How Can I Execute JavaScript to Scrape Data Using HtmlAgilityPack?

Executing Scripts in HTML Agility Pack

When attempting to scrape a webpage using HtmlAgilityPack, you may encounter discrepancies in the retrieved data due to the presence of JavaScript that dynamically fetches and populates the page. This raises the question: how do we handle scripts that need to be executed to obtain the desired data?

Unfortunately, HtmlAgilityPack is solely an HTML parser and lacks the capability to interpret or bind JavaScript to its document representation. To resolve this issue, we require a complete headless web browser, equipped with an HTML parser, JavaScript interpreter, and browser DOM simulator. However, there is currently no solution that entirely operates within the .NET environment.

The practical approach involves utilizing a WebBrowser control to load and execute the page in Internet Explorer programmatically. While this method may not be efficient or aesthetically pleasing, it accomplishes the desired goal of retrieving data that requires script execution.

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