Installing CasperJS

In this recipe, we introduce CasperJS—a scripting and testing utility that targets PhantomJS—and demonstrate how to install it. We can think of CasperJS as a domain-specific language (DSL) that simplifies the code that we write to target PhantomJS; in particular, it makes it easier to reason about the asynchronous nature of PhantomJS.

Getting ready

Before we can install CasperJS, we need Python 2.6 or greater installed and on our PATH. Windows users will need the .NET Framework 3.5 or greater (or Mono 2.10.8 or greater) installed.

We will need Node.js and npm installed and on our PATH; we will also need an Internet connection.

Note

CasperJS requires PhantomJS version 1.8.2 or greater; however, as this book assumes that we are running version 1.9 or greater of PhantomJS, this should be fine.

How to do it…

The easiest way to install CasperJS is to use the Node.js package manager, npm. Enter the following at the command line:

npm install -g casperjs

We should see the console output...