Practical Guides
Theory meets practice, actionable patterns for real automation challenges.
While the other Deep Dive sections explore fundamentals and architecture, this section provides practical, battle-tested guides for common automation scenarios. These aren't academic exercises, they're patterns refined through production use.
The Purpose of Guides
You've learned:
- Fundamentals - CDP, async, types
- Architecture - Internal design patterns
- Network - Protocols and proxies
- Fingerprinting - Detection and evasion
Now what? How do you apply this knowledge to real problems?
That's what guides are for: bridging theory and practice.
Practical Wisdom
"In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." - Yogi Berra
Guides distill complex technical knowledge into actionable patterns you can use immediately. They show you what works in production, not just what's theoretically possible.
Current Guides
CSS Selectors vs XPath
The eternal debate, solved with data and best practices.
Choosing between CSS selectors and XPath isn't about preference. It's about understanding tradeoffs, performance characteristics, and maintainability.
What you'll learn:
- Syntax comparison - Side-by-side examples for common patterns
- Performance benchmarks - Real measurements, not myths
- Power vs simplicity - When CSS isn't enough (text matching, axes)
- Browser support - Compatibility and edge cases
- Best practices - When to use each, anti-patterns to avoid
- Complex examples - Real-world selector challenges solved
Why this matters: Element location is the foundation of automation. Choose the wrong tool, and you'll fight your selectors forever. Choose wisely, and automation becomes straightforward.
Coming Soon
Asyncio & Concurrent Automation
Coming in future releases
Deep dive into Python's asyncio: event loop internals, practical concurrency patterns, and real-world examples.
Understanding asyncio is fundamental to Pydoll. This guide provides a comprehensive analysis of Python's event loop, concurrency primitives, and how to apply them to browser automation without footguns.
Will cover:
- Event Loop Internals: How
asyncio.run()works, task scheduling, and execution flow - Async/Await Deep Dive: Coroutines, futures, and the async state machine
- Concurrency Primitives:
gather(),create_task(),TaskGroup, and when to use each - Rate Limiting: Semaphores, queues, and throttling strategies
- Real-World Examples: Multi-tab scraping, parallel form filling, coordinated browser instances
- Common Pitfalls: Blocking the event loop, task cancellation, exception propagation
- Performance Analysis: Profiling async code, identifying bottlenecks, optimizing I/O
Why this matters: Asyncio powers Pydoll's architecture. Master it, and you unlock true concurrent automation without race conditions or state corruption.
Architectural Patterns & Robust Selectors
Coming in future releases
PageObject pattern, maintainable selectors, and architectural approaches for scalable automation.
Move beyond ad-hoc scripts to structured, maintainable automation architectures. Learn patterns that scale from simple scripts to production systems.
Will cover:
- PageObject Pattern: Encapsulating page structure, reducing duplication, improving maintainability
- Robust Selector Strategies: Building selectors that survive page changes, avoiding brittle locators
- Component Abstraction: Reusable components for common UI patterns (modals, dropdowns, tables)
- Waiting Strategies: Smart waiting patterns beyond simple timeouts
- State Management: Managing automation state across pages and flows
- Testing Patterns: How to structure automation code for testability
- Real-World Architecture: Production-ready project structure and organization
Why this matters: The difference between throwaway scripts and maintainable automation systems is architecture. Learn patterns that make your code resilient to change.
Guide Philosophy
Guides follow consistent principles:
1. Production-Ready Code
All examples are complete and tested, not pseudocode or simplified demonstrations. You can copy-paste and adapt to your needs.
2. Real-World Scenarios
Guides address actual problems encountered in production automation, not contrived examples.
3. Tradeoff Analysis
When multiple approaches exist, guides compare them objectively with pros/cons, not just "here's one way."
4. Progressive Complexity
Start simple, add complexity incrementally. Basic pattern first, then edge cases and advanced variations.
5. Anti-Patterns Highlighted
Show what NOT to do explicitly, common mistakes caught through code review or production debugging.
How to Use Guides
Guides are reference material, not sequential tutorials:
- Skim for patterns relevant to your current problem
- Bookmark guides you'll need repeatedly
- Adapt examples to your specific context
- Combine patterns from multiple guides
Don't read sequentially cover-to-cover.
Don't blindly copy without understanding tradeoffs.
Don't use outdated patterns (check publication date).
Contributing Guides
Have a pattern worth sharing? Guides are community-driven:
What makes a good guide:
- Solves a real problem encountered in production
- Provides working code, not just concepts
- Compares multiple approaches with tradeoffs
- Highlights common mistakes explicitly
- Explains why, not just how
See Contributing for submission guidelines.
Guides vs Features Documentation
Confused about the difference?
| Features Documentation | Deep Dive Guides | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Teach what Pydoll can do | Show how to solve problems |
| Scope | Single method/feature | Multiple features combined |
| Depth | API reference + examples | Patterns + tradeoffs + best practices |
| Order | Structured by component | Structured by problem |
| Examples | Simple, isolated | Complex, production-ready |
Use Features for: Learning Pydoll's API
Use Guides for: Solving real automation challenges
Beyond Guides
After mastering practical patterns:
- Architecture - Understand why patterns work
- Network - Network-level optimization
- Fingerprinting - Anti-detection techniques
Guides provide immediate value. Architecture provides deep understanding. Both make you effective.
Ready for Practical Patterns?
Start with CSS Selectors vs XPath to master element location, the foundation of all automation.
More guides coming soon. Star the repo to stay updated!
Request a Guide
Have a automation pattern you'd like documented? Open an issue titled "Guide Request: [Topic]" describing:
- The problem you're trying to solve
- What you've tried so far
- Why existing documentation doesn't cover it
We prioritize guides based on community need.
Quick Reference
Available Now:
Coming Soon:
- Asyncio & Concurrent Automation
- Architectural Patterns & Robust Selectors
Timeline: New guides added based on community feedback and production learnings.