What is playwright?
Playwright is a Node.js library developed by Microsoft that allows developers to automate browser actions for testing and scraping purposes. It supports multiple browsers, including Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit, and provides a high-level API to control headless or full browsers over the DevTools Protocol.
What are playwright's main functionalities?
Browser Automation
Automate browser actions such as opening a page, clicking elements, and navigating through websites.
const { chromium } = require('playwright');
(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 selecting elements and retrieving their content.
const { firefox } = require('playwright');
(async () => {
const browser = await firefox.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com');
const data = await page.textContent('.some-element');
console.log(data);
await browser.close();
})();
Automated Testing
Write automated tests for web applications, including assertions to validate the behavior of the application.
const { webkit } = require('playwright');
const { expect } = require('@playwright/test');
(async () => {
const browser = await webkit.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com');
const title = await page.title();
expect(title).toBe('Example Domain');
await browser.close();
})();
Cross-Browser Testing
Test web applications across multiple browsers to ensure compatibility and consistent behavior.
const { chromium, firefox, webkit } = require('playwright');
(async () => {
for (const browserType of [chromium, firefox, webkit]) {
const browser = await browserType.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com');
// Perform tests across different browsers
await browser.close();
}
})();
Mobile Emulation
Emulate mobile devices to test responsive designs and touch interactions.
const { chromium, devices } = require('playwright');
const iPhone11 = devices['iPhone 11 Pro'];
(async () => {
const browser = await chromium.launch();
const context = await browser.newContext({
...iPhone11
});
const page = await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com');
// Emulate mobile device actions and layout
await browser.close();
})();
Other packages similar to playwright
selenium-webdriver
Selenium WebDriver is one of the most well-known browser automation tools. It requires separate drivers for each browser and is generally slower than Playwright due to its reliance on the WebDriver protocol, which is more standardized but less performant.
puppeteer
Puppeteer is another Node.js library that provides a high-level API to control Chrome or Chromium over the DevTools Protocol. It is similar to Playwright but was developed by the Chrome DevTools team and initially focused on Chrome, whereas Playwright supports multiple browsers out of the box.
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 is known for its rich interactive test runner interface but does not support as many browsers as Playwright and is primarily focused on testing rather than general browser automation.
nightwatch
Nightwatch.js is an automated testing framework for web applications and websites, written in Node.js and using the W3C WebDriver API. It is designed to simplify the process of writing end-to-end tests. Nightwatch is less feature-rich compared to Playwright and is more focused on the testing aspect.
Contributing
This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a
Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us
the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.opensource.microsoft.com.
When you submit a pull request, a CLA bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide
a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., status check, comment). Simply follow the instructions
provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.
This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct.
For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or
contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.