Introduction to Playwright Test Runner

Introduction to Playwright Test Runner

When it comes to modern end-to-end (E2E) testing of web applications, Playwright has emerged as a powerful and reliable automation framework. Developed by Microsoft, Playwright supports cross-browser testing and provides an easy-to-use API for automating web interactions.


One of Playwright's standout features is its built-in Playwright Test Runner—a complete test automation solution with all the features you need to write, execute, and manage tests efficiently.


What is the Playwright Test Runner?

The Playwright Test Runner is a Node.js-based testing framework that comes bundled with Playwright. It is designed specifically for running automated browser tests and includes:


Built-in support for test suites and assertions


Parallel and cross-browser execution


Automatic waiting for elements


Powerful configuration and reporting tools


In short, it eliminates the need to integrate external test runners like Jest or Mocha.


Key Features

Here are some major features of the Playwright Test Runner:


✅ Cross-Browser Testing

Test your app on Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit with a single test suite.


✅ Parallel Test Execution

Run tests in parallel across multiple worker processes to speed up execution.


✅ Built-In Fixtures

Reusable setup and teardown logic to manage test state and browser contexts.


✅ Auto-Waiting

Playwright automatically waits for elements to be ready before interacting—reducing flaky tests.


✅ Flexible Test Configuration

Customize timeouts, retries, browsers, and base URLs using the playwright.config.ts file.


✅ Rich HTML Reports

Generate interactive HTML reports to view test results visually.


Installing Playwright and Test Runner

To get started, install Playwright using npm:


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npm init playwright@latest

This command sets up a new project with Playwright and the test runner, along with example tests and configuration.


Writing Your First Test

Here’s an example test using the Playwright Test Runner:


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


test('Google homepage title should contain "Google"', async ({ page }) => {

  await page.goto('https://www.google.com');

  await expect(page).toHaveTitle(/Google/);

});

This test opens the Google homepage and checks if the title contains the word “Google”.


Running Tests

Use the following command to run your tests:


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npx playwright test

To run tests in a specific browser:


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npx playwright test --project=chromium

To view the HTML report:


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npx playwright show-report

Conclusion

The Playwright Test Runner provides everything a modern QA engineer or developer needs for reliable end-to-end testing. With its speed, flexibility, and powerful features like auto-waiting and parallel execution, Playwright is an excellent choice for testing modern web applications.


If you’re looking to simplify your automation setup while ensuring robust cross-browser testing, the Playwright Test Runner is worth exploring.

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