Playwright E2E Testing

Playwright is a modern end-to-end testing framework that supports Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit. It provides auto-wait, network interception, and powerful debugging tools.

Core Concepts

Project Configuration

// playwright.config.ts
import { defineConfig, devices } from '@playwright/test';

export default defineConfig({
  testDir: './e2e',
  fullyParallel: true,
  forbidOnly: !!process.env.CI,
  retries: process.env.CI ? 2 : 0,
  workers: process.env.CI ? 1 : undefined,
  reporter: [['html', { open: 'never' }], ['list'], process.env.CI ? ['github'] : ['line']],
  use: {
    baseURL: 'http://localhost:3000',
    trace: 'on-first-retry',
    screenshot: 'only-on-failure',
    video: 'retain-on-failure',
  },
  projects: [
    { name: 'chromium', use: { ...devices['Desktop Chrome'] } },
    { name: 'firefox', use: { ...devices['Desktop Firefox'] } },
    { name: 'webkit', use: { ...devices['Desktop Safari'] } },
    { name: 'mobile', use: { ...devices['iPhone 14'] } },
  ],
  webServer: {
    command: 'pnpm dev',
    url: 'http://localhost:3000',
    reuseExistingServer: !process.env.CI,
    timeout: 120 * 1000,
  },
});

Basic Test Structure

// e2e/homepage.spec.ts
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test.describe('Homepage', () => {
  test.beforeEach(async ({ page }) => {
    await page.goto('/');
  });

  test('has correct title', async ({ page }) => {
    await expect(page).toHaveTitle(/My App/);
  });

  test('navigation works', async ({ page }) => {
    await page.getByRole('link', { name: 'About' }).click();
    await expect(page).toHaveURL('/about');
  });

  test('search functionality', async ({ page }) => {
    await page.getByPlaceholder('Search...').fill('test query');
    await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Search' }).click();
    await expect(page.getByTestId('results')).toBeVisible();
  });
});

Locator Strategies

Best Practices (Priority Order)

// 1. Role-based (best accessibility)
page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Submit' });
page.getByRole('heading', { level: 1 });
page.getByRole('link', { name: /learn more/i });

// 2. Label-based (forms)
page.getByLabel('Email');
page.getByPlaceholder('Enter your email');

// 3. Text-based (visible text)
page.getByText('Welcome');
page.getByText(/sign up/i);

// 4. Test ID (when others don't work)
page.getByTestId('user-avatar');

// 5. CSS/XPath (last resort)
page.locator('.card:has-text("Featured")');
page.locator('//button[contains(@class, "primary")]');

Filtering Locators

// Filter by text
page.getByRole('listitem').filter({ hasText: 'Product' });

// Filter by another locator
page.getByRole('listitem').filter({
  has: page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Buy' }),
});

// Chain locators
page.getByRole('article').getByRole('button');

// Nth element
page.getByRole('listitem').nth(2);
page.getByRole('listitem').first();
page.getByRole('listitem').last();

Actions & Assertions

Common Actions

// Click
await page.getByRole('button').click();
await page.getByRole('button').dblclick();
await page.getByRole('button').click({ button: 'right' });

// Type
await page.getByLabel('Email').fill('user@example.com');
await page.getByLabel('Email').pressSequentially('user@example.com');
await page.keyboard.press('Enter');

// Select
await page.getByLabel('Country').selectOption('USA');
await page.getByLabel('Colors').selectOption(['red', 'blue']);

// Checkbox/Radio
await page.getByLabel('Agree').check();
await page.getByLabel('Agree').uncheck();

// Upload
await page.getByLabel('Upload').setInputFiles('file.pdf');
await page.getByLabel('Upload').setInputFiles(['file1.pdf', 'file2.pdf']);

// Drag and drop
await page.locator('#source').dragTo(page.locator('#target'));

Assertions

// Element state
await expect(locator).toBeVisible();
await expect(locator).toBeHidden();
await expect(locator).toBeEnabled();
await expect(locator).toBeDisabled();
await expect(locator).toBeChecked();
await expect(locator).toBeFocused();

// Content
await expect(locator).toHaveText('Hello');
await expect(locator).toContainText('Hello');
await expect(locator).toHaveValue('input value');
await expect(locator).toHaveAttribute('href', '/about');
await expect(locator).toHaveClass(/active/);
await expect(locator).toHaveCSS('color', 'rgb(0, 0, 0)');

// Page
await expect(page).toHaveTitle(/Home/);
await expect(page).toHaveURL('/dashboard');

// Count
await expect(locator).toHaveCount(3);

// Screenshot comparison
await expect(page).toHaveScreenshot('homepage.png');
await expect(locator).toHaveScreenshot('button.png');

Page Object Model

// e2e/pages/login.page.ts
import { Page, Locator } from '@playwright/test';

export class LoginPage {
  readonly page: Page;
  readonly emailInput: Locator;
  readonly passwordInput: Locator;
  readonly submitButton: Locator;
  readonly errorMessage: Locator;

  constructor(page: Page) {
    this.page = page;
    this.emailInput = page.getByLabel('Email');
    this.passwordInput = page.getByLabel('Password');
    this.submitButton = page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Sign in' });
    this.errorMessage = page.getByRole('alert');
  }

  async goto() {
    await this.page.goto('/login');
  }

  async login(email: string, password: string) {
    await this.emailInput.fill(email);
    await this.passwordInput.fill(password);
    await this.submitButton.click();
  }

  async expectError(message: string) {
    await expect(this.errorMessage).toHaveText(message);
  }
}

// e2e/login.spec.ts
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
import { LoginPage } from './pages/login.page';

test('successful login', async ({ page }) => {
  const loginPage = new LoginPage(page);
  await loginPage.goto();
  await loginPage.login('user@example.com', 'password');
  await expect(page).toHaveURL('/dashboard');
});

Fixtures

// e2e/fixtures.ts
import { test as base, expect } from '@playwright/test';
import { LoginPage } from './pages/login.page';

type Fixtures = {
  loginPage: LoginPage;
  authenticatedPage: void;
};

export const test = base.extend<Fixtures>({
  loginPage: async ({ page }, use) => {
    const loginPage = new LoginPage(page);
    await use(loginPage);
  },

  authenticatedPage: async ({ page }, use) => {
    // Set auth cookies
    await page
      .context()
      .addCookies([{ name: 'session', value: 'test-session', domain: 'localhost', path: '/' }]);
    await use();
  },
});

export { expect };

// Usage
test('authenticated test', async ({ page, authenticatedPage }) => {
  await page.goto('/dashboard');
  await expect(page.getByText('Welcome')).toBeVisible();
});

API Testing

import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test.describe('API Tests', () => {
  test('GET users', async ({ request }) => {
    const response = await request.get('/api/users');
    expect(response.ok()).toBeTruthy();

    const users = await response.json();
    expect(users).toHaveLength(3);
  });

  test('POST create user', async ({ request }) => {
    const response = await request.post('/api/users', {
      data: { name: 'John', email: 'john@example.com' },
    });
    expect(response.status()).toBe(201);
  });
});

Network Interception

test('mock API response', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.route('/api/users', (route) => {
    route.fulfill({
      status: 200,
      contentType: 'application/json',
      body: JSON.stringify([{ id: 1, name: 'Mocked User' }]),
    });
  });

  await page.goto('/users');
  await expect(page.getByText('Mocked User')).toBeVisible();
});

test('intercept and modify', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.route('/api/**', async (route) => {
    const response = await route.fetch();
    const json = await response.json();
    json.modified = true;
    await route.fulfill({ response, json });
  });
});

Visual Regression Testing

test('visual comparison', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/');

  // Full page screenshot
  await expect(page).toHaveScreenshot('homepage.png', {
    fullPage: true,
    maxDiffPixelRatio: 0.01,
  });

  // Component screenshot
  const card = page.getByTestId('feature-card');
  await expect(card).toHaveScreenshot('feature-card.png');
});

Debugging

# Run in headed mode
npx playwright test --headed

# Run with UI mode
npx playwright test --ui

# Debug specific test
npx playwright test --debug

# Show HTML report
npx playwright show-report

Best Practices

1. Use role-based locators for accessibility and stability
2. Page Object Model for maintainable tests
3. Fixtures for shared setup and authentication
4. Auto-wait – avoid explicit waits when possible
5. Isolate tests – each test should be independent
6. CI parallelization – run tests in parallel for speed

References

• references/selectors.md – Selector patterns
• references/fixtures.md – Fixtures and setup