Playwright - Get Elements

Get elements from the page using XPath

Overview

This node allows you to extract elements from a web page using an XPath expression. It leverages a browser automation environment to locate elements matching the XPath and retrieve their attributes, text content, and/or HTML markup. This is useful for web scraping, data extraction, or automating workflows that require reading structured information from web pages.

Typical use cases include:

  • Extracting product details (like names, prices) from e-commerce sites.
  • Collecting article headlines or summaries from news websites.
  • Gathering metadata or links from any structured HTML content.

Properties

Name Meaning
XPath The XPath expression used to find elements on the page.
Get Attributes Whether to retrieve all attributes of each found element as key-value pairs.
Get Text Content Whether to retrieve the text content inside each found element.
Get HTML Whether to retrieve the inner and outer HTML markup of each found element.

Output

The node outputs an array of JSON objects, one per matched element. Each object contains:

  • xpath: The XPath expression used for the search.
  • found: A boolean always set to true indicating the element was found.
  • Depending on the selected properties, it may also include:
    • textContent: The textual content inside the element.
    • innerHTML: The inner HTML markup of the element.
    • outerHTML: The full HTML markup including the element itself.
    • attributes: An object mapping attribute names to their values for the element.

No binary data output is produced by this node.

Dependencies

  • Requires a running browser instance managed by the node's browser manager component.
  • The browser must be launched before executing this node; otherwise, it will throw an error.
  • No external API keys or credentials are needed, but the environment must support browser automation.

Troubleshooting

  • Browser not running error: If the node throws "Browser is not running. Please launch the browser first.", ensure that a browser session has been started in the workflow prior to this node.
  • XPath required error: The node requires a non-empty XPath string. Make sure the XPath property is correctly set.
  • Failed to get elements error: This indicates issues during element retrieval, possibly due to invalid XPath syntax or page load problems. Verify the XPath expression and confirm the page is fully loaded.
  • If no elements are found, the output will be an empty array; check your XPath correctness and page state.

Links and References

Discussion