Fast driver and FullJS driver
Fast driver
Fast driver extracts data from the HTML returned by the website without running page JavaScript. It works at roughly 2× the speed of FullJS driver.
Use it when the required content is present in the returned HTML and the sitemap does not depend on browser interaction.
FullJS driver
FullJS driver loads the page in a browser environment, executes JavaScript and supports JavaScript-dependent workflows such as scrolling, clicking and Website State Setup.
Use it when content is rendered client-side or the sitemap requires browser interaction.
When Fast driver cannot be used
Web Scraper Cloud does not allow a sitemap to run with the Fast driver when it contains:
- Scrolling.
- Element Click selectors.
- Website State Setup.
- Pagination using Click multiple times or Click once.
- Pagination using Link from any script.
If none of these are present, Fast driver can still be selected. However, a JavaScript-dependent website may then return missing or Empty data for content that is not present in the initial HTML.
Choose a driver
Keep the default FullJS driver when JavaScript behavior is required. For compatible sitemaps, test Fast driver and compare the returned records and required fields before using it for production jobs or schedules.