Microsoft Playwright is a new open-source tool for end-to-end web testing from the Microsoft Edge team. It enables developers to launch and record tests in Microsoft Edge (Chromium), Microsoft Edge (EdgeHTML), and other browsers.

This guide will cover the basics of using Playwright for testing web applications. We will start with an overview of the tool, then move on to setting up your environment and creating your first test script.

We will also show you how to use Playwright to automate Google Chrome and how to launch Microsoft Edge Chromium and Firefox using Playwright. Finally, we will take a look at some advanced features that can help you get the most out of Playwright.

What is Microsoft Playwright?

The Playwright is a Node.js library used to automate web browsers. It is used for web testing and is similar to Selenium. The Playwright was created by the Microsoft Edge team.

It is built on top of the Puppeteer library and provides additional features and capabilities. The Playwright can be used to automatically test web applications by simulating user interactions such as clicking links and filling out forms.

It is built on top of the WebDriver protocol and provides a high-level API that makes it easy to automate common tasks, such as filling out forms and clicking buttons.

Playwright tests are written in Node.js and use the W3C WebDriver protocol. This means that they can be run against any browser that supports the protocol, including Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox.

Why Use Playwright?

The Playwright is a powerful testing tool that can automate web applications on different browsers. You should use Playwright for your web testing needs for many reasons. Here are just a few:

Easy to get started

The Playwright’s syntax is designed to be easy to read and understand. Thanks to its simple setup and straightforward API, you can be up and running with Playwright in minutes.

Cross-platform Support

Playwright runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, so you can use it regardless of your operating system.

Cross-Browser Support

In addition to Microsoft Edge (Chromium) and Microsoft Edge (EdgeHTML), Playwright also supports Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and other browsers. This means that you can test your web application in a variety of browsers without having to install and maintain each one separately.

Built-in support for headless testing

Microsoft Playwright has built-in support for headless testing, which means that you can run your tests without a graphical user interface, making it a breeze to test your web applications. This is useful for running tests on servers or in CI/CD pipelines. To use headless testing, you need to set the “headless” option to true when you launch the browser:

const browser = await Playwright.chromium.launch({headless: true});

Once you have launched the browser in headless mode, you can use all of the Playwright APIs as usual.

Open-source

The Playwright is an open-source project, so you can contribute to its development or use it for your own projects.

Speed and Reliability

The Playwright is faster and more reliable than other tools because it uses the browser’s native event model to simulate user interactions. With Playwright, you can be confident that your tests will be accurate and reliable.

Community Support

There is a growing community of users and contributors around Playwright, with many helpful resources available online.

Test web apps

The Playwright can be used to test web applications. By automatically running web application tests, Playwright can help ensure that your application is functioning correctly. This can save you time and money by catching bugs before they are deployed to production.

Create and edit complex user scenarios

The Playwright can be used to create, edit, and save complex user scenarios. For example, you can use Playwright to create a scenario in which a user logs in to a website, navigates to a specific page, and fills out a form. This scenario can then be saved and replayed later, making it easy to test the website’s functionality.

A powerful tool for automating web browsers

Microsoft Playwright is a powerful tool for automating web browsers. It can simulate user input, such as mouse clicks and keystrokes, and it can also automatically take screenshots and save them to disk. This makes it an ideal tool for regression testing and for taking screenshots of web pages for documentation purposes.

Automation with Playwright can be done smoothly with many platforms available, and one such hot platform available in the market is LambdaTest cloud grid.

LambdaTest is a cloud testing platform that allows you to perform cross-browser testing over a farm of 3000+ browsers and OS across 130+ countries. It can help you run your Playwright in parallel and thus eventually reducing your execution time.

Automatically generate screenshots and videos of your tests

Microsoft Playwright can be used to automatically generate screenshots and videos of your tests for easy debugging and analysis. This is a valuable tool for developers and testers who want to ensure that their applications are working correctly. Additionally, this tool can also be used to generate reports on your test results.

Overall, Microsoft Playwright is a powerful tool that can save you time and money. It is easy to use and can automate many tasks, making it an essential tool for any web developer.

These features make Playwright an ideal tool for automating browsers for testing purposes. The playwright can help you get the most out of your testing by making it easy to automate multiple browsers and by providing a reliable and fast automation solution. The Playwright can help you save time and easily automate your testing process thanks to its cross-platform compatibility, ever-green status, and easy-to-use API.

If you’re new to web testing or if you’re looking for a cross-platform and multi-browser solution, then Playwright is a great option.

Getting Started With Playwright Testing

You will need to install the following software to get started with Playwright testing.

Playwright
Node.js
A text editor or IDE
The latest version of Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox

Installation

The Playwright is available as a Node.js module, so you’ll need to install Node.js before you can install Playwright. You can download Node.js from the [Node.js website](https://nodejs.org/en/).

Once you have Node.js installed, you can install Playwright using the following command:

Comprehensive Guide To Playwright Testing

Creating a Playwright Script

Now that you have Playwright installed let’s create a simple script to test a web page. Create a new file called `test.js` and add the following code to it:

In this script, we’re using the `chromium` module to launch the Chromium browser and create a new page. We then navigate to `https://example.com` and close the browser once the page has loaded.

Executing a Playwright Script

To run the script, open a terminal window and type the following command:

You should see Chromium launch and navigate to `https://example.com`. Once the page has loaded, Chromium will close automatically.

Launching Google Chrome using Playwright

We can use Playwright to automate tests for a website. For example, we can create a test that will launch Google Chrome, navigate to the example website, and then close Chrome.

To do this, we first need to install Playwright. We can do this using npm:

Once Playwright is installed, we can create a new file called test.js. In this file, we will add the following code:

In the code above, we first import the chromium object from Playwright. This object allows us to launch and control Google Chrome.

Next, we use the async/await syntax to write our code synchronously. This means that we can write our code as if each line is executed one after the other, even though Playwright is asynchronous.

We then launch Google Chrome using chromium.launch() method. This returns a promise that resolves to a browser object, which we store in the browser variable.

Once the browser is launched, we create a new page using the browser.newPage() method. This also returns a promise that resolves to a page object, which we store in the page variable.

Now that we have a page, we can navigate to it using the page.goto() method. Again, this returns a promise that resolves when the navigation is complete.

Finally, we close the browser using the browser.close() method.

The Playwright also supports Firefox and Microsoft Edge Chromium. To launch Microsoft Edge Chromium, we use the edge.launch() method. To launch Firefox, we use firefox.launch() method. These methods work similarly to chromium.launch() method.

Microsoft Playwright is a Node.js library for automating browsers. It is similar to Puppeteer, but it supports more browsers and has more features.

This will navigate to Google’s homepage. We can also use the page.click() method to click on elements on the page:

This will click on the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button on Google’s homepage. We can also use the page.type() method to type into input fields:

This will type “Hello World!” into the search query input field on Google’s homepage.

Assertions

An assertion is a statement that determines whether a given condition is true or false. If the condition is true, the assertion passes. If the condition is false, the assertion fails.

Assertions are commonly used in tests to verify that a certain condition is met before proceeding with the rest of the test. For example, you might want to assert that a button is visible on a page before clicking it. Or you might want to assert that a certain text is displayed on the page before proceeding.

Microsoft Playwright provides a variety of assertion methods that can be used to verify conditions in tests. Assertions are available on the `page` object. To use an assertion, simply call the assertion method with the condition as an argument. For example, to assert that a page contains a certain text, you would use the `page.contains()` assertion method:

“`javascript

await page.contains(‘text to assert’);

“`

If the specified text is not found on the page, the assertion will fail, and the test will stop executing.

Other assertions available in Playwright include `page.url()`, `page.title()`, `page.evaluate()`, and many others.

As mentioned above, assertions are important in testing with a Playwright. Assertions allow you to verify that a certain condition is met before continuing with the execution of your test. If the condition is not met, the assertion will fail, and the test will stop executing.

There are a variety of assertion methods available in Playwright. Below is a list of some of the most commonly used assertions:

page.url(): Asserts that the current page URL matches the specified URL.

page.title(): Asserts that the current page title matches the specified title.

page.evaluate(): Evaluates a JavaScript expression on the current page and assert that the result matches the specified value.

page.contains(): Asserts that the specified text is present on the current page.

page.screenshot(): Takes a screenshot of the current page and saves it to the specified file.

Assertions can be combined using logical operators (`and`, `or`, and `not`) to create more complex conditions. For example, the following assertion will pass if the current page URL is `https://example.com` and the title contains the text `Example`.

Page Objects

A page object is an object that represents a single page in your application. This object should contain all of the information and methods necessary to interact with that page. For example, if you have a login page, your page object might look like this:

As you can see, this page object contains a `login` method that takes in a username and password. This method then fills out the relevant fields on the page and clicks the login button.

Page objects make your tests much easier to read and maintain because they abstract away the details of how your application works. For example, if the HTML on your login page changes, you only need to update your page object – your tests will continue to work because they are using the page object methods, not directly interacting with the HTML elements.

Tests

Now that we have our page objects set up, we can write some tests. Let’s start with a very simple test that navigates to the login page and then logs in using valid credentials:

“`javascript

import { Page } from ‘Playwright’;

describe(‘login page’, () => {

it(‘should login successfully’, async () => {

// Arrange – create a new page object

const page = await Page.open();

const loginPage = new LoginPage(page);

// Act – navigate to the login page and fill out the form

await loginPage.navigate();

await loginPage.login(‘user@example.com’, ‘password’);

});

Get Started With LambdaTest Playwright Cloud

With LambdaTest, you can get instant access to 50+ browser versions to run Playwright test scripts.

LambdaTest also provides technical support to help you troubleshoot any issues you may encounter while using the platform. There are three basic steps to automate Playwright using LambdaTest and they are mentioned below:-

After making a few small adjustments, your Playwright test script can be used on the LambdaTest platform.
You have the option of running tests from your local system or through a CI/CD pipeline. Debugging is also simpler as extensive logs and reports are available.
Additionally, you can increase test volume without worrying about managing an in-house testing server.

If you’re looking for a cloud-based testing platform for your end to end testing needs, LambdaTest is a great option.

Conclusion

Microsoft Playwright is a powerful tool for developing and testing applications. It tries to ease the web testing process by allowing the test scripts to be run without having a browser or web page open. The playwright has a rich set of features and capabilities that help testers and developers automate web-based tests quickly and efficiently.

Although it’s easy to learn and use, it can be a bit of a mystery if you don’t know how it works. We’ve written this comprehensive guide to make sure you know everything about Microsoft Playwright, so you can use it as effectively as possible.