Screencast
Capture high-quality animated screenshots of webpages.
It’s simple to use: you only need to submit your access_key and a url url of a webpage. The API will return the animated screenshot of the webpage.
Getting started
REST
The Screencast API, like all of ScreenshotMAX’s APIs, is organized around REST. It is designed to use predictable, resource-oriented URL’s and to use HTTP status codes to indicate errors.
HTTPS
The Screencast API requires all communications to be secured TLS 1.2 or greater.
API Versions
All of ScreenshotMAX’s APIs are versioned. The Screencast API is currently on Version 1.
Your Access Key
Your access key is your unique authentication key to be used to access ScreenshotMAX APIs.
To authenticate your requests, you will need to append your access key to the base URL as a query parameter for GET requests.
You can also use the X-Access-Key header to pass your access key.
You can find your access key in your account dashboard.
Base URL
Validation endpoint
ScreenshotMAX’s Screencast API simply requires your unique access key and url to be passed in the URL. The API will return an animated screenshot of the webpage.
This was a successful request, so the API returned a 200 OK response. The animated screenshot is returned in the body of the response.
Request parameters
Your unique access key. You can find your access key in your account dashboard.
The URL of the webpage you want to rendering of. Must be a valid URL and accessible from the internet. If the URL contains a querystring, it must be URL-encoded.
For example, https://example.com/test?param=1 should be passed as https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Ftest%3Fparam%3D1.
The format of the animated screenshot. Available formats are webm, mp4, mov, avi.
The duration of the animated screenshot in seconds. The default value is 5 seconds. Maximum value is 30 seconds.
The scenario of the animated screenshot. Available scenarios are video, and scroll.
The video scenario captures the entire webpage as a video. The scroll scenario captures the webpage by scrolling down.
The scroll_by_amount parameter is only applicable for the scroll scenario. It specifies the amount to scroll in pixels for one step. The default value is 1000 pixels.
The scroll_by_delay parameter is only applicable for the scroll scenario. It specifies the delay between each scroll in milliseconds. The default value is 500 milliseconds.
The scroll_by_duration parameter is only applicable for the scroll scenario. It specifies the total duration for all steps of scrolls in milliseconds. The default value is 1500 milliseconds.
The scroll_back parameter is only applicable for the scroll scenario. When set to true, the animated screenshot will scroll back to the top of the page after reaching the bottom.
The scroll_back_delay parameter is only applicable for the scroll scenario. It specifies the delay before scrolling back to the top in milliseconds. The default value is 800 milliseconds.
The scroll_easing parameter is only applicable for the scroll scenario. It specifies the easing function to use for the scroll animation.
Available values are linear, ease_in_quad, ease_out_quad, ease_in_out_quad, ease_in_cubic, ease_out_cubic, ease_in_out_cubic, ease_in_quart, ease_out_quart, ease_in_out_quart, ease_in_quint, ease_out_quint and ease_in_out_quint.
Whether to use GPU rendering. Only available for scale paid plan.
Whether to capture content beyond the viewport.
The device type for the viewport.
The width of the viewport in pixels.
The height of the viewport in pixels.
Whether the viewport should be in landscape mode.
Whether the viewport has touch capabilities.
Whether the viewport is a mobile device.
The device scale factor for the viewport.
The x-coordinate of the top-left corner of the clipping region.
The y-coordinate of the top-left corner of the clipping region.
The width of the clipping region.
The height of the clipping region.
The annoyance to block. Options include none, cookies_banner, ads, tracking.
The resources to block. Options include document, stylesheet, image, media, font, script, texttrack, xhr, fetch, eventsource, websocket, manifest and other.
The media type for the rendering. Options include screen and print.
The vision deficiency for the rendering. Options include reduced_contrast, blurred_vision, deuteranopia, achromatopsia.
Whether to use dark mode for the rendering.
Whether to reduce motion for the rendering.
The accuracy of the geolocation in meters. Minimum is 0. Maximum is 1000.
The latitude of the geolocation. Minimum is -90. Maximum is 90.
The longitude of the geolocation. Minimum is -180. Maximum is 180.
The selectors to hide in the content. This allows you to remove specific elements from the rendering.
Example: hide_selectors=div.header,div.footer.
The selector to click in the content. This allows you to interact with specific elements before the rendering.
Example: click_selector=button.submit.
The name of the attachment, without the extension filename. This is the name that will be used when downloading the response.
Extension will be automatically added based on the format parameter.
The time zone for the request. This allows you to simulate different time zones. Available time zones from the IANA Time Zone Database.
The authorization header to use for the request. This should be a base64-encoded string (e.g., for Basic Auth, encode “username:password” using base64). This allows you to authenticate with the webpage before capturing the content.
The user agent to use for the request. This allows you to simulate different browsers and devices.
The cookies to use for the request. This allows you to simulate different sessions and states.
Example: cookies=name=value; name2=value2.
The headers to use for the request. This allows you to simulate different requests and responses.
Example: headers=header1:value1; header2:value2.
The IP location to use for the request. This allows you to simulate requests from different countries by routing them through proxy servers with corresponding IP addresses. This feature is only available on scale paid plan.
Supported locations:
- United States (
us) - China (
cn) - Europe (
eu) (random EU country) - Canada (
ca) - Mexico (
mx) - United Kingdom (
gb) - Germany (
de) - France (
fr) - Switzerland (
ch) - India (
in) - Japan (
jp) - South Korea (
kr) - Russia (
ru) - Brazil (
br) - Australia (
au)
The proxy to use for the request. This allows you to route the request through a different IP address.
The proxy must be in the format http://username:password@host:port or https://username:password@host:port.
Whether to bypass the Content Security Policy (CSP) of the webpage. This allows you to capture content of webpages with strict CSPs.
The delay in seconds before rendering. This allows you to wait for specific elements to load before capturing the content. Maximum is 30.
The timeout in seconds for the rendering. This allows you to set a maximum time for the request to complete. Maximum is 30.
The conditions to wait for before rendering. This allows you to ensure that specific elements are loaded before capturing the content. Available options include:
load: Wait for the load event to be fired.domcontentloaded: Wait for the DOMContentLoaded event to be fired.networkidle0: Wait for no network connections for at least 500 ms.networkidle2: Wait for no more than 2 network connections to be active for at least 500 ms.
Whether to include the metadata icon in the response. This allows you to capture the favicon of the webpage. The link of the icon will be included in the header X-Screenshotmax-Metadata-Icon.
Whether to include the metadata title in the response. This allows you to capture the title of the webpage. The title will be included in the header X-Screenshotmax-Metadata-Title.
Whether to include the metadata fonts in the response. This allows you to capture the fonts used on the webpage. The fonts will be included in the header X-Screenshotmax-Metadata-Fonts.
Whether to include the metadata hash in the response. This allows you to capture the hash of the webpage. The hash will be included in the header X-Screenshotmax-Metadata-Hash.
Whether to include the metadata status in the response. This allows you to capture the HTTP status code of the webpage. The status code will be included in the header X-Screenshotmax-Metadata-Status.
Whether to include the metadata headers in the response. This allows you to capture the headers of the webpage. The headers will be included in the header X-Screenshotmax-Metadata-Headers.
Whether to store the content of the rendering in the cache. This allows you to store the rendered content for a specified time-to-live (TTL) period.
The time-to-live (TTL) for the cache in seconds. This allows you to set a maximum time for the cached resources to be valid. Maximum is 30 days in seconds (2592000).
Whether to use asynchronous processing for the requestt. This allows you to capture content without blocking the request.
The callback URL for asynchronous processing. This allows you to receive the response via a webhook.
The webhook will be triggered when the response is ready.
The webhook URL must be a valid URL and must be accessible from the internet.
The webhook URL must be HTTPS and must support the POST method.
More information about webhooks can be found in the async & webhook documentation.
Indicates whether the webhook request should be signed. Enabling this option allows you to verify the authenticity of incoming webhook requests. For more details, refer to the async & webhook documentation.
The cryptographic signature used to verify the authenticity of the request. For more information on how to compute and validate this signature, see the signed requests documentation.
Response and error codes
Error Codes
Whenever you make a request that fails for some reason, an error is returned also in the JSON format. The errors include an error code and description, which you can find in detail below.
| Code | Type | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | OK | The request was successful. |
| 400 | Bad request | The request was malformed or invalid. |
| 401 | Unauthorized | The request was rejected due to an invalid access key or missing signature when signed requests are enabled. |
| 403 | Forbidden | The signature provided is invalid. Occurs when signed requests are enabled. |
| 402 | Payment Required | Access denied due to an unpaid invoice. Applies to paid plans. |
| 423 | Locked | The request was denied due to insufficient quota. |
| 429 | Too Many Requests | The rate limit has been exceeded (too many requests per minute). |
| 500 | Internal server error | The request failed due to an internal server error. |