Any platform / Any Browser / Native Mobile Browser [ Zero Additional Cost Solution ]

Playwright JavaScript TestAutomation Coding

8 years ago, when I started my first automation project POC; even the limited scope lead to demanding complex configuration of basic setup of test automation environment for example Web Application testing using Selenium WebDriver may it be the Java / C# as a scripting language.

The complex configurations in the past took more time as compare to creating actual test automation scripts. Like setup of IDEs w.r.t particular scripting language and the list of plugins required to make your tests work the way you want them to. Last but not the least, in order to view the end results you have to code the particular report template details just with the basic information of test results until and unless you end up relying on another plugin for reports itself.

Lately, the recent advancements have helped SDET's to break free from the boring and non-productive activities and even get rid of the initial costs like purchasing a particular license or a tool.

Breaking free from the shackles of platform dependency is something that comes at the cost of maintaining multiple test scripts for different platforms or different plugins which leads to extra cost in terms of time, money and resources.

What if you could do all of the that with a zero cost?

Yes! this is possible in case of modern web Applications. You can ensure end-to-end testing of modern web apps with the support of cross platform and multiple browser support. Furthermore, this will also cover the Mobile Native Web.

Microsoft Playwright, some key aspects to be considered:

Playwright enables fast, reliable end-to-end testing of web applications with following additional features:

• Cross-browser: Playwright supports all modern rendering engines including Chromium, WebKit (Safari), and Firefox.
• Cross-platform: Test on Windows, Linux, and macOS, locally or on CI, headless or headed.
• Cross-language: Use the Playwright API in TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, .NET, Java.
• Test Mobile Web: Native mobile emulation of Google Chrome for Android and Mobile Safari. The same rendering engine works on your Desktop and in the Cloud.
• Execution Trace: Configure test retry strategy, capture execution trace, videos, screenshots to eliminate flakes.
• Trusted events: Hover elements, interact with dynamic controls, produce trusted events. Playwright uses real browser input pipeline indistinguishable from the real user.
• Test frames, pierce Shadow DOM: Playwright selectors pierce shadow DOM and allow entering frames seamlessly.
• Browser contexts: Playwright creates a browser context for each test. Browser context is equivalent to a brand new browser profile. This delivers full test isolation with zero overhead. Creating a new browser context only takes a handful of milliseconds.
• Log in once: Save the authentication state of the context and reuse it in all the tests. This bypasses repetitive log-in operations in each test, yet delivers full isolation of independent tests.

Furthermore

• Setup Environment (Installation & Configuration) in a matter of couple of minutes & Run your tests.
• Create test script the way you want: POM, BDD, TDD etc.
• View Comprehensive Test Report without having to write or code anything.
• Create test scripts in no time and Records the actual Execution or Retry Event along with Complete Trace with just a yes/no configuration. No plugins required.
• Run tests on Multiple browsers / Platforms without configuring each individual browser drivers.

All of this will be covered in the upcoming article …(A Quick Guide to Microsoft Playwright).