Error trying to find path to Chrome

[Minh-Anh Huynh]

webshot2::webshot(file)
Error trying to find path to Chrome
Error in initialize… : Invalid path to Chrome

So I don't have Chrome installed, on Windows 11. How do I set webshot2 so that it seeks another chromium browser ? It seems strange that there isn't even the option to do so or I am missing something. Everyone has Edge installed which should do the trick

[dmurdoch]

That's done by the chromote::find_chrome function:

> chromote::find_chrome
function () 
{
    if (Sys.getenv("CHROMOTE_CHROME") != "") {
        return(Sys.getenv("CHROMOTE_CHROME"))
    }
    ...

So if you set the CHROMOTE_CHROME environment variable to the appropriate path it will override the search. There's also a registry entry that it looks at on Windows:

...
if (is_windows()) {
        tryCatch({
            path <- utils::readRegistry("SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\App Paths\\chrome.exe\\")
            path <- path[["(Default)"]]
        }, error = function(e) {
            message("Error trying to find path to Chrome")
            path <<- NULL
        })
...

Do you have an entry like that, but with different spelling somewhere?

Probably makes sense to document this in webshot2 somewhere.

[Minh-Anh Huynh]

So looking at the registry, I simply don't have chrome.exe. I have brave.exe which is a chromium browser, and I'm not eseeing edge.exe either in App Paths, even though Edge is already installed. Ideally it should switch to Edge by default as everyone has it.

[dmurdoch]

Does it work if you set the environment variable to point to edge.exe or brave.exe?

[Minh-Anh Huynh]

Sorry for the late answer. I'm currently using another computer.

For some reason, I do not have edge.exe in my App Paths which is weird. Would you know how to set the app paths in R or add it to the registry ?

[dmurdoch]

No, I rarely use Windows nowadays. I'd use the environment variable, Sys.setenv(CHROMOTE_CHROME = "path/to/edge.exe").

[Robert DelRossi]

So if you set the CHROMOTE_CHROME environment variable to the appropriate path it will override the search.

This is very helpful, @dmurdoch. Thank you. This resolved an issue I was having and couldn't figure out.

[Minh-Anh Huynh]

Hello, I tried to set environment to msedge.exe and used a link as a test. However it doesn't seem like it is working. Is this an expected error ?

Here is the code:

> Sys.setenv(CHROMOTE_CHROME = "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft\\Edge\\Application.msedge.exe")
> webshot2::webshot("https://www.unitslab.com/node/84")
Error in `process_initialize(self, private, command, args, stdin, stdout, …`:
! Native call to `processx_exec` failed
Caused by error in `chain_call(c_processx_exec, command, c(command, args), pty, pty_options, …`:
! Command 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application.msedge.exe' not found @win/processx.c:982 (processx_exec)
Type .Last.error to see the more details.
> .Last.error
<c_error/rlib_error_3_0/rlib_error/error>
Error in `process_initialize(self, private, command, args, stdin, stdout, …`:
! Native call to `processx_exec` failed
Caused by error in `chain_call(c_processx_exec, command, c(command, args), pty, pty_options, …`:
! Command 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application.msedge.exe' not found @win/processx.c:982 (processx_exec)
---
Backtrace:
 1. webshot2::webshot("https://www.unitslab.com/node/84")
 2. chromote::default_chromote_object()
 3. chromote::set_default_chromote_object(Chromote$new())
 4. Chromote$new()
 5. local initialize…
 6. Chrome$new()
 7. local initialize…
 8. chromote:::launch_chrome(path, args)
 9. process$new(command = path, args = c("--headless", "--remote-debugging-port=0", …
10. local initialize(...)
11. processx:::process_initialize(self, private, command, args, stdin, stdout, …
12. processx:::chain_call(c_processx_exec, command, c(command, args), pty, pty_options, …
13. | base::withCallingHandlers(do.call(".Call", list(.NAME, ...)), error = function(e) { …
14. | base::do.call(".Call", list(.NAME, ...))
15. | base::.handleSimpleError(function (e) …
16. | local h(simpleError(msg, call))
17. | processx:::throw_error(err, parent = e)

[dmurdoch]

Is the executable really named Application.msedge.exe? That looks like a typo.

[Minh-Anh Huynh]

I'm sorry, how did I miss that ? It was indeed a typo.

I executed the code again and it works as expected. Though the given image is pretty blurry. It does look like the issue is solved however. Thanks!

Sys.setenv(CHROMOTE_CHROME = "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft\\Edge\\Application\\msedge.exe")
webshot2::webshot("https://github.com/rstudio/webshot2/issues/39")

[dmurdoch]

The blurriness is probably caused by resizing. You can play with vwidth and vheight args to webshot2::webshot().