Add a way to fork a browser

[DeflateAwning]

I want a way to fork a Browser state, by calling something like browser_copy = browser.copy(), and then being able to work from browser_copy, while eventually going back to the un-touched browser.

Why I want it

I was writing a scraper for a file browser site. To download files, you first navigate to a specific folder, then you click on each file. I wanted to fork/copy the browser before clicking on each file download link, but couldn't.

What I tried

import copy
browser_copy = copy.copy(browser) # works on the first use, but not after
browser_copy = deepcopy.copy(browser) # crashes here, as it can't copy recursive elements

What I want

I want you to add a browser.copy() or browser.fork() method, which returns a fork of the browser with the same active page, same selected from, same session, etc., which can then be navigated independently from there. This would be similar to duplicating a tab in a GUI web browser, presumably.

[hemberger]

Hi, thanks for the detailed feature request! If you're just looking to retain the current state when you click on a download link, perhaps take a look at StatefulBrowser.download_link. This method doesn't change the browser state. Would this work for you?

[DeflateAwning]

Great suggestion. I ultimately did go with something similar to that. The issue was that, from the folder listing page, you had to click on each file, and only then was a download link revealed. Using download_link doesn't give you the full link listing functionality, etc., which is why I think this is a useful feature.

[hemberger]

Ah, I see, thanks for the clarification. Yes, in that case a back button or a state cloning method could be helpful.

As a workaround for now, you might be able collect all the links from the main page, and then in a loop visit each subpage to get the download links. (Though it sounds like you might already be doing something like this.)