Dashboard Capture

Capture authenticated web dashboards as screenshots and HTML files using cookie-based authentication with automatic crawling.

Prerequisites

1. Install cookie-editor Chrome Extension

Install the cookie-editor extension to export cookies from your browser:

• Chrome Web Store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/cookie-editor
• Search for "cookie-editor" or "EditThisCookie"

2. Install Dependencies

Required:

• Node.js v16 or higher
• puppeteer: npm install -g puppeteer

The capture script uses puppeteer's bundled Chromium browser.

Quick Start

Basic single-page screenshot capture:

# 1. Export cookies from your authenticated session
# (Use cookie-editor extension, export as JSON, save as cookies.json)

# 2. Run capture
node scripts/capture.js \
  --cookies cookies.json \
  --url https://dashboard.example.com \
  --mode screenshots

Workflow

Step 1: Authenticate and Export Cookies

1. Open your browser and navigate to the dashboard
2. Sign in with your credentials
3. Click the cookie-editor extension icon
4. Click "Export" and select "JSON" format
5. Copy the JSON and save to a file (e.g., cookies.json)

Important: Cookies contain sensitive authentication tokens. Never commit cookie files to version control.

Step 2: Create Configuration File

For advanced usage with crawling, create a config file:

{
  "cookies": "./cookies.json",
  "landing_page": "https://dashboard.example.com",
  "output_dir": "./dashboard-capture",
  "mode": "both",
  "crawl": {
    "enabled": true,
    "max_depth": 2,
    "same_origin_only": true,
    "exclude_patterns": [
      "*logout*",
      "*signout*",
      "*delete*",
      "*remove*",
      "*destroy*"
    ]
  },
  "screenshot": {
    "full_page": true
  },
  "timeout": 30000
}

Step 3: Run Capture Script

With config file:

node scripts/capture.js --config config.json

With command-line arguments:

node scripts/capture.js \
  --cookies cookies.json \
  --url https://dashboard.example.com \
  --mode both \
  --output ./output

The script will:

1. Load cookies and authenticate
2. Navigate to landing page
3. Capture screenshot/HTML based on mode
4. Extract links from the page
5. Crawl linked pages (if crawling enabled)
6. Save organized output with metadata

Step 4: Review Output

Output structure:

output/
├── screenshots/           # PNG screenshots (full-page)
│   ├── dashboard_example_com.png
│   ├── dashboard_example_com_reports.png
│   └── dashboard_example_com_settings.png
├── html/                  # HTML files
│   ├── dashboard_example_com.html
│   ├── dashboard_example_com_reports.html
│   └── dashboard_example_com_settings.html
└── metadata.json          # Capture metadata and results

metadata.json contains:

{
  "status": "success",
  "pages_captured": 3,
  "output_directory": "/path/to/output",
  "capture_time": "2026-02-05T12:34:56Z",
  "config": {
    "landing_page": "https://dashboard.example.com",
    "mode": "both",
    "max_depth": 2
  },
  "pages": [
    {
      "url": "https://dashboard.example.com",
      "depth": 0,
      "screenshot": {
        "filename": "dashboard_example_com.png",
        "path": "/path/to/output/screenshots/dashboard_example_com.png"
      },
      "html": {
        "filename": "dashboard_example_com.html",
        "path": "/path/to/output/html/dashboard_example_com.html"
      },
      "timestamp": "2026-02-05T12:34:56Z"
    }
  ]
}

Configuration Reference

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

Crawl Configuration

Screenshot Configuration

Command-Line Options

node scripts/capture.js [OPTIONS]

OPTIONS:
  --config FILE         Load configuration from JSON file
  --cookies FILE        Path to cookie JSON file
  --url URL             Landing page URL
  --mode MODE           Capture mode: screenshots, html, or both
  --output DIR          Output directory
  --max-depth N         Maximum crawl depth
  --no-crawl            Disable crawling
  --help, -h            Show help message

Examples

Example 1: Screenshot-Only Capture

Capture screenshots of a single dashboard page:

node scripts/capture.js \
  --cookies cookies.json \
  --url https://dashboard.example.com \
  --mode screenshots \
  --no-crawl

Example 2: Full Dashboard Crawl

Capture both screenshots and HTML, crawling up to 2 levels deep:

{
  "cookies": "./cookies.json",
  "landing_page": "https://dashboard.example.com",
  "mode": "both",
  "crawl": {
    "enabled": true,
    "max_depth": 2
  }
}

node scripts/capture.js --config config.json

Example 3: HTML Documentation

Capture HTML only for documentation purposes:

node scripts/capture.js \
  --cookies cookies.json \
  --url https://dashboard.example.com \
  --mode html \
  --output ./docs/dashboard-html

Example 4: Custom Exclude Patterns

Exclude additional URL patterns:

{
  "cookies": "./cookies.json",
  "landing_page": "https://dashboard.example.com",
  "crawl": {
    "exclude_patterns": [
      "*logout*",
      "*delete*",
      "*edit*",
      "*admin*"
    ]
  }
}

Troubleshooting

Cookies Not Working / Authentication Failed

Symptom: Script reports "Authentication failed - redirected to login page"

Solutions:

1. Re-export cookies - they may have expired
2. Ensure you export cookies from the exact domain (not a subdomain)
3. Check that cookies include authentication tokens (look for session IDs)
4. Try exporting cookies immediately after logging in

See references/troubleshooting.md for detailed cookie export instructions.

Missing Dependencies

Symptom: puppeteer not found error

Solution:

npm install -g puppeteer

If that fails, try local installation:

npm install puppeteer
# Then use: node_modules/.bin/node scripts/capture.js

Pages Not Loading / Timeout Errors

Symptom: Page navigation times out

Solutions:

1. Increase timeout in config: "timeout": 60000 (60 seconds)
2. Check network connectivity
3. Verify the URL is accessible
4. Try disabling same-origin restriction temporarily for testing

Links Not Being Followed

Symptom: Only landing page captured, no crawling

Solutions:

1. Check that crawl.enabled is true
2. Verify max_depth is greater than 0
3. Check that links are same-origin (if same_origin_only: true)
4. Review exclude patterns - they may be too broad

For More Help

See detailed troubleshooting guide: references/troubleshooting.md

Notes

Cookie Expiration: Cookies expire based on server settings. If capture fails with authentication errors, re-export fresh cookies.

Same-Origin Restriction: By default, only links within the same domain are followed. This prevents accidentally crawling external sites.

Depth Limit: Maximum depth of 2 prevents excessive crawling. Depth 0 = landing page, Depth 1 = direct links, Depth 2 = links from depth 1 pages.

Safety Filters: Exclude patterns prevent the script from clicking logout, delete, or other dangerous actions. These patterns use wildcard matching (*logout* matches any URL containing "logout").

File Naming: URLs are converted to safe filenames by replacing non-alphanumeric characters with underscores. Long URLs are truncated to 200 characters.

Graceful Degradation: If a single page fails to capture, the script continues with other pages and reports partial success.