Website Scripting

This page provides common script examples, however, with enough programming experience, it’s possible to do complex workflows.

Please note that Website Scripting does not work in web preview and Samsung Tizen-based players because they display web content in an iframe element (whereas other players use webview element) that does not support this functionality due to how web security works. Website Scripting is supported in Android (version 3.0.8+), Windows, Linux, Mac, and Chrome extension (ChromeOS) players.

In the following examples, we'll take you through what you can do with Website Scripting and how to set it up for different scenarios.

The window.scrollTo function takes in 3 parameters:

1. context (null)
2. horizontal X coordinate (0)
3. vertical Y coordinate (500)

Usually vertical is the axis we want to scroll. In this case, we scroll 500 pixels vertically, but you need to experiment with the numbers to find the appropriate amount of pixels to scroll to. The scrollTo function call is wrapped in setTimeout function call, this delays the code execution to make sure the page is loaded. In this case, we delay execution by 1000 milliseconds, however depending on how the website is built, it may not be necessary. You can try setting the value to 0 and see if the page scroll still works.

setTimeout(window.scrollTo.bind(null, 0, 500), 1000);

On Android-based players some websites may show a mobile version due to responsive CSS. This script forces a viewport to a fullHD browser size instead.

const viewportWidth = 1920;
const viewportHeight = 1080;
const devicePixelRatio = 2;

// Set the viewport meta tag to control the layout on mobile devices
const viewportMetaTag = document.querySelector('meta[name=viewport]');
if (viewportMetaTag) {
viewportMetaTag.content = `width=${viewportWidth}, height=${viewportHeight}, initial-scale=${1 / devicePixelRatio}, maximum-scale=${1 / devicePixelRatio}, user-scalable=0`;
}

// Set the window size to match the viewport
window.resizeTo(viewportWidth, viewportHeight);

// Trigger a resize event to ensure proper rendering
const resizeEvent = new Event('resize');
window.dispatchEvent(resizeEvent);

This script forces the page to refresh every 60 sections. It’s worth noting that it calls setTimeout which is executed only once, however since the script causes the page to reload which executes scripts again, so there is no need to use setInterval.

setTimeout(function(){
  window.location.reload(true);
}, 60000);

Website Scripting can be used to start a video on the page. This example will wait for the page to load 1 second, get all <video> tags, take the first one, and call play() function on it after. If the page has multiple video tags, this would start the first video it can find.

setTimeout(function(){document.getElementsByTagName('video')[0].play()}, 1000);

When it comes to logging into a website, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Each website is a different system and needs a tailored approach. While JavaScript programming skills would be beneficial, it is certainly possible to create the script without any technical background. We gladly assist our subscription customers with simple scripts.

The login script performs the following actions:

1. Find username input field and fill it with our username
2. Find the password input field and fill it with the password
3. Find the login button and click it

First, we need to teach the script to find the elements in the web page. To do so, we need to find out what are the ids of the elements. While possible with every browser, we focus on Chrome in this guide. Navigate to the page you wish to automate the login procedure and open up developer tools. (Settings -> More Tools -> Developer Tools)

In the developer tools, choose the Elements tab if not already selected. Then click on the Select Element button (step 1) and mouse over the username input field and click on it (step 2). The HTML code will be highlighted that represents the username field, it should be an <input> tag. Most website creators assign a unique ID to that field that we can use to reference it in the script, in this example it is “user_login” (step 3).

Repeat the same process for the password field. In our example, the password field id is “user_pass“. Ideally, the log in button has also id attribute present, in which case we have all the information needed to create the script:

document.getElementById(‘user_pass’).value = “YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE”;

document.getElementsByTagName(‘login_btn’).click()

Sometimes however the log-in button may not have an id assigned, but instead, all fields are wrapped in a <form> element. In step 4 of the above screenshot, the form has an id assigned. Instead of clicking on the button, we can also call the submit() function on the form itself:

It could be possible however that the form does not have an id attribute assigned either. Then we can search for all <form> elements on the page and submit the first one we find, but beware that this only works if there is only one <form> on the page:

If you are very unlucky and none of the elements have an ID attribute assigned, then there are 2 options:

1. Contact the website developers and ask them to assign ID values to login page elements
2. Hire a developer to write the script – it’s still possible to find the elements, but it’s beyond the scope of this article. A qualified JavaScript developer should be able to develop the script in about 30 minutes to 1 hour

Just replace replace username and password variables. This login script works for Microsoft, Office365, Hotmail and PowerBI sites.

var user = "YOUR_USERNAME_HERE";
var pass = "YOUR_PASSWORD";
function setValue(id, value){
  document.getElementById(id).value = value;
  document.getElementById(id).dispatchEvent(new Event("change"));
}
function clickButton(id){
  document.getElementById(id).click();
}
setTimeout(setValue.bind(null, 'i0116', user), 1000);
setTimeout(clickButton.bind(null, 'idSIButton9'), 1100);
setTimeout(setValue.bind(null, 'i0118', pass), 1800);
setTimeout(clickButton.bind(null, 'idSIButton9'), 2000);

The script below will scroll the website from top to bottom at a given speed. This script is more complicated, but you don’t need to understand how it works. You can copy the script below and adjust the SPEED and JUMP_TO_TOP according to your needs.

var SPEED = 20; //change the speed for faster/slower scrolling. Value between 1 and 1000
var JUMP_TO_TOP = true; //Scrolls back to top when scrolling reaches bottom. either true or false

var fps = 100;
var speedFactor = 0.001;
var minDelta = 0.5;
var autoScrollSpeed = 10;
var autoScrollTimer, restartTimer;
var isScrolling = false;
var prevPos = 0, currentPos = 0;
var currentTime, prevTime, timeDiff;

window.addEventListener("wheel", handleManualScroll);
window.addEventListener("touchmove", handleManualScroll);

function handleManualScroll(){
  currentPos = window.scrollY;
  clearInterval(autoScrollTimer);
  if (restartTimer){
    clearTimeout(restartTimer);
  }
  restartTimer = setTimeout(function(){
    prevTime = null;
    setAutoScroll();
  }, 50);
}

window.addEventListener("scroll", function (e) {
  currentPos = window.scrollY;
  if((window.innerHeight + window.pageYOffset) >= document.body.offsetHeight){
    //scrolling reached bottom.
    if(JUMP_TO_TOP){
      window.scrollTo(0, 0)
      currentPos = 0;
    }
    else{
      clearInterval(autoScrollTimer);
    }
  }
});

function setAutoScroll(newValue){
  if(newValue){
    autoScrollSpeed = speedFactor * newValue;
  }
  if(autoScrollTimer){
    clearInterval(autoScrollTimer);
  }
  autoScrollTimer = setInterval(function(){
    currentTime = Date.now();
    if(prevTime){
      if(!isScrolling){
        timeDiff = currentTime - prevTime;
        currentPos += autoScrollSpeed * timeDiff;
        if(Math.abs(currentPos - prevPos) >= minDelta){
          isScrolling = true;
          window.scrollTo(0, currentPos);
          isScrolling = false;
          prevPos = currentPos;
          prevTime = currentTime;
        }
      }
    }
    else {
      prevTime = currentTime;
    }
  }, 1000 / fps);
}

setAutoScroll(SPEED);

What if the website is built with react.js?

If the website you’re trying to script is built with react.js, you need to fire events that the input field has changed, because react won’t pick up changes directly done to the element by setting value. Read more: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23892547/what-is-the-best-way-to-trigger-change-or-input-event-in-react-js

How can I log into websites with HTTP Basic Auth?

You can supply a username and password in a special URL format: http://username:[email protected]/

This sends the credentials in the standard HTTP Authorization header.

How can I identify the player device in my web application?

If you have a web application and you need to identify which device is making a request to your app, you can use a dynamic URL parameter {UUID} that the player will replace at run-time with its UUID. For example by using the following URL in the website plugin with a device that has UUID ABC123: