Integrating Playwright into Python Testing Frameworks
Introduction
Automation Testing has become a very important aspect of Software Development Life Cycle process after increasing adoption of Test Automation among agile teams. As the world is progressing the complexity of software applications are also increasing to meet the increasing demands of customers and organizations. To test more complex applications new automation testing tools are also emerging rapidly. Selenium has been ruling the test automation domain for good amount of years and now a days more open source tools are also being developed. Playwright is an open source tool that has become hugely popular among automation testers for effectively testing complex software applications thus ensuring software quality. In this blog we will be discussing about Playwright integration with python and the best practices needed to be followed.
What is Playwright?
Playwright is an open source freely available tool developed by microsoft. It is compatible with various programming languages like Java, Python, C# etc. and it has Apache 2.0 license.
Why Playwright?
Playwright is a newly developed automation tool and has rapidly become popular among automation testers. Automation testers who want to switch from selenium to playwright can easily do so as it supports multiple languages like Java, Python etc.It was first released in the year 2020 and since then it has become most popular. Playwright is chosen because of the following reasons.
- Has leverage over Devtool protocol for writing effective test automation scripts.
- Helps in simulation of more user specific test scenarios.
- It can control browser instead of depending on middle translation layer.
Features of Playwright
Playwright has various features which are as follows:
- Has iframe support
- Supports Page Object Model
- Has inbuild reports
- Supports various Selectors
- Can be effectively used for handling Shadow DOM
- Has Automatic wait feature
- Useful for retrying failed test scripts
- Used for taking screenshots of test scripts
Advantages of Playwright
- Easy Setup- As the installation process is not time consuming, playwright only needs the configuration to be set up whose process is easy. The installation steps varies based on the languages used in playwright.
- Support for multiple browsers- Playwright supports automation testing across multiple browsers like Chrome, Edge, WebKit and Firefox for performing parallel and cross browser automation.
- Compatible in multiple languages- Playwright supports various languages like java, python, typescript for effective execution of automated test scripts. Many open source automation testing tools lack this feature.
- Support various types of testing- Playwright supports component, integration, end to end system testing and api testing. It is also used for performing accessibility testing with the help of a third party tool.
- Supports parallel and cross browser automation testing- Playwright supports parallel testing which involves executing a test script across multiple browsers simultaneously with the help of browser context and cross browser compatibility testing involving test execution in multiple browsers one after another. This speeds testing process and becomes an important process especially when multiple webpages are needed to be tested simultaneously.
- Supports multiple tabs and browser windows- Playwright supports test automation across multiple browser windows and tabs which involve lauching of a new window and returning to the parent browser window. Playwright supports all different test cases for multiple windows and tabs.
- Has inbuild reporters- Playwright has inbuild test reporters like list, dot, JSON, JUnit etc. which give details of total test execution, number of test scripts passed and failed and the time duration of each test execution. It also supports external reporters like Allure Report.
- Supports CI/CD integration-It supports CI/CD integration with deployment tools like Jenkins. It also gives docker images for language bindings.
Limitations of Playwright
- Playwright is still relatively new and still evolving continuously and as a result cannot be used for existing automation frameworks.
- It is not compatible with Internet Explorer version 11
- Playwright does not support native mobile applications
- Since the playwright is new to the market it does not enjoy very large community support
Integration of Playwright with Python
Integration of Playwright with Python is a brilliant way for performing browser automation across multiple browsers. Below are the ways for integration of playwright with python.
- Installation of Playwright with Pytest-
a) First Playwright and Pytest should be installed
Syntax: pip install playwright pytest
b) Then all the important browser binaries needed to be installed
Syntax: python -m playwright install
The above syntax will install Chromium,Firefox, Webkit browsers and playwright can effectively interact with them.
- Creation of Playwright Fixture-In Pytest we can create Playwright Fixtures for setting up of browser instances.We can define a fixture for initiating playwright and browser before the start of each test execution and close the browser after test execution.
- Writing test cases using Playwright API- Using browser and page fixtures we can write automated tests by interacting with playwright API.
- Test Execution- We can execute playwright tests through command line interface. This will involve execution of test file, launching of browsers, performing user interactions on different components and closing of browser after completion of tests.
- Advanced Setup- The setup can be modified with more features as per requirements:
a) Headless Mode: By default playwright supports headless browser automation but we can also see the UI of browser by setting headless parameter as false.
b) Multiple Browsers: We can use Chromium, FireFox and Webkit for browser automation across multiple browsers.
c) Asynchronous Mode:
- Test Debugging: Screenshot capture features can be enabled for ensuring effective debugging.
- CI/CD integration- After setting up of test automation scripts they can be integrated with CI/CD pipeline like GitLab, Jenkins etc. for automatic test execution for every commit action. This ensures a cleaner way of browser automation within the python framework.
Conclusion
Playwright integration with python is an effective way of running automated test scripts thus ensuring delivery of quality software applications in short period. Remember to practice, stay updated with the latest trends in Python with Playwright Course, and maintain a positive attitude throughout your interview process. It also has auto wait functionality thus eliminating the usage of manual wait commands and removing the synchronization issues while testing complex functionalities of the application.
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