Parsing multiple pages of website and count total items

Question

My script simply gathers the number of reports on a page, then goes to the next page and does the same. The goal is to get the total number of reports across multiple pages.

UPDATED

var casper = require('casper').create({
    clientScripts: ["./lib/jquery-2.1.3.min.js"],
    // verbose: true,
    logLevel: "debug"
});

casper.on('remote.message', function(msg) {
    this.echo('LOG: ' + msg);
});

casper.on('page.error', function (msg, trace) {
    this.echo( 'Error: ' + msg, 'ERROR' );
});

var reportCount, newReportCount, reportPages;

casper.start("reports.html", function() {

    reportPages = this.evaluate(function() {
        return $('#table2 tbody tr td').children('a').length -1;
  });

  //first page of reports
  reportCount = this.evaluate(function() {
      return $('#table1 tbody').first().children('tr').length;
  });

  this.echo('initial count: ' + reportCount);
  this.echo('pages: ' + reportPages);

  //check if more than 1 page and add report count
  if (reportPages > 1) {
    newReportCount = this.thenOpen('reports2.html', function(){
        var newCount = this.evaluate(function(count) {
            add = count + $('#table1 tbody').first().children('tr').length;
            // console.log('new count inside: ' + add);
            return add;
        }, reportCount);
        console.log(newCount); //this shows correct new value 32
    });
    console.log(newReportCount); //this shows [object Casper]

    neoReportCount = this.thenOpen('reports3.html', function(count){
        console.log(newReportCount); //this shows [object Casper]
        //do the same count
    }, newReportCount);
  }

casper.run();

Here is the output in console

Pages: 3
First count: 15
[object Casper], currently at file:///**/reports.html
32
[object Casper], currently at file:///**/reports3.html

Answer 1

Yes, it is possible, but you use casper.thenOpenAndEvaluate() which has the word then in it. It means that this function is asynchronous and it returns the casper object to enable a builder/promise pattern. So you cannot return anything from a function like this. Since it is asynchronous, it will be executed after the current step ends, which is after console.log(newCount); .

You would need to split the function, for example like this:

//check if more than 1 page and add report count
if (reportPages > 1) {
  var newCount;
  this.thenOpen('reports2.html', function(count){
    newCount = this.evaluate(function(count){
      add = count + $('#table1 tbody').first().children('tr').length;
      console.log('new count inside: ' + add);
      return add;
    }, reportCount);
    console.log(newCount);
  }).thenOpen('reports3.html', function(count){
    newCount += this.evaluate(function(count){
      add = count + $('#table1 tbody').first().children('tr').length;
      console.log('new count inside: ' + add);
      return add;
    }, reportCount);
    console.log(newCount);
  }).then(function(){
    console.log(newCount);
  });
}

It seems like you want to loop over multiple pages. This is usually done recursively, because CasperJS is asynchronous and you don't know beforehand how many pages you need to open. I suggest you look at this question for some examples: CasperJS loop or iterate through multiple web pages?