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Playwright Overview

Introduction​

Playwright is a modern open-source automation framework developed by Microsoft. It allows testing of web applications across different browsers with a single API.

Key Features​

  1. Cross-browser support: Works with Chromium, WebKit, and Firefox.
  2. Headless mode: Supports headless and headed execution.
  3. Auto-wait: Automatically waits for elements to be ready before executing actions.
  4. Network interception: Allows modifying network requests and responses.
  5. Parallel test execution: Enables faster testing by running tests concurrently.

Supported Browsers​

  • Google Chrome (via Chromium)
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • WebKit (Safari engine)
  • Microsoft Edge

Programming Language Support​

  • JavaScript/TypeScript
  • Python
  • Java
  • C#

Example: Playwright in JavaScript​

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

(async () => {
    const browser = await chromium.launch();
    const page = await browser.newPage();
    await page.goto('https://www.example.com');
    console.log('Title:', await page.title());
    await browser.close();
})();

Advantages of Playwright​

  • Supports multiple browsers with a single API
  • Built-in test runner with parallel execution
  • Handles modern web app complexities like SPAs
  • Easy to set up and use

Limitations​

  • Newer framework with a smaller community compared to Selenium
  • Requires modern browsers; does not support legacy versions

Conclusion​

Playwright is a powerful and developer-friendly automation tool for modern web applications. It offers robust features for cross-browser testing, making it an excellent alternative to Selenium.