@podman-desktop/tests-playwright

Podman Desktop Playwright Tests

This document contains information on how to use the E2E testing framework of Podman Desktop on different scenarios. This is particularly useful if you want to execute the tests from a Podman Desktop extension or you want to develop your own.

Prerequisites:

• Have Node.js 22 installed (ideally using nvm)
• Uses pnpm v10, can be installed via npm install -g pnpm@10 or you can get it here
• Have a clone of the Podman Desktop repo (you can get it here)

Core functionality how the E2E tests works

Podman Desktop E2E tests use the Playwright testing framework libraries to develop the tests and POM (page object model) for the Podman Desktop application. The test runner also relies on playwright code.

At this moment the electron support is marked as experimental.

In order to be able to reuse and share the core e2e tests libraries and definitions we created @podman-desktop/tests-playwright npm package.

The project uses devDependency to @playwright/test for access to playwright function, assertions, etc., and also to an electron package, which brings the ability to run Podman Desktop application (which is electron based) when running e2e tests.

Running E2E tests in development or production mode

We distinguish between two operational modes to run the tests with: development and production. In both cases, we need to have access to Electron binary which is used to launch the Podman Desktop application. Above functionality is handled by @podman-desktop/tests-playwright Runner class (podman-desktop-runner.ts). The runner is then shipped as a Playwright fixture and takes care of all the setup for E2E tests.

Multiple scenarios may occur:

• Running E2E tests from podman-desktop repository in DEVELOPMENT mode: We do not need to set any paths to electron binary, Runner uses default configuration and grabs electron from /node_modules/.bin/electron which is installed via electron dependency postinstall script during pnpm install.
• Running E2 tests from podman-desktop repository in PRODUCTION mode: We need to set PODMAN_DESKTOP_BINARY environment variable when running the tests from podman-desktop repository with the previously built or downloaded Podman Desktop electron app. Simply point to a podman-desktop binary or executable.
• Running E2E tests in external repository in DEVELOPMENT mode: Set PODMAN_DESKTOP_ARGS and point to the previously built podman-desktop repository. We are using electron binary from podman-desktop repository the same way as in point 1.
• Running E2E tests in external repository in PRODUCTION mode: Set PODMAN_DESKTOP_BINARY environment variable and point to a downloaded/built Podman Desktop application which is also main electron binary that is used.

This approach is beneficial in the way that we do not need to have the electron package set as a dependency in external repositories.

If you set PODMAN_DESKTOP_BINARY and PODMAN_DESKTOP_ARGS at the same time, the runner will throw an error since you cannot really run tests in both mode at the same time.

You can get testing-enabled Podman Desktop binaries and installation files from testing-prereleases repository.

Usage of @podman-desktop/tests-playwright to develop the podman-desktop tests in the Podman Desktop repository

This section explains how to develop your own E2E tests in the Podman Desktop repository.

Steps:

• Get into the Podman Desktop repo folder (should be named podman-desktop)
• Install its local dependencies by executing pnpm install
• Build the application's tests with pnpm test:e2e:build
• Now you can implement your E2E tests in the tests/playwright folder
• Execute pnpm test:e2e in order to run them
• When the tests finish you will find the test artifacts and logs available under ./tests/playwright/output (this directory can be modified in the playwright.config.ts file)

Usage of @podman-desktop/tests-playwright in an external repository in DEVELOPMENT mode

This section explains how to add the npm package to a repository external to podman-desktop.

Steps:

• Get into the Podman Desktop repo folder (should be named podman-desktop)
• Install its local dependencies by executing pnpm install
• Implement your changes to the E2E tests library (optional)
• Build the application and tests with pnpm test:e2e:build
• Set an environment variable by executing: export PODMAN_DESKTOP_ARGS="/path/to/podman-desktop" (the current directory) [¹][⁶]
• Get into YOUR repository and update the package.json file to have the following contents:

• Under devDependencies:
  • "@podman-desktop/tests-playwright": "next",[²]
  • "@playwright/test": "^1.48.1" (or the current latest)
• Under scripts:
  • "test:e2e:setup": "xvfb-maybe --auto-servernum --server-args='-screen 0 1280x960x24' --" [³]
  • "test:e2e": "cross-env npm run test:e2e:setup npx playwright test tests/src"

• Execute pnpm install, which should extract the contents of the previously built Podman Desktop into the node_modules folder in your repository
• Write your E2E tests on your repository, which may use your changes to @podman-desktop/tests-playwright from step 3 (optional)
• Run your E2E tests by executing pnpm test:e2e [⁵]

Running in e2e tests in PRODUCTION mode

• You can either a) download a prerelease binary from the testing-prereleases repository or b) compile the binary yourself by getting into the podman-desktop folder and executing pnpm compile:current, which will produce a podman-desktop executable under /dist/linux-unpacked
• Set an environment variable by executing: export PODMAN_DESKTOP_BINARY="/path/to/the/podman-desktop/executable" [⁶]
• Follow steps 6 to 9 from the previous section [⁴]

[¹] Remember that environment variables defined this way only work on the terminal they were defined and only for as long as the terminal is active.

[²] Using the value next works for running tests locally, but for remote executions, specify the latest version of the @podman-desktop/tests-playwright package. Check the “Versions” tab here to find the latest version. This version will be written into the pnpm-lock.yaml file; to ensure you use the latest version in the future, force an update with pnpm add -D @podman-desktop/tests-playwright@next (use the -w flag in monorepos to install at the workspace root).

[³] If your project does not already have the xvfb-maybe dependency, you'll need to add it as well.

[⁴] To verify that the PD binary is correctly being passed to the extension tests, you can check at the beginning of the running tests trace if the path is correct here: executablePath: /expected/path/to/podman-desktop/binary

[⁵] Currently in linux, running the tests with pnpm test:e2e does not open Podman Desktop (PD starts minimized in the tray). To see the tests running, execute the binary once you've executed pnpm test:e2e

[⁶] Alternatively to exporting the envvar, you can add it directly to the execution of the tests like this:

• PODMAN_DESKTOP_ARGS="/path/to/podman-desktop" pnpm test:e2e
• PODMAN_DESKTOP_BINARY="/path/to/the/podman-desktop/executable" pnpm test:e2e

How to develop and test @podman-desktop/tests-playwright locally

This section references how to use @podman-desktop/tests-playwright generated archive file for local development

• Get into the Podman Desktop repo folder (should be named podman-desktop)
• Get into the tests/playwright folder and install its local dependencies by executing pnpm install
• Implement your changes to the E2E tests library (it can be found under tests/playwright)
• Create the local package with pnpm run package which also builds the code. This will produce a .tgzarchive
• Set the environment variable by executing: export PODMAN_DESKTOP_ARGS="path/to/podman-desktop" (not the current directory, two folders up)
• In YOUR repository, update the package.json file to have the following contents under devDependencies: "@podman-desktop/tests-playwright": "file:../podman-desktop/tests/playwright/podman-desktop-1.20.0-next.tgz"
• Execute pnpm install, which should extract the contents of the previously built Podman Desktop package into the node_modules folder in your repository
• Now, the changes you made to @podman-desktop/tests-playwright should be available in your project. If the process was successful, you should be able to find the classes you added in the index.d.ts file under node_modules/@podman-desktop/tests-playwright/dist
• You might need to remove node_modules to force new installation