Implement initial MVP for Docker-based browser management in Crawl4ai, enabling
remote browser execution in containerized environments.
Key Changes:
- Add browser_farm module with Docker support components:
* BrowserFarmService: Manages browser endpoints
* DockerBrowser: Handles Docker browser communication
* Basic health check implementation
* Dockerfile with optimized Chrome/Playwright setup:
- Based on python:3.10-slim for minimal size
- Includes all required system dependencies
- Auto-installs crawl4ai and sets up Playwright
- Configures Chrome with remote debugging
- Uses socat for port forwarding (9223)
- Update core components:
* Rename use_managed_browser to use_remote_browser for clarity
* Modify BrowserManager to support Docker mode
* Add Docker configuration in BrowserConfig
* Update context handling for remote browsers
- Add example:
* hello_world_docker.py demonstrating Docker browser usage
Technical Details:
- Docker container exposes port 9223 (mapped to host:9333)
- Uses CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol) for remote connection
- Maintains compatibility with existing managed browser features
- Simplified endpoint management for MVP phase
- Optimized Docker setup:
* Minimal dependencies installation
* Proper Chrome flags for containerized environment
* Headless mode with GPU disabled
* Security considerations (no-sandbox mode)
Testing:
- Extensive Docker configuration testing and optimization
- Verified with hello_world_docker.py example
- Confirmed remote browser connection and crawling functionality
- Tested basic health checks
This is the first step towards a scalable browser farm solution, setting up
the foundation for future enhancements like resource monitoring, multiple
browser instances, and container lifecycle management.
- Added examples for Amazon product data extraction methods
- Updated configuration options and enhance documentation
- Minor refactoring for improved performance and readability
- Cleaned up version control settings.
Standardizes parameter naming convention across the codebase by renaming browser_config to the more concise config in AsyncWebCrawler constructor.
Updates all documentation examples and internal usages to reflect the new parameter name for consistency.
Also improves hook execution by adding url/response parameters to goto hooks and fixes parameter ordering in before_return_html hook.
- Fix crawler text mode for improved performance; cover missing `srcset` and `data_srcset` attributes in image tags.
- Introduced Managed Browsers for enhanced crawling experience.
- Updated documentation for clearer navigation on configuration.
- Changed 'text_only' to 'text_mode' in configuration and methods.
- Improved performance and relevance in content filtering strategies.
- Introduced new configuration classes: BrowserConfig and CrawlerRunConfig.
- Refactored AsyncWebCrawler to leverage the new configuration system for cleaner parameter management.
- Updated AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy for better flexibility and reduced legacy parameters.
- Improved error handling with detailed context extraction during exceptions.
- Enhanced overall maintainability and usability of the web crawler.
- Introduced new async crawl strategy with session management.
- Added BrowserManager for improved browser management.
- Enhanced documentation, focusing on storage state and usage examples.
- Improved error handling and logging for sessions.
- Added JavaScript snippets for customizing navigator properties.
- Introduced the PruningContentFilter for better content relevance.
- Implemented comprehensive unit tests for verification of functionality.
- Enhanced existing BM25ContentFilter tests for edge case coverage.
- Updated documentation to include usage examples for new filter.
feat(requirements): update requirements.txt to include snowballstemmer
fix(version_manager): correct version parsing to use __version__.__version__
feat(main): introduce chunking strategy and content filter in CrawlRequest model
feat(content_filter): enhance BM25 algorithm with priority tag scoring for improved content relevance
feat(logger): implement new async logger engine replacing print statements throughout library
fix(database): resolve version-related deadlock and circular lock issues in database operations
docs(docker): expand Docker deployment documentation with usage instructions for Docker Compose
Major changes:
- Add browser takeover feature using CDP for authentic browsing
- Implement Docker support with full API server documentation
- Enhance Mockdown with tag preservation system
- Improve parallel crawling performance
This release focuses on authenticity and scalability, introducing the ability
to use users' own browsers while providing containerized deployment options.
Breaking changes include modified browser handling and API response structure.
See CHANGELOG.md for detailed migration guide.
