Selenium-Python Client Library - Automating in Background

Question

I am trying automate a login process to my web application using Selenium-Python Client Library. The ultimate goal is to learn Selenium's Python Client Library. So, I would really appreciate answers from those who are into Selenium-Python.

I current have a code like this:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

browser = webdriver.Firefox() # Get local session of firefox
browser.get("http://myServer/WebAccess/login.html") # Load Application page
elem = browser.find_element_by_name("LoginID") # Find the Login box
elem.send_keys("Administrator")
elem = browser.find_element_by_name("Password") # Find the Password box
elem.send_keys("Administrator" + Keys.RETURN)

This works well but all happens in the front-end. I mean it literally opens up a Firefox, keys in the values, clicks on Submit, etc which is as expected.

I am just wondering, is there anything I can do to make all this happen at the background? Let us say I do not want to monitor what the script is doing. I just want it to run in the background. Is there any way to achieve this?

EDIT

Downloaded PyVirtualDisplay and installed it in my windows using the command setup.py install. Installed EasyProcess and Path module too.

Now I have a sample code like this

from pyvirtualdisplay import Display
from selenium import webdriver
display = Display(visible=0, size=(1024, 768))
display.start()
browser = webdriver.Firefox()
browser.get('http://www.google.com')
print browser.title
browser.close()
display.stop()

I get the below errors on executing this code:

`Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\Sel.py", line 1, in <module>
    from pyvirtualdisplay import Display
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pyvirtualdisplay\__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from display import Display
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pyvirtualdisplay\display.py", line 2, in <module>
    from pyvirtualdisplay.xephyr import XephyrDisplay
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pyvirtualdisplay\xephyr.py", line 8, in <module>
    EasyProcess([PROGRAM, '-help'], url=URL, ubuntu_package=PACKAGE).check_installed()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\easyprocess\__init__.py", line 202, in check_installed
    raise EasyProcessCheckInstalledError(self)
EasyProcessCheckInstalledError: cmd=['Xephyr', '-help']
OSError=[Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified  
Program install error! `

Answer 1

Firefox (and other graphical browsers) require an X display. You can use a virtual one with the help of PyVirtualDisplay:

from pyvirtualdisplay import Display
display = Display(visible=0, size=(1024, 768))
display.start()

browser = webdriver.Firefox()
... more selenium code ...

display.stop()

Apart from PyVirtualDisplay, you'll also need its dependencies xfvb and Xephyr (on debian: apt-get install -y xvfb xserver-xephyr)