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I am looking for software (it should not be a plugin for a browser, but a "standalone" application for Windows or Linux) for this:

I need to simulate web-browsing of "real" users. It should open a specified website, click on random links on website, stay for a while, etc.

Any idea for this?

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  • 1
    A tool like casperJS (nicolas.perriault.net/code/2012/…) would be able to do that, but it would require some scripting on your part. Their might be some pre-made scripts out there that do what you are describing.
    – chiliNUT
    Nov 30, 2014 at 0:56
  • Selenium comes to mind as well.
    – ComFreek
    Nov 30, 2014 at 13:22

3 Answers 3

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enter image description here

I think you are looking for Sikuli.

This tool will run at the first level to simulate a real user, whether on a webpage or a desktop application. I don't have a first user experience with this tool But in my previous company they have seriously considered it as the main testing tool for one of the projects and saw my colleges working on it.

It seems it provides almost all the functionalists you mentioned.

From my understanding, you can provide the steps in details, or specify the required action to occur on a certain trigger, such as navigate from a web page, click a certain image when it appears on the screen, fill in a form when it loads, like a FB user status when they post etc. You can program it to do a test a user story from the beginning till the end, e.g. user log in functionality, fill in a form, submit a form, upload an image etc. I even heard some people use it to play FB games for them when they are away!

Cited from their site:

Sikuli is an open-source research project originally started at the User Interface Design Group at MIT. Sikuli automates anything you see on the screen. It uses image recognition to identify and control GUI components. It is useful when there is no easy access to a GUI's internal or source code.

It seems it will search a domain/range of pixles on the screen to find a certain image (which you provided), once found, will trigger a set of actions that you per-defined.

See the following example:

Open cCleaner on a desktop:

enter image description here

Login on a website form:

enter image description here

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  • thanks BUT it seems sikuli needs predefined images. My need is - it should open any website and click any link (without need of prior image definition). In fact - I am trying to find out link position on screen then move mouse there and then click.
    – peter
    Dec 1, 2014 at 23:37
  • I see, does it need to click with the mouse? or would it be ok if there's a script which can trigger the link for you?
    – Mohammed Joraid
    Dec 2, 2014 at 4:24
  • Yes, the best way is if it clicks with the mouse (and potentialy if it would be able to simulate mouse move before click it is nice too) :)
    – peter
    Dec 2, 2014 at 9:59
  • Well, based on my understanding there's no way for the OS to detect which word is a normal text or a web link unless it goes and access the website source. And as far as i can tell, the browser is the one that got this type of access. After getting the page source it should estimate the link position from DOM structure of the site. From my experience this can be done from JavaScript and the code can be injected to the site, so it will analyses it's code and find the links tags, then will drive the mouse to it's position by it's pixels coordinates.
    – Mohammed Joraid
    Dec 2, 2014 at 17:56
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    It seems like Sikuli is now dead, but I found SikuliX sikulix.com which seems like a replacement for it (at the time of posting last updated about a month ago: August 2021)
    – André
    Sep 15, 2021 at 9:29
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There is also selenium which is specifically designed for web testing.

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  • How about dealing with javascript? Last time I tried it, it had problem with handling it due to bug.
    – 0x6B6F77616C74
    Nov 22, 2017 at 18:56
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have you considered autoit (free of course) AutoIt v3 is a freeware BASIC-like scripting language designed for automating the Windows GUI https://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/

unfortunately requires scripting on your part

forum page sample

Need example of web page auto-navigation

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/55285-need-example-of-web-page-auto-navigation/

Website Form Input

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/138036-website-form-input/

additional edit

sounds like a mouse or keyboard recorder

i have not tried this software i only found with google

mouse recorders have limitations tho - mouse recorders are location based, clickable items will have different locations on different websites

you can try to google for mouse recorder if my recommendations don't fit your criteria

perfect Automation (freeware)

You can use Perfect Automation as a launcher, a scheduler, a mouse & keyboard recorder and a powerful script editor. http://www.perfectautomation.com/

or

Tiny Task also mouse recorder (also free) http://www.vtaskstudio.com/support.php#tools

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  • Hi friends, thank you for replies. Both solution looks nice and maybe I will try it. Anyway I prefer easy solution (so let's say open site XY and make 7 random clicks on links on that site - this is pretty enough for me). So if somebody has any idea it is highly appreciated. Thanks!
    – peter
    Nov 30, 2014 at 11:21
  • any "random link" could lead to opening a new website. Do you mean random link but still within the original website?
    – tls
    Nov 30, 2014 at 11:29
  • by random link I mean any link on that website. It can be link within original website or link which points to another website. The bonus would be mouse move to that link and then mouse click as normal user did it.
    – peter
    Nov 30, 2014 at 13:17
  • ok. i added edits in my answer.
    – tls
    Nov 30, 2014 at 13:47
  • thanks @tls! I really appreciate your effort. I will try to find some software for this as I didn't find it so far. Thanks again!
    – peter
    Nov 30, 2014 at 15:11

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