tags for nsmonkey

• QUIT

• WINDOW

• OPTIONS

Top level response tags for nsmonkey

• GENERIC: Generic messages such as poll loops etc.

• WARN, ERROR, DIE: Error messages of varying importance

• WINDOW: Anything about browser windows in general

• DOWNLOAD: Anything about the download window.

• SSLCERT: Anything about SSL certificates

• 401LOGIN: Anything about HTTP Basic Authentication logins

• PLOT: Plot calls which come from the core.

In the below, %something% indicates a substitution made by Monkey.

• %url% will be a URL
• %id% will be an opaque ID
• %n% will be a number
• %bool% will be TRUE or FALSE
• %str% is a string and will only ever be at the end of an output line.

Warnings, errors etc

• Warnings (tagged WARN) come from the NetSurf core.
• Errors (tagged ERROR) tend to come from Monkey's parsers
• Death (tagged DIE) comes from the core and kills Monkey dead.

Commands

Generic commands

• QUIT

  Cause monkey to quit cleanly. This will cleanly destroy open windows etc.

• OPTIONS %str

  Cause monkey to set options. The passed options should be in the same form as the command line, e.g. OPTIONS --enable_javascript=1

Window commands

• WINDOW NEW [%url%]

  Create a new browser window, optionally giving the core a URL to immediately navigate to. Minimally you will receive a WINDOW NEW WIN %id% response.

• WINDOW DESTROY %id%

  Destroy the given browser window. Minimally you will receive a WINDOW DESTROY WIN %id% response.

• WINDOW GO %id% %url% [%url%]

  Cause the given browser window to visit the given URL. Optionally you can give a referrer URL to also use (simulating a click in the browser on a link). Minimally you can expect throbber stop response.

• WINDOW STOP %id%

  Cause a browser window to stop any in progress navigatoipn. Minimally you can expect throbber, url etc responses.

• WINDOW REDRAW %id% [%num% %num% %num% %num%]

  Cause a browser window to redraw. Optionally you can give a set of coordinates to simulate a partial expose of the window. Said coordinates are in traditional X0 Y0 X1 Y1 order. The coordinates are in canvas, not window, coordinates. So you should take into account the scroll offsets when issuing this command. Minimally you can expect redraw start/stop messages and you can likely expect some number of PLOT results.

• WINDOW RELOAD %id% [all]

  Cause a browser window to reload its current content. Expect responses similar to a GO command.

• WINDOW EXEC WIN %id% %str%

  Cause a browser window to execute some javascript. It won't work if the window doesn't have a finished HTML content.

  This will send a JS message back.

• WINDOW CLICK WIN %id% X %num% Y %num% BUTTON %str% KIND %str%

  Cause a browser window to experience a mouse click. The coordinates should be in plot coordinates, so you can use redraw plot commands to find things and then click on them. The BUTTON value should be one of LEFT or RIGHT, and the KIND is SINGLE, DOUBLE, or TRIPLE.

  This command will not output anything itself, it's expected only to do things as a result of the click (e.g. navigating when clicking a link).

Login commands

• LOGIN USERNAME %id% %str%

  Set the username for the login

• LOGIN PASSWORD %id% %str%

  Set the password for the login

• LOGIN GO %id%

  Cause a login to proceed using the set credentials

  This will send a DESTROY message back.

• LOGIN DESTROY %id%

  Cause a login to fail

  This will send a DESTROY message back.

SSL certificate commands

• SSLCERT GO %id%

  Cause a ssl certificate to be accepted and fetch to proceed.

  This will send a DESTROY message back.

• SSLCERT DESTROY %id%

  Cause a ssl certificate to be rejected and fetch to fail

  This will send a DESTROY message back.

Responses

Generic messages

• GENERIC STARTED

  Monkey has started and is ready for commands

• GENERIC CLOSING_DOWN

  Monkey has been told to shut down and is doing so

• GENERIC FINISHED

  Monkey has finished and will now exit

• GENERIC LAUNCH URL %url%

  The core asked monkey to launch the given URL

• GENERIC THUMBNAIL URL %url%

  The core asked monkey to thumbnail a content without a window.

• GENERIC POLL BLOCKING

• GENERIC POLL TIMED %n%

  Monkey reached a point where it could sleep waiting for commands or scheduled timeouts. No fetches nor redraws were pending. If there are no timeouts or other pending jobs then this will be a BLOCKING poll, otherwise the number given is in milliseconds.

Window messages

• WINDOW NEW WIN %id% FOR %id% CLONE %id% NEWTAB %bool%

  The core asked Monkey to open a new window. The IDs for FOR and CLONE are core window IDs, the WIN id is a Monkey window ID.

• WINDOW SIZE WIN %id% WIDTH %n% HEIGHT %n%

  The window specified has been set to the shown width and height.

• WINDOW DESTROY WIN %id%

  The core has instructed Monkey to destroy the named window.

• WINDOW TITLE WIN %id% STR %str%

  The core supplied a titlebar title for the given window.

• WINDOW REDRAW WIN %id%

  The core asked that Monkey redraw the given window.

• WINDOW GET_DIMENSIONS WIN %id% WIDTH %n% HEIGHT %n%

  The core asked Monkey what the dimensions of the window are. Monkey has to respond immediately and returned the supplied width and height values to the core.

• WINDOW NEW_CONTENT WIN %id%

  The core has informed Monkey that the named window has a new content object.

• WINDOW NEW_ICON WIN %id%

  The core has informed Monkey that the named window has a new icon (favicon) available.

• WINDOW START_THROBBER WIN %id%

  The core asked Monkey to start the throbber for the named window. This indicates to the user that the window is busy.

• WINDOW STOP_THROBBER WIN %id%

  The core asked Monkey to stop the throbber for the named window. This indicates to the user that the window is finished.

• WINDOW SET_SCROLL WIN %id% X %n% Y %n%

  The core asked Monkey to set the named window's scroll offsets to the given X and Y position.

• WINDOW UPDATE_BOX WIN %id% X %n% Y %n% WIDTH %n% HEIGHT %n%

  The core asked Monkey to redraw the given portion of the content display. Note these coordinates refer to the content, not the viewport which Monkey is simulating.

• WINDOW UPDATE_EXTENT WIN %id% WIDTH %n% HEIGHT %n%

  The core has told us that the content in the given window has a total width and height as shown. This allows us (along with the window's width and height) to know the scroll limits.

• WINDOW SET_STATUS WIN %id% STR %str%

  The core has told us that the given window needs its status bar updating with the given message.

• WINDOW SET_POINTER WIN %id% POINTER %id%

  The core has told us to update the mouse pointer for the given window to the given pointer ID.

• WINDOW SET_SCALE WIN %id% SCALE %n%

  The core has asked us to scale the given window by the given scale factor.

• WINDOW SET_URL WIN %id% URL %url%

  The core has informed us that the given window's URL bar needs updating to the given url.

• WINDOW GET_SCROLL WIN %id% X %n% Y %n%

  The core asked Monkey for the scroll offsets. Monkey returned the numbers shown for the window named.

• WINDOW SCROLL_START WIN %id%

  The core asked Monkey to scroll the named window to the top/left.

• WINDOW POSITION_FRAME WIN %id% X0 %n% Y0 %n% X1 %n% Y1 %n%

  The core asked Monkey to position the named window as a frame at the given coordinates of its parent.

• WINDOW SCROLL_VISIBLE WIN %id% X0 %n% Y0 %n% X1 %n% Y1 %n%

  The core asked Monkey to scroll the named window until the indicated box is visible.

• WINDOW PLACE_CARET WIN %id% X %n% Y %n% HEIGHT %n%

  The core asked Monkey to render a caret in the named window at the indicated position with the indicated height.

• WINDOW REMOVE_CARET WIN %id%

  The core asked Monkey to remove any caret in the named window.

• WINDOW SCROLL_START WIN %id% X0 %n% Y0 %n% X1 %n% Y1 %n%

  The core asked Monkey to scroll the named window to the start of the given box.

• WINDOW SELECT_MENU WIN %id%

  The core asked Monkey to produce a selection menu for the named window.

• WINDOW SAVE_LINK WIN %id% URL %url% TITLE %str%

  The core asked Monkey to save a link from the given window with the given URL and anchor title.

• WINDOW THUMBNAIL WIN %id% URL %url%

  The core asked Monkey to render a thumbnail for the given window which is currently at the given URL.

• WINDOW REDRAW WIN %id% START

  and

  WINDOW REDRAW WIN %id% STOP

  The core wraps redraws in these messages. Thus PLOT responses can be allocated to the appropriate window.

• WINDOW JS WIN %id% RET TRUE/FALSE

  Here FALSE indicates that some issue prevented the injection of the script.

• WINDOW CONSOLE_LOG WIN %id% SOURCE %source% %foldable% %level% %str%

  Here, %source% will be one of: client-input, scripting-error, or scripting-console. %foldable% will be one of FOLDABLE or NOT-FOLDABLE. %level% will be one of LOG, INFO, WARN, or ERROR. The terminal string will be the log message.

Download window messages

• DOWNLOAD CREATE DWIN %id% WIN %id%

  The core asked Monkey to create a download window owned by the given browser window.

• DOWNLOAD DATA DWIN %id% SIZE %n% DATA %str%

  The core asked Monkey to update the named download window with the given byte size and data string.

• DOWNLOAD ERROR DWIN %id% ERROR %str%

  The core asked Monkey to update the named download window with the given error message.

• DOWNLOAD DONE DWIN %id%

  The core asked Monkey to destroy the named download window.

SSL Certificate messages

• SSLCERT VERIFY CWIN %id% URL %url%

  The core asked Monkey to say whether or not a given SSL certificate is OK.

• LOGIN DESTROY CWIN %id%

  The given certificate window has been destroyed and should no longer be sent commands otherwise undefined behaviour may ensue.

401 Login messages

• LOGIN OPEN LWIN %id% URL %url%

  The core asked Monkey to ask for identification for the given URL.

  This will be immediately followed by:

• LOGIN USER LWIN %id% STR %str%

  The given login window has a default username of the given string

  This will be immediately followed by:

• LOGIN PASS LWIN %id% STR %str%

  The given login window has a default password of the given string

  This will be immediately followed by:

• LOGIN REALM LWIN %id% STR %str%

  The given login window has a realm of the given string

  Subsequent to this message, the user of monkey is at liberty to issue LOGIN commands to control the response of the 401LOGIN process.

• LOGIN DESTROY LWIN %id%

  The given login window has been destroyed and should no longer be sent commands otherwise undefined behaviour may ensue.

Plotter messages

Note, Monkey won't clip coordinates, but sometimes the core does.

• PLOT CLIP X0 %n% Y0 %n% X1 %n% Y1 %n%

  The core asked Monkey to clip plotting to the given clipping rectangle (X0,Y0) (X1,Y1)

• PLOT TEXT X %n% Y %n% STR %str%

  The core asked Monkey to plot the given string at the given coordinates.

• PLOT LINE X0 %n% Y0 %n% X1 %n% Y1 %n%

  The core asked Monkey to plot a line with the given start and end coordinates.

• PLOT RECT X0 %n% Y0 %n% X1 %n% Y1 %n%

  The core asked Monkey to plot a rectangle with the given coordinates as the corners.

• PLOT BITMAP X %n% Y %n% WIDTH %n% HEIGHT %n%

  The core asked Monkey to plot a bitmap at the given coordinates, scaled to the given width/height.

TODO: Check if other things are implemented and add them to the docs