The number of testing frameworks is growing as shifting towards the left in the software development lifecycle (SDLC) becomes more and more common and prevalent. And one of these frameworks is Playwright, which programmers utilize since it allows them to create and run end-to-end tests for a variety of mobile web application, languages, and platforms in a swift and reliable manner.
A relatively recent framework named Playwright allows for precise end-to-end testing of contemporary, complex online application. The fact that the framework is open-source is crucial and makes it quite popular. In January 2020, Playwright’s first release was made public. Since then, it has succeeded in gaining admiration in the field.
Playwright and Puppeteer are similar in a lot of ways. It is quite understandable as it was developed by the same team that worked on Google’s Puppeteer despite that fact that Playwright is owned by Microsoft. Developers thought to go one step further this time, by creating a framework that would provide even more choices. The capability of cross-browser testing is the most important out of all of these possibilities. Playwright is currently the only framework of its sort that works with all current browser engines. It is very easy and simple to combine Playwright with JS-based test runners like Mocha, Jest, and Ava. But Playwright Test, its own Folio-based test runner, is also accessible.
So now you know what Playwright is, let’s underline some major benefits and features of it.
Benefits Of Playwright
Playwright is a new product in the field. And, since it supports several different languages, there are not many restrictions to list. Java, C#, and Python are supported by Playwright, therefore, those who wish to switch from Selenium to it may do so swiftly. Languages used in programming are not a barrier. The first edition of Playwright was published in January 2020, and it has grown significantly in popularity since then. The DevTools protocol is used by Playwright to create robust, dependable automated tests.
Instead of depending on an intermediate translation layer, Playwright can actually look into and control the browser, enabling the simulation of more insightful and applicable user situations.
Due of Playwright’s many benefits, even ardent Selenium or Puppeteer supporters may be persuaded to give it a try. Let’s explore this framework’s many benefits in more detail.
- Playwright may be set up and deployed fast and simply.
- The Chromium family of browsers, Firefox, and Safari are all supported.
- As a cross-platform framework, it supports macOS, Windows, and Linux in addition to other popular operating systems. There are both headed and headless options available.
- Browser Context enables the concurrent test execution. There is a possibility that several browsers may conduct tests concurrently.
- When test cases cover a situation that involves opening a new window and then returning to the previous window, Playwright offers the option to test across many tabs or browser windows.
- It is possible to prevent repeated log-ins by isolating and separating tests. A browser context’s authentication status should be preserved and utilized for this reason in the subsequent tests.
- Support is provided for the most widely used programming languages, to name some: TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, and.NET are also included in the list.
- By assisting in the avoidance of flaky tests, auto-wait and web-first assertions greatly ease the lives of automated QA engineers. The auto-wait feature simply implies that Playwright is unable to take any action until all necessary elemental checks have been successfully completed. For the dynamic web, specific assertions have been developed, and tests are automatically repeated until the necessary requirements are satisfied.
- On CI and other environments that enable Docker, tests may be conducted.
- Jenkins, CircleCI, Azure Pipeline, TravisCI, and other popular continuous integration and continuous delivery systems are easily linked with Playwright.
- A browser context’s pages may all be video captured. Additionally, there is also an option to capture screenshots of a whole website or a specific page element.
- Network traffic through HTTP and HTTPS can also be managed and altered.
- It is simple to imitate multiple browser characteristics including a color scheme and viewport size, as well as devices, geolocation, language, and timezone. The Playwright provides opportunity to discuss every situation.
- Playwright is compatible with Node.js debuggers and browser development tools. It also provides its own debugging tools. For instance, Playwright Inspector is a GUI application that is automatically suggested for script troubleshooting. Another GUI tool that enables users to examine recorded traces as soon as a test run is over is the Playwright Trace Viewer.
- By watching user behaviors on video, tests may be generated. Simply launch Codegen and do the necessary steps. Resilient selections may be used to produce code in any of the supported programming languages.
- For a variety of requirements, Playwright Test provides many built-in test reporters. A few reporters may be used simultaneously. Additionally, a custom reporter may be made. Additionally, test report generators may be incorporated.
Top Features Of Playwright
Here are the top 11 features of Playwright that makes it so much in demand despite its novelty in the field of Informational Technology.
1. API Testing
Playwright facilitates API testing by automating the request and response verification processes. This may assist to guarantee that your API is operating properly and living up to your users’ expectations.
2. Offers Documentation That Is User Friendly
The tool’s user-friendly instructions makes it simple to get started with Playwright. There is a quick start guide, tutorials, and API references in the documentation.
3. Full Support For Mainstream Browsers
All popular browsers are supported by Playwright, enabling automated testing for a large variety of consumers. It works with Mac, Windows, Linux, and other portable electronic devices. Therefore, automated testing is possible on every platform.
4. No Need To Have Access To The Code Base
It is simple to use for automated testing since Playwright does not need access to the code base to work. To keep things organized, all of the work is done on the UX side of things.
5. Records The Whole Test Execution Process
Videos of the whole test execution may be recorded by Playwright and saved in the chosen place. We may define the video parameters and change the browser environment. At the conclusion of the exam, it’s crucial to shut the context.
6. Supports Test Cases For Scenarios That Need Authentication
Utilizing this functionality to simulate the authentication context of credentials in a browser is another neat thing you can do. For instance, many programs employ the authentication state defined by browser cookies. Use two distinct browser contexts while using the same browser instance and two distinct sets of login credentials.
7. Permissions And User Roles Are Concepts That Permeate All Programs.
You could run your test simultaneously using two separate authentication credentials by logging in as an administrator in one context and a fake user in the other. The goal here is to reuse the instance once more, which implies that you should not waste time opening a new browser or shutting down and starting it up again and again.
You may do the costly action of launching before to the execution of your tests in order to basically establish new contexts that are very quick to construct and inexpensive to trash over the course of your tests.
8. Strong Automation Capabilities.
Playwright is an out-of-process automation driver that can automate situations including many pages, and is not constrained by the scope of in-page JavaScript execution. In order to stub and simulate network requests, the Playwright implements context-wide network eavesdropping. Shadow-piercing selectors, permissions, geolocation, web workers, and other modern web APIs are supported by Playwright for web components.
It also offers support for native input events, file downloads out-of-process iframes, and uploads, and even the dark mode.
9. Comparing The Visuals
Playwright provides the ability to create and compare screenshots graphically. It creates reference screenshots during the first execution and then does visual comparison during future runs. It makes use of the pixelmatch library in a number of ways.
10. Capture Screenshots
Playwright provides the ability to capture screenshots of a specific page or feature and store them where you choose.
11. Playwright Test Configurations of Different Types
With different configurations and options, such as test directory, test timeout, assertion timeout, number of retries if a test failed, parallel execution, types of reports like HTML and JSON, headless settings, video, automatic screenshot, and trace capturing on failure, we can tailor the playwright.config.ts file.
LambdaTest and Playwright
If we utilize a platform or have a grid to connect to, we can accomplish so since Playwright enables us to tie the browser to an existing session. You can use a cloud grid like LambaTest to execute the preceding test. Remember that you will need an access key and a username.
You can test on an online browser farm of more than 50 browsers using LambdaTest’s cloud testing technology for cross-browser testing on virtual machines. Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Chromium, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, and even Webkit are examples of this. Playwright browser testing may be run concurrently on any of these several browsers, greatly reducing the time required for test execution.
Wrap- Up!
The built-in types for auto-completion and other features come with Playwright by default. Playwright uses the debugger in the editor and the developer tools in the browser to halt execution and examine the web page. It may choose components by using user-facing strings like text content and accessibility labels. Compared to selectors that are closely tied to the DOM structure, these strings are more robust.
Playwright is a cutting-edge online testing tool with fantastic automation features. It makes it feasible to create tests that are quick, precise, and trustworthy while covering a wide range of situations. It has greatly developed since its recent existence. The latest release is now available, and we are sure that your development crew won’t stop. It is fair to say that Playwright has a promising future. Your QA specialists can easily conduct playwright-specific automated testing.