====== Automate_taking_screenshots_of_webpages ======

====== Intro ======
I wanted to setup cron to take screenshots of various websites on a daily basis. There are different approaches available. One is using wkhtmltopdf (still requires additional packages), another is using http://browsershots.org/documentation#RequirementsForFactories (requires vncserver). The approach I chose was to manually setup VNCserver and firefox (iceweasel) and script it myself.

====== Main Script ======
The following script starts a VNC session, starts firefox (iceweasel on debian) with a url and takes a screenshot, saving the image with the filename: **01-06-2011_22:13_www.domain.com.jpg**
 #!/bin/sh
 
 # start a server with a specific DISPLAY
 vncserver :11 -geometry 1024x768
 
 # read URLs from a data file in a loop
 for url in `cat list.txt`
 do
        firefox --display=:11 $url &
        sleep 5
        eval "import -display :11 -window root" `date +"%d-%m-%Y_%k:%M"`"_"`echo|awk '{print substr(v1,8)}' v1=$url`".jpg"
 done
 # clean up when done
 vncserver -kill :11

**list.txt** contains a list of URLs in the format:
 http://www.domain.com
 http://www.google.com
 http://slashdot.org
 #awk is then used to remove the http:// and use the url as part of the filename

====== Pre-Requesites ======
The above was done on debian squeeze.
 apt-get install imagemagick
 #This package provides the import command.
 
 [[Xfce-vncserver]]
 #The above page describes installing an Xserver and firefox/iceweasel

====== References ======
Main Reference: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/125951/command-line-program-to-create-website-screenshots-on-linux
<br> http://tips.webdesign10.com/how-to-take-a-screenshot-with-ubuntu-linux