How to run selenium web driver behind a proxy server which needs authentication in python

Question

At present this is my code, but webDriver is showing a pop-up to enter proxy credentials and I don't want this annoying situation, This is not the first time the same question appeared in stackoverflow, but no one replied with a proper answer.

I tried google to find a solution for this problem. I came to know the solution in java, but i dont know how we do it in python.

    PROXY_HOST = "65.49.1.59"
    PROXY_PORT = 60099
    fp = webdriver.FirefoxProfile()
    # Direct = 0, Manual = 1, PAC = 2, AUTODETECT = 4, SYSTEM = 5

    print " im in parse_details"

    fp.set_preference("network.proxy.type", 1)
    fp.set_preference('network.http.phishy-userpass-length', 255)

    fp.set_preference("network.proxy.http", PROXY_HOST)
    fp.set_preference("network.proxy.http_port", PROXY_PORT)
    fp.set_preference("network.proxy.ftp", PROXY_HOST)
    fp.set_preference("network.proxy.ftp_port", PROXY_PORT)
    fp.set_preference("network.proxy.ssl", PROXY_HOST)
    fp.set_preference("network.proxy.ssl_port", PROXY_PORT)
    #fp.set_preference("network.proxy.user_name", 'someusername')
    #fp.set_preference("network.proxy.password", 'somepassword')
    fp.set_preference("network.proxy.no_proxies_on", "") # set this value as desired

    self.driver = webdriver.Firefox(firefox_profile=fp)
    self.driver.get("http://www.whatismyip.com/")

These below statements are guessed by me, and I am not sure whether their syntax is correct or not, even i tried to find out in selenium documentation, but no help. Would you guys throw some light on this.

    #fp.set_preference("network.proxy.user_name", 'someusername')
    #fp.set_preference("network.proxy.password", 'somepassword')

p.s. The same question asked here Selenium using Python: enter/provide http proxy password for firefox

Answer 1

Selenium can't handle with basic authentication neither it works well with popups. But this problem is resolvable. As a solution that worked to me (I found it here) is to add a browser extension that does the authentication for Selenium. It's quite simple. Here is how it works for Chrome and Python:

1. Create a zip file proxy.zip containing two files:

background.js

var config = {
    mode: "fixed_servers",
    rules: {
      singleProxy: {
        scheme: "http",
        host: "YOU_PROXY_ADDRESS",
        port: parseInt(YOUR_PROXY_PORT)
      },
      bypassList: ["foobar.com"]
    }
  };

chrome.proxy.settings.set({value: config, scope: "regular"}, function() {});

function callbackFn(details) {
    return {
        authCredentials: {
            username: "YOUR_PROXY_USERNAME",
            password: "YOUR_PROXY_PASSWORD"
        }
    };
}

chrome.webRequest.onAuthRequired.addListener(
        callbackFn,
        {urls: ["<all_urls>"]},
        ['blocking']
);

Don't forget to replace YOUR_PROXY_* to your settings.

manifest.json

{
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "manifest_version": 2,
    "name": "Chrome Proxy",
    "permissions": [
        "proxy",
        "tabs",
        "unlimitedStorage",
        "storage",
        "<all_urls>",
        "webRequest",
        "webRequestBlocking"
    ],
    "background": {
        "scripts": ["background.js"]
    },
    "minimum_chrome_version":"22.0.0"
}

2. Add the created proxy.zip as an extension

Python Code:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options

chrome_options = Options()
chrome_options.add_extension("proxy.zip")

driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path='chromedriver.exe', chrome_options=chrome_options)
driver.get("http://google.com")
driver.close()

That's it. For me that worked like a charm. If you need to create proxy.zip dynamically or need PHP example then go to the original post