I am writing an app in node.js, using mongoose and express. I want to pass an async function that opens a browser window using puppeteer to an ejs page, and run that function with a button click. At the moment, when the ejs page is opened, the function runs immediately and the browser window is opened. I want the function not to run until a button is pressed.

My code looks like this:

browserModule.js

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

export.modules = async function startBrowser {
  let browser;
  try {
    console.log("Opening the browser......");
    browser = await puppeteer.launch({
        headless: false,
        args: [
          "--disable-setuid-sandbox",
        ],
        'ignoreHTTPSErrors': true
    });

  } catch (err) {
    console.log("Could not create a browser instance => : ", err);
  }
}

pageController.js

const browserModule = require('../browserModule');
module.exports.renderNewForm = async (req, res) => {
  res.render('/new', browserModule.startBrowser);
}

new.ejs

  <button class="btn btn-info" onclick=openBrowser>Open Book Site</button>
<!-- NOTE: This code does nothing, the openBrowser function runs immediately 
and the new browser window is opened. Clicking on the button has no effect. -->

I have looked at some similar questions that suggest putting the function code in a script in the ejs file (which I would like to avoid), or creating an event handler (I couldn't figure out how to apply that idea to my code).

Thanks