Getting Started With Playwright Cross Browser Testing

Playwright Cross Browser – Testing Testing the functionality and user experience of a website across different browsers can be a daunting task for web developers.

It gets exaggerated particularly when there are numerous browsers and platforms to consider.

Knowing how to properly test websites for cross browser compatibility is essential to ensure that all visitors have a positive user experience.

In the software development life cycle, a shift in testing gained popularity with respect to the increase in the number of testing frameworks.

Among those, Playwright cross-browser testing framework is an efficient and comprehensive solution for web testing. It allows developers to ensure that their websites are fully compatible with a range of browsers and platforms.

Playwright being one of the best options for cross-browser testing is routinely introduced into the market.

According to GitHub, the Playwright framework is gaining popularity with 39.3k Star, 1.8k Fork, and 12.2k Active Users.

In the search for writing reliable and scalable fast test automation, the Playwright automation framework streamlines cross-browser testing.

In this blog post, we will explore the basics of using Playwright for cross-browser testing, including how to get started and the key features of the platform.

With the help of Playwright, developers can rest assured knowing that their websites are compatible with all major browsers and platforms.

So let’s get started!

What is Playwright?

Playwright is a Node.js library that helps developers automate the end-to-end testing of web applications.

Developed by the Microsoft Edge team, Playwright is a powerful framework that enables developers to write tests that are more reliable and easier to maintain than ever before.

It is a modern, cross-platform, and open-source library that supports Chrome, Safari, Firefox, WebKit, and Microsoft Edge browsers. So, you can write the tests once and then run them in multiple browsers.

With Playwright, developers can easily write tests that will detect problems and enable them to fix them quickly.

It allows automating a wide range of scenarios across diverse browsers with a single API. Hence, it provides reliable and fast execution of cross-browser testing.

This framework is built to deliver parallelized and quick automation in local and cloud environments. Among those, a cloud-based platform like LambdaTest allows running Playwright cross browser testing across 40+ real browsers and OS.

Features of Playwright

Playwright is designed to help web developers and testers to create, maintain, and run automated tests with ease.

It enables you to write code that can automate any web application with speed and accuracy. The framework is built on the same architecture as the Puppeteer and provides the same API for automation.

Playwright provides a wide range of features that make it easier for web developers and testers to automate their web testing.

Here are a few key features of a Playwright:

• Rather than fiddling with code in test scripts to handle delays, Playwright carries out various verifications on elements before executing certain tasks. This makes tests more reliable and easier to maintain.
• Testing scripts can modify the circumstances for the application being tested by simulating file uploads and downloads, using various authentication techniques, intercepting network requests, and substituting request responses.
• Browser contexts enable testers to replicate multi-page sessions, so you can make sure all your pages can handle anonymized browsing. This is a great way to ensure persistent sessions between tabs.
• Certain permissions, such as notifications and geolocation, are usually enabled and simulated; users also have the option to alter certain settings, like switching to dark mode or printing.
• Presently, Playwright supports Firefox, Chromium, and Web Toolkit (Safari).
• Integrating CI/CD is just like any other testing framework; it runs without any hiccups and everything runs as expected.
• Provides multi-language support. You can use the Playwright API in JavaScript, Python, TypeScript,.NET, and Java.

What is the need For Cross Browser Testing using Playwright?

Cross-browser testing has become an essential part of the web development process, due to the number of different web browsers available to users.

Every web browser has its own unique features and capabilities, which can affect the way a website looks and functions.

As such, it is important that web developers ensure that their websites are tested across all major browsers to ensure compatibility.

In recent years, the emergence of Playwright has made cross-browser testing easier and more efficient.

Playwright is a framework for automation testing that works across all major browsers, making it a valuable tool for web developers.

Playwright is a modern, open-source automation library for testing web applications across different types of browsers.

It helps automate the testing of web applications in multiple browsers, ensuring that software is cross-browser compatible and functions properly across different browsers.

Steps To Execute Cross-Browser Testing Using Playwright

1. Install Playwright

To execute cross-browser testing, the first step is to install Playwright. It is a Node.js library that enables automated testing of web applications across different browsers.

It can be easily installed using NPM, using the command “npm install –save-dev @playwright/test”.

2. Write the Test Script

After installing Playwright, the next step is to write the test script. The script should be written in a language supported by Playwright, such as JavaScript, TypeScript, or Python.

The script should include the specific steps to test the web app across all browsers.

3. Execute the Test Script

Once the test script is written, it can be executed using Playwright. It can be done by running the commands in the terminal or by running the script directly.

For example, if you have a test script written in Python, you can use the command “playwright run my_python_script.py”.

You can also use the command “playwright launch my_python_script.py” to launch the browser with the specified test script.

The Playwright allows the test script to be executed in multiple browsers concurrently. This makes cross-browser testing simpler and more efficient.

4. Configure the test environment

Configure your test environment by specifying the desired browsers in the playwright.config.js file. This allows you to customize the testing parameters, such as browser selection, timeout, and other options.

5. Run your tests

Now, you can initiate your tests by executing the test script you created earlier. You can run your tests on multiple browsers in parallel.

You can also use a cloud provider to run cross-browser tests on a variety of operating systems and devices.

Playwright also supports headless execution, so you can run tests without actually launching the browser. After the tests have run, the results can be accessed for further analysis.

6. Analyze the results

After the tests are completed, the test results can be analyzed to identify issues that may have not been caught in the manual testing.

This can help detect inconsistencies in how the application performs in different browsers.

It can also help identify potential compatibility issues that should be addressed before the application is released.

Furthermore, the test results can also be used to compare performance across different browsers, allowing developers to make improvements to their applications to ensure the best possible user experience.

Best Practice of Playwright Cross-Browser Testing

Considering cross-browser testing using Playwright, it is crucial to follow best practices for the seamless working of web applications on diverse browsers. Some of those are explained below:

• It is crucial to conduct cross-browser testing in multiple browsers like Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and others. Each of those has its respective rendering engine and performs differently.
• You can use headless mode to run tests with Playwright. It will allow the browser to run without GUI. In addition, it provides good speed for testing and lowering resource usage.
• Playwright offers certain waitFor* methods to allow waiting for specific events. Some of those methods include waitForSelector, waitForNavigation, and waitForTimeout. With the use of such methods, you will be able to write reliable tests with less probability of getting failed due to timing issues.
• You can use multiple browser contexts created with Playwright. It helps to isolate your test and eliminate any interference between them.
• Using the feature of taking screenshots with Playwright for visual validation. Captured screenshots at diverse stages of testing for visual validation help ensure that your software application looks alike across different browsers.
• With Playwright you can retry the failed test cases a certain number of times before ending or giving up on the test. Further, it can be helpful in running the test on a slow or unstable network.
• Using cloud testing services can be one of the best practices. For example, in case you do not have access to all browsers to test on, using a cloud testing platform like LambdaTest can be helpful for cross browser testing. You can run your test on multiple devices and browsers. Here is what makes the use of Playwright for cross-browser testing with LambdaTest easy.
  • LambdaTest’s real device cloud gives access to over 3000 real browsers and devices for on-demand testing.
  • It eases Playwright debugging with logs, video recording, and test reporting features.
  • Allows secure tests of websites hosted on local machines and staging environments.

Conclusion

Playwright offers a unique combination of features that make it an incredibly versatile framework for cross-browser testing. It provides multiple language support which gives it more weightage when compared with Puppeteer and Cypress.

Thanks to its ease of use, even those with little experience will find it easy to learn and get up and running quickly. Additionally, the time it takes to build a large suite of tests is considerably lower than with other frameworks.

Hope this blog helps you, and may Playwright be at the top of your automation frameworks to use in the future.

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