Vick's

Introduction

Browser automation has become an essential part of testing, data scraping, and workflow automation. Web-UI is a powerful open-source tool that simplifies browser automation using Python. With Web-UI, users can control web browsers programmatically, execute automation scripts, and interact with web pages seamlessly.

In this blog, we will walk you through the process of setting up and using Web-UI for browser automation on a Linux-based system.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure you have the following:

• A Linux system (Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, etc.)
• Git installed (sudo apt install git)
• Python 3.7+ installed (sudo apt install python3)
• Anaconda installed (or willing to install it)
• Basic knowledge of terminal commands

Step 1: Installing Anaconda

Anaconda is a distribution of Python that simplifies package management and deployment. To install it, follow these steps:

wget https://repo.anaconda.com/archive/Anaconda3-2024.10-1-Linux-x86_64.sh
sha256sum Anaconda3-2024.10-1-Linux-x86_64.sh  # Verify checksum
bash Anaconda3-2024.10-1-Linux-x86_64.sh

Follow the on-screen instructions, agree to the license, and allow the installation to proceed. After installation, activate Anaconda:

source ~/.bashrc
conda init

Step 2: Cloning Web-UI Repository

Next, clone the Web-UI repository from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/browser-use/web-ui.git
cd web-ui/

This will download the latest Web-UI source code to your machine.

Step 3: Setting Up the Environment

Ensure your conda environment is activated and install the required dependencies:

conda info --env
conda activate base  # If another environment is needed, use `conda activate <env-name>`
pip install -r requirements.txt

This command installs all necessary Python packages for Web-UI.

Step 4: Installing Playwright

Playwright is a browser automation framework that enables Web-UI to interact with web pages. Install it using:

playwright install

This will download the required browsers for automation.

Step 5: Running Web-UI

Now, you are ready to launch Web-UI. Run the following command to start the Web-UI server:

python webui.py --ip 127.0.0.1 --port 7788

This starts the Web-UI interface on your local machine, accessible at http://127.0.0.1:7788