playwright-core

What is playwright-core?

The playwright-core npm package is a library that provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome, Firefox, and WebKit with a single API. It is designed for automating web browser interactions for the purposes of web scraping, automated testing, and web automation.

What are playwright-core's main functionalities?

Browser Automation

Automate browser actions such as opening pages, clicking on elements, and navigating websites.

const { chromium } = require('playwright-core');

(async () => {
  const browser = await chromium.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  // other actions...
  await browser.close();
})();

Web Scraping

Extract data from web pages by navigating to them and retrieving the content.

const { firefox } = require('playwright-core');

(async () => {
  const browser = await firefox.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  const data = await page.content();
  // process data...
  await browser.close();
})();

Automated Testing

Perform automated tests on web applications by simulating user interactions and verifying page content.

const { webkit } = require('playwright-core');

(async () => {
  const browser = await webkit.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  const title = await page.title();
  console.assert(title === 'Expected Page Title');
  await browser.close();
})();

Other packages similar to playwright-core

puppeteer

Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API over the Chrome DevTools Protocol. It is similar to playwright-core but was initially designed specifically for Chrome and later added support for Firefox. Puppeteer is developed by the Chrome DevTools team.

selenium-webdriver

Selenium WebDriver is one of the most well-known browser automation tools. It supports multiple browsers and is language-agnostic, making it a popular choice for end-to-end testing. Unlike playwright-core, Selenium requires separate drivers for each browser and might be slower in execution.

cypress

Cypress is a front-end testing tool built for the modern web. It is both a library for writing tests and a test runner that executes the tests. Cypress offers a unique interactive test runner that allows you to see commands as they execute while also viewing the application under test. It differs from playwright-core in that it is primarily focused on testing and offers a more integrated testing experience.

README

🎭 Playwright

Docs | API | Changelog | Contributing

Playwright is a Node library to automate the Chromium, WebKit and Firefox browsers with a single API. It enables cross-browser web automation that is ever-green, capable, reliable and fast.

	Linux	macOS	Win
Chromium 84.0.4117.0	:white_check_mark:	:white_check_mark:	:white_check_mark:
WebKit 13.0.4	:white_check_mark:	:white_check_mark:	:white_check_mark:
Firefox 76.0b5	:white_check_mark:	:white_check_mark:	:white_check_mark:

• Headless is supported for all the browsers on all platforms.

Our primary goal with Playwright is to improve automated UI testing by eliminating flakiness, improving the speed of execution and offering insights into the browser operation.

Usage

npm i playwright

This installs Playwright along with its dependencies and the browser binaries. Browser binaries are about 50-100MB each, so expect the installation network traffic to be substantial.

Once installed, Playwright can be used to create a browser instance, open pages and then automate interactions.

• Documentation
• API reference

Examples

Page screenshot

This code snippet navigates to whatsmyuseragent.org in Chromium, Firefox and WebKit, and saves 3 screenshots.

const playwright = require('playwright');

(async () => {
  for (const browserType of ['chromium', 'firefox', 'webkit']) {
    const browser = await playwright[browserType].launch();
    const context = await browser.newContext();
    const page = await context.newPage();
    await page.goto('http://whatsmyuseragent.org/');
    await page.screenshot({ path: `example-${browserType}.png` });
    await browser.close();
  }
})();

Mobile and geolocation

This snippet emulates Mobile Safari on a device at a given geolocation, navigates to maps.google.com, performs action and takes a screenshot.

const { webkit, devices } = require('playwright');
const iPhone11 = devices['iPhone 11 Pro'];

(async () => {
  const browser = await webkit.launch();
  const context = await browser.newContext({
    ...iPhone11,
    geolocation: { longitude: 12.492507, latitude: 41.889938 },
    permissions: ['geolocation']
  });
  const page = await context.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://maps.google.com');
  await page.click('text="Your location"');
  await page.waitForRequest(/.*preview\/pwa/);
  await page.screenshot({ path: 'colosseum-iphone.png' });
  await browser.close();
})();

Evaluate in browser context

This code snippet navigates to example.com in Firefox, and executes a script in the page context.

const { firefox } = require('playwright');

(async () => {
  const browser = await firefox.launch();
  const context = await browser.newContext();
  const page = await context.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://www.example.com/');
  const dimensions = await page.evaluate(() => {
    return {
      width: document.documentElement.clientWidth,
      height: document.documentElement.clientHeight,
      deviceScaleFactor: window.devicePixelRatio
    }
  })
  console.log(dimensions);

  await browser.close();
})();

Intercept network requests

This code snippet sets up request routing for a WebKit page to log all network requests.

const { webkit } = require('playwright');

(async () => {
  const browser = await webkit.launch();
  const context = await browser.newContext();
  const page = await context.newPage();

  // Log and continue all network requests
  page.route('**', route => {
    console.log(route.request().url());
    route.continue();
  });

  await page.goto('http://todomvc.com');
  await browser.close();
})();

Contributing

Check out our contributing guide.

Resources

• Documentation
• Example recipes
• API reference
• Community showcase