Description

Profile-folder is an alternative way to save a profile. During normal saving after very long use or frequent visits to certain sites, the profile file can “bloat” in size, which can lead to very long downloads and saves. First of all, the profile folder is aimed at solving such problems.

How to build a profile

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Prepare the path, in the same way as it is done when saving a profile (for example, base_directory / random_string) The main difference is that the specified folder will be used for saving, not the file.

Use the Launch Instance action

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Profile-folder is an alternative way of saving a profile, which differs from the usual saving of a profile to a file. It aims to solve problems such as:

Profile integrity

When saving to a file, in case of instance errors, the profiles could be “broken”. The profile folder should solve these problems - when you start the project, you launch the instance and tell it to use a specific profile folder. During operation, the instance saves part of the data to the profile folder without your participation, as a regular browser does. And if the instance goes bad, the data will remain in the folder. Instance data such as:

1. Cookie

2. Local storage

3. HSTS Super Cookie

4. Indexed DB

5. Everything related to the profile (name / surname, email, password, etc.).

6. Everything related to the browser profile (UserAgent, Accept, Accept-Language). Now the browser profile also includes fonts, plugins, time zone, geolocation and WebRTC, so they are saved automatically as well.

The only things that are not automatically saved are Proxies and variables (to save them you need to call a special action, see Profile Pulling)

Fast loading and saving

When working with a file, with prolonged use, the file size could increase, which led to an increase in the loading and saving time. A profile folder stores data in several files, and at the time of recording affects only the necessary ones. It works much faster.

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How to convert old profile files to the new profile folder format?

Demo project:

1. Prepare the path where the profile folders will be stored. For example, in your project folder:

{-Project.Directory-}ProfileDirs\

+ you need to add a unique profile-folder name to it, just as you did in the profile-file.

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2. Run instance with an empty profile folder. Your instance will bind the profile folder to this path.

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Load profile from file. Your profile file will be loaded into the instance (which is already linked to the profile folder)

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Save the profile folder. So the data from the instance will be saved to the profile folder (the ones that we downloaded from the file)

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How to use profile folder

Using a profile folder solves approximately the same tasks as before. Some of them are listed below:

“Feeding” profile

Demo project:

1. Prepare the path where the profile folders will be stored. For example, in your project folder:

{-Project.Directory-}ProfileDirs\

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2. Run instance with an empty profile folder. Your instance will bind the profile folder to this path.

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It is required to select “Chrome” and check the box “Use path to profile-folder”. There must be a checkbox “Create folder if it doesn’t exist”, otherwise the absence of necessary files in the folder will be interpreted as an error, and the red line will

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be exited.

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3. Work up a profile. You perform the actions that are necessary for feeding.

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4. Saving a profile folder.

1. If you do not need to save variables / proxies, then you do not need to

   do anything else, the profile

   add a special cube. The profile folder will be saved automatically when you restart the instance, close the program, or when the project ends.

2. If you need to save variables / proxies, then you should

   execute the cube

   run the "Save profile-folder" cube and specify the necessary parameters with checkmarks:

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How to use profile folder

It is recommended to use a browserless project so that system resources are not wasted on launching a “standard” instance that will not be used anyway.

The subsequent actions are similar to “feeding”, with two exceptions:

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The logic for preparing the path is different (it should not be generated, but selected from the already created ones).

Using "walking" profile-folders

Demo project:

1. Set up a browserless project. In your project settings, mark that the project is browserless. This is necessary in order not to waste resources on launching the default browser at the start of the project.

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2. Run instance with a profile folder. Specify the path where your unique profile folder is located. The checkbox “Create folder if it does not exist” should be

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unchecked.

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3. Use. Take the necessary actions - that's what you “walked up” the profiles for.

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Notes

One folder per instance

Please note that only one browser instance can be launched in a specific profile folder at any given time. An attempt to launch two (or more) instances in the same profile folder will result in an exit on the red branch.

Transition from old format (profile-file) to profile-folder format

The transition from the old format should be done instead of step “3. Walk up profile” from the first part of this article.

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Debugging in ProjectMaker

Even if you close the browser using the Browser Settings => Run Instance => Without Browser action, ProjectMaker will still not release the profile folder. This is due to the peculiarities of the implementation of the instance within ProjectMaker.

To free up profile folder resources during debugging, you need to launch the instance with a different type of browser, for example Firefox 45.

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Useful links

• Browser preferences