Overview of Playwright

Playwright: Microsoft’s End-to-End Testing & Automation Framework

What is Playwright?

Playwright is an open-source testing and browser automation framework created by Microsoft. It allows developers and testers to automate web applications across multiple browsers (Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit) with a single API.
It’s often compared to Selenium and Cypress but is known for faster execution, modern architecture, and powerful cross-browser support.

🔹 Key Features

Cross-Browser Support: Works with Chromium (Chrome/Edge), Firefox, WebKit (Safari).
Cross-Platform: Supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, etc.).
Multi-Language Support: Officially supports JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, .NET (C#), and Java.
Auto-Waiting: No need for manual waits; Playwright waits for elements to be ready.
Headless & Headed Mode: Run tests in both invisible (headless) or visible browser modes.
Mobile Emulation: Simulate mobile devices, geolocation, permissions, etc.
Network Control: Intercept, modify, or mock API responses.
Test Isolation: Each test runs in a new browser context (fresh cookies/storage).
Powerful Debugging: Tracing, screenshots, videos, codegen (npx playwright codegen generates scripts automatically).
Parallel Execution: Run tests concurrently across browsers/devices.

How to Start with Playwright

1. Installation

npm init playwright@latest

(or install manually: npm install -D @playwright/test)

2. Create a Test

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

test('homepage has title', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://playwright.dev/');
  await expect(page).toHaveTitle(/Playwright/);
});

3. Run Tests

npx playwright test

Skills Required

JavaScript/TypeScript (core), but can also use Python, C#, or Java.
Knowledge of DOM, CSS selectors, XPath.
Understanding of asynchronous programming (async/await).
Familiarity with CI/CD tools for integration.
Optional: API testing, mocking, and automation best practices.

Infrastructure & Setup Needs

Node.js environment.
Browsers (installed via Playwright CLI: npx playwright install).
Editor/IDE (VS Code recommended).
CI/CD runners (Docker images available: mcr.microsoft.com/playwright).
Cloud/browser grid support (BrowserStack, LambdaTest, Sauce Labs, etc.).

Cost

Free & Open Source (Apache 2.0 license).
Cost may come from:
- Test infrastructure (servers, CI/CD runners, cloud services).
- Parallel execution infrastructure (if scaling large test suites).

Time to Implement

POC setup: 1–2 days.
Small project integration: 1–2 weeks.
Enterprise-level adoption: 1–2 months (with CI/CD, parallel runs, reporting, and governance).

Potential Use Cases

✅ UI automation (cross-browser, cross-platform).
✅ End-to-end (E2E) functional testing.
✅ API testing combined with UI tests.
✅ Regression testing automation.
✅ Visual testing (screenshots/videos).
✅ Mobile device emulation and geolocation testing.
✅ Load and performance monitoring (basic).
✅ Web scraping & data extraction.

Benefits

🚀 Faster & more reliable than Selenium (modern architecture).
🔁 Single API for multiple browsers and devices.
🤖 Auto-waiting reduces flaky tests.
🔎 Built-in tracing, screenshots, and video recording for debugging.
🧩 Works seamlessly in CI/CD pipelines and with modern dev workflows.
🌍 Supports multiple languages, making it adaptable across teams.

Comparison table (Playwright vs Selenium vs Cypress)

Summary:

Playwright = Modern, fast, CI/CD friendly, strong for enterprise + cross-browser.
Selenium = Legacy king, supports the widest ecosystem & languages, but slower.
Cypress = Developer-friendly, fast, but limited in browsers & ecosystem.

Playwright CI/CD Integration for Intelligent Automation Projects

Playwright integrates seamlessly into DevOps pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, GitLab CI, CircleCI, etc.). Below is a step-by-step flow tailored for enterprise Intelligent Automation practices:

🔹 1. Test Project Setup

Create a Playwright project: npm init playwright@latest
Define test suites (UI/E2E/API).
Store tests in repo (/tests folder).

🔹 2. CI/CD Pipeline Stages

Typical CI/CD pipeline with Playwright:

Source Code Checkout
- Fetch repo (GitHub/GitLab/Azure Repos).
- Pull Playwright test scripts.
Install Dependencies npm ci npx playwright install --with-deps
Build & Deploy (Optional)
- Deploy app to test/stage environment.
Run Tests (Playwright)npx playwright test --reporter=html
- Parallel execution enabled by default.
- Generates reports (HTML/Allure/JSON).
Artifacts & Reporting
- Save screenshots, videos, and traces for failed tests.
- Push results to reporting dashboards.
Notifications
- Slack/Teams/Jira integration for failed builds.
- Automatic defect creation (if linked to Jira/ALM).

🔹 3. Infrastructure Options

Local: Run tests on developer machines.
Dockerized: Use official Playwright Docker images (mcr.microsoft.com/playwright).
Cloud/Parallel Execution: Integrate with BrowserStack, Sauce Labs, or internal test grids for scale.

🔹 4. Example CI/CD Pipelines

✅ GitHub Actions (Playwright)

name: Playwright Tests

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: 18
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npx playwright install --with-deps
      - run: npx playwright test --reporter=html

✅ Jenkins (Playwright)

pipeline {
  agent any
  stages {
    stage('Checkout') {
      steps {
        git 'https://github.com/your-org/your-repo.git'
      }
    }
    stage('Install') {
      steps {
        sh 'npm ci'
        sh 'npx playwright install --with-deps'
      }
    }
    stage('Test') {
      steps {
        sh 'npx playwright test --reporter=html'
      }
    }
    stage('Archive Results') {
      steps {
        archiveArtifacts 'playwright-report/**'
      }
    }
  }
}

🔹 5. Intelligent Automation Use Cases

Regression Automation for RPA bots (ensure UI didn’t break after deployment).
Hybrid Testing: API + UI + RPA flows combined in CI/CD.
Continuous Monitoring: Run scheduled tests against production apps for availability checks.
Agentic AI Integration: Validate bot-triggered transactions (Playwright runs UI validations, RPA executes backend).

✅ Playwright fits naturally into an Intelligent Automation CoE because it:

Reduces flaky UI automation (vs Selenium).
Is CI/CD-first, making DevOps adoption easier.
Supports RPA validation pipelines (e.g., UiPath bots + Playwright checks).