ScienceDirect PDF Download

Download PDF files from ScienceDirect articles to the user's local disk.

Prerequisites

The user must have access to the article (institutional subscription, open access, or personal subscription).
If the article is behind a paywall and the user has no access, the download will fail.

Single Article Download

Step 1: Navigate to article page and extract PDF link

If already on the article page, skip navigation. Otherwise use navigate_page with initScript:

navigate_page({
  url: "{BASE_URL}/science/article/pii/{PII}",
  initScript: "Object.defineProperty(navigator, 'webdriver', {get: () => undefined})"
})

Then extract the PDF URL with evaluate_script:

async () => {
  // Wait for page to load
  for (let i = 0; i < 20; i++) {
    if (document.querySelector('a[href*="pdfft"]') || document.querySelector('.access-options')) break;
    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 500));
  }

  const pdfLink = document.querySelector('a[href*="pdfft"][class*="accessbar"]')
               || document.querySelector('a[href*="pdfft"]');
  if (pdfLink) {
    return { pdfUrl: pdfLink.href };
  }

  const noAccess = document.querySelector('.access-options, .get-access, [class*="GetAccess"]');
  if (noAccess) {
    return { error: 'No access. User needs institutional or subscriber access.' };
  }
  return { error: 'PDF link not found on this page.' };
}

Step 2: Navigate to PDF URL

Open the PDF URL with initScript:

navigate_page({
  url: "{pdfUrl}",
  initScript: "Object.defineProperty(navigator, 'webdriver', {get: () => undefined})"
})

Step 3: Handle Cloudflare verification

After navigation, wait 5s then check the page state with evaluate_script:

async () => {
  await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 5000));
  return {
    contentType: document.contentType,
    title: document.title,
    url: window.location.href.substring(0, 80)
  };
}

Three possible outcomes:

A) contentType === 'application/pdf' → PDF loaded directly. Skip to Step 4.

B) Title is "Security verification" or body contains "Are you a robot" → Turnstile checkbox appeared. Auto-click:

Use take_snapshot to get the a11y tree. Find the checkbox inside the Cloudflare iframe:

Iframe "包含 Cloudflare 安全质询的小组件"
  checkbox "确认您是真人"   ← target uid

Use click(uid) on the checkbox element. (Chrome DevTools MCP works at CDP protocol level and can interact with cross-origin iframes.)
Wait 5s, then re-check document.contentType:
- If application/pdf → success, proceed to Step 4.
- If still on verification → retry click once. After 2 failed attempts, tell user: "请在浏览器中完成验证后告知我。"

C) Title is "请稍候…" → JS challenge still running. Wait another 5s and re-check. Usually resolves to A or B.

Step 4: Trigger download to local disk

Once contentType === 'application/pdf', the PDF is displayed in browser but NOT saved to disk yet. Trigger the actual download with evaluate_script:

(pii) => {
  const a = document.createElement('a');
  a.href = window.location.href;
  a.download = pii + '-main.pdf';
  document.body.appendChild(a);
  a.click();
  document.body.removeChild(a);
  return { downloaded: true, filename: pii + '-main.pdf' };
}

Pass the PII as an argument so the filename is meaningful (e.g. S0022169426003136-main.pdf).

Tell the user the PDF has been downloaded and the filename.

Batch Download from Search Results

Note: Batch download requires authentication. Checkboxes and download buttons are only visible to logged-in users.

Step 1: Select articles

On the search results page, select articles using checkboxes. Each checkbox id is the PII.

Step 2: Submit download form

Use evaluate_script:

(piis) => {
  piis.forEach(pii => {
    const cb = document.getElementById(pii);
    if (cb && !cb.checked) cb.click();
  });

  const downloadBtn = document.querySelector('.download-all-link-button');
  if (downloadBtn) {
    downloadBtn.click();
    return { success: true, message: 'Download initiated for selected articles.' };
  }

  const form = document.querySelector('form[action*="pdf/download"]');
  if (!form) return { error: 'Download form not found. User may need to log in.' };
  return { error: 'Download button not found.' };
}

PDF URL Pattern

{BASE_URL}/science/article/pii/{PII}/pdfft?md5={HASH}&pid=1-s2.0-{PII}-main.pdf

The md5 hash is unique per article and session. It cannot be constructed — it must be extracted from the page.

Notes

This skill is set to disable-model-invocation: true — it must be explicitly invoked with /sd-download.
Open access articles can be downloaded without authentication.
For subscription articles, the user must be authenticated (institutional access, VPN, or personal subscription).
After solving Cloudflare once, subsequent PDF downloads in the same session work without interruption.
If download fails, suggest the user check their access status or try logging in.

sd-download