[Bug] Error: An `executablePath` or `channel` must be specified for `puppeteer-core`

Explanation of the problem

When attempting to run a program using puppeteer-extra and the puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth, an error occurs when launching puppeteer. The error message states: “Error: An ‘executablePath’ or ‘channel’ must be specified for ‘puppeteer-core’: image”.

// puppeteer-extra is a drop-in replacement for puppeteer,
// it augments the installed puppeteer with plugin functionality
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-extra');

// add stealth plugin and use defaults (all evasion techniques)
const StealthPlugin = require('puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth');
puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

// puppeteer usage as normal
puppeteer.launch({ headless: true }).then(async browser => {
  console.log('Running tests..')
  const page = await browser.newPage()
  await page.goto('https://bot.sannysoft.com')
  await page.waitForTimeout(5000)
  await page.screenshot({ path: 'testresult.png', fullPage: true })
  await browser.close()
  console.log(`All done, check the screenshot. ✨`)
});

Troubleshooting with the Lightrun Developer Observability Platform

Getting a sense of what’s actually happening inside a live application is a frustrating experience, one that relies mostly on querying and observing whatever logs were written during development.
Lightrun is a Developer Observability Platform, allowing developers to add telemetry to live applications in real-time, on-demand, and right from the IDE.

• Instantly add logs to, set metrics in, and take snapshots of live applications
• Insights delivered straight to your IDE or CLI
• Works where you do: dev, QA, staging, CI/CD, and production

Start for free today

Problem solution for: [Bug] Error: An `executablePath` or `channel` must be specified for `puppeteer-core`

To solve the problem of the “An ‘executablePath’ or ‘channel’ must be specified for ‘puppeteer-core’: image” error, you can specify the executablePath option when launching puppeteer. This requires providing the path to the chrome.exe file.

Solution:

const os = require("os");
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-extra');
const StealthPlugin = require('puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth');
puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

const executablePath = `${os.homedir()}/.cache/puppeteer/chrome/win64-1045629/chrome-win/chrome.exe`;

puppeteer.launch({ headless: true, executablePath }).then(async browser => {
  console.log('Running tests..');
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://bot.sannysoft.com');
  await page.waitForTimeout(5000);
  await page.screenshot({ path: 'testresult.png', fullPage: true });
  await browser.close();
  console.log(`All done, check the screenshot. ✨`);
});

In the above code, the executablePath variable is set to the path of the chrome.exe file. You can modify it based on the actual location of the Chrome executable on your system. This ensures that puppeteer knows the exact path to the Chrome browser to use.

By providing the executablePath option when launching puppeteer, the error should be resolved, and the program should run without any issues. Make sure to update the path according to your system configuration.

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-extra');
const StealthPlugin = require('puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth');

puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

// Rest of the puppeteer code...

const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com');

// Wait for an element to be present before clicking it
await page.waitFor('#myButton');
await page.click('#myButton');

// Rest of the puppeteer code...

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-extra');
const StealthPlugin = require('puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth');

puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  
  // Extract text content from an element
  const title = await page.$eval('h1', element => element.textContent);
  console.log(title);
  
  // Capture a screenshot
  await page.screenshot({ path: 'example.png' });
  
  await browser.close();
})();

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-extra');
const StealthPlugin = require('puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth');

puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  
  // Perform actions and assertions
  await page.click('#loginButton');
  await page.type('#usernameInput', 'testuser');
  await page.type('#passwordInput', 'testpassword');
  await page.click('#submitButton');
  
  const successMessage = await page.$eval('#successMessage', element => element.textContent);
  expect(successMessage).toBe('Login successful');
  
  await browser.close();
})();