Step-by-Step Guide to Playwright Automation with JavaScript

Playwright is a powerful, modern web automation framework by Microsoft, allowing developers to automate browser interactions using JavaScript. It supports multiple browsers like Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit, making it a versatile tool for testing and automation. This guide will walk you through setting up Playwright with JavaScript and provide code snippets to get you started.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:

• Node.js (version 12 or higher)
• npm (Node Package Manager)

Step 1: Setting Up Your Project

1. Create a new directory for your project:

2. Initialize a new Node.js project:

3. Install Playwright:

Step 2: Writing Your First Playwright Script

1. Create a new JavaScript file, e.g., index.js:

2. Open index.js and add the following code:

This script does the following:

• Launches a new Chromium browser instance.
• Opens a new page and navigates to https://example.com.
• Takes a screenshot of the webpage and saves it as example.png.
• Closes the browser.

Step 3: Running Your Script

To execute your Playwright script, run the following command in your terminal:

Step 4: Interacting with Web Elements

Playwright allows you to interact with web elements easily. Let's extend our script to perform a search on a website.

1. Modify index.js to perform a search on DuckDuckGo:

Step 5: Running Tests with Assertions

To perform assertions in your tests, you can use Playwright's built-in assertions or integrate with testing frameworks like Jest or Mocha.

1. Install Jest:

2. Modify your script to include assertions:

3. Add a test script to your 'package.json':

4. Run your tests:

Conclusion

Congratulations! You've now set up Playwright for JavaScript, written your first automation script, interacted with web elements, and performed assertions using Jest. Playwright offers a rich API and supports multiple languages and frameworks, making it a powerful tool for automating and testing web applications.

Continue exploring Playwright's documentation and features to build more advanced and robust automation scripts. Happy testing!