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BrowserType

BrowserType provides methods to launch a specific browser instance or connect to an existing one. The following is a typical example of using Playwright to drive automation:

import com.microsoft.playwright.*;

public class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try (Playwright playwright = Playwright.create()) {
      BrowserType chromium = playwright.chromium();
      Browser browser = chromium.launch();
      Page page = browser.newPage();
      page.navigate("https://example.com");
      // other actions...
      browser.close();
    }
  }
}

Methods​

connect​

Added before v1.9 browserType.connect

This method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance created via BrowserType.launchServer in Node.js.

note

The major and minor version of the Playwright instance that connects needs to match the version of Playwright that launches the browser (1.2.3 → is compatible with 1.2.x).

Usage

BrowserType.connect(wsEndpoint);
BrowserType.connect(wsEndpoint, options);

Arguments

  • wsEndpoint String Added in: v1.10#

    A Playwright browser websocket endpoint to connect to. You obtain this endpoint via BrowserServer.wsEndpoint.

  • options BrowserType.ConnectOptions (optional)

    • setExposeNetwork String (optional) Added in: v1.37#

      This option exposes network available on the connecting client to the browser being connected to. Consists of a list of rules separated by comma.

      Available rules:

      1. Hostname pattern, for example: example.com, *.org:99, x.*.y.com, *foo.org.
      2. IP literal, for example: 127.0.0.1, 0.0.0.0:99, [::1], [0:0::1]:99.
      3. <loopback> that matches local loopback interfaces: localhost, *.localhost, 127.0.0.1, [::1].

      Some common examples:

      1. "*" to expose all network.
      2. "<loopback>" to expose localhost network.
      3. "*.test.internal-domain,*.staging.internal-domain,<loopback>" to expose test/staging deployments and localhost.

    • setHeaders Map<String, String> (optional) Added in: v1.11#

      Additional HTTP headers to be sent with web socket connect request. Optional.

    • setSlowMo double (optional) Added in: v1.10#

      Slows down Playwright operations by the specified amount of milliseconds. Useful so that you can see what is going on. Defaults to 0.

    • setTimeout double (optional) Added in: v1.10#

      Maximum time in milliseconds to wait for the connection to be established. Defaults to 0 (no timeout).

Returns

connectOverCDP​

Added in: v1.9 browserType.connectOverCDP

This method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance using the Chrome DevTools Protocol.

The default browser context is accessible via Browser.contexts().

note

Connecting over the Chrome DevTools Protocol is only supported for Chromium-based browsers.

note

This connection is significantly lower fidelity than the Playwright protocol connection via BrowserType.connect(). If you are experiencing issues or attempting to use advanced functionality, you probably want to use BrowserType.connect().

Usage

Browser browser = playwright.chromium().connectOverCDP("http://localhost:9222");
BrowserContext defaultContext = browser.contexts().get(0);
Page page = defaultContext.pages().get(0);

Arguments

  • endpointURL String Added in: v1.11#

    A CDP websocket endpoint or http url to connect to. For example http://localhost:9222/ or ws://127.0.0.1:9222/devtools/browser/387adf4c-243f-4051-a181-46798f4a46f4.

  • options BrowserType.ConnectOverCDPOptions (optional)

    • setHeaders Map<String, String> (optional) Added in: v1.11#

      Additional HTTP headers to be sent with connect request. Optional.

    • setSlowMo double (optional) Added in: v1.11#

      Slows down Playwright operations by the specified amount of milliseconds. Useful so that you can see what is going on. Defaults to 0.

    • setTimeout double (optional) Added in: v1.11#

      Maximum time in milliseconds to wait for the connection to be established. Defaults to 30000 (30 seconds). Pass 0 to disable timeout.

Returns

executablePath​

Added before v1.9 browserType.executablePath

A path where Playwright expects to find a bundled browser executable.

Usage

BrowserType.executablePath();

Returns

launch​

Added before v1.9 browserType.launch

Returns the browser instance.

Usage

You can use setIgnoreDefaultArgs to filter out --mute-audio from default arguments:

// Or "firefox" or "webkit".
Browser browser = chromium.launch(new BrowserType.LaunchOptions()
  .setIgnoreDefaultArgs(Arrays.asList("--mute-audio")));

Chromium-only Playwright can also be used to control the Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browsers, but it works best with the version of Chromium it is bundled with. There is no guarantee it will work with any other version. Use setExecutablePath option with extreme caution.

If Google Chrome (rather than Chromium) is preferred, a Chrome Canary or Dev Channel build is suggested.

Stock browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are suitable for tests that require proprietary media codecs for video playback. See this article for other differences between Chromium and Chrome. This article describes some differences for Linux users.

Arguments

  • options BrowserType.LaunchOptions (optional)

    • setArgs List<String> (optional)#

      warning

      Use custom browser args at your own risk, as some of them may break Playwright functionality.

      Additional arguments to pass to the browser instance. The list of Chromium flags can be found here.

    • setChannel String (optional)#

      Browser distribution channel.

      Use "chromium" to opt in to new headless mode.

      Use "chrome", "chrome-beta", "chrome-dev", "chrome-canary", "msedge", "msedge-beta", "msedge-dev", or "msedge-canary" to use branded Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

    • setChromiumSandbox boolean (optional)#

      Enable Chromium sandboxing. Defaults to false.

    • setDevtools boolean (optional)#

      Deprecated

      Use debugging tools instead.

      Chromium-only Whether to auto-open a Developer Tools panel for each tab. If this option is true, the setHeadless option will be set false.

    • setDownloadsPath Path (optional)#

      If specified, accepted downloads are downloaded into this directory. Otherwise, temporary directory is created and is deleted when browser is closed. In either case, the downloads are deleted when the browser context they were created in is closed.

    • setEnv Map<String, String> (optional)#

      Specify environment variables that will be visible to the browser. Defaults to process.env.

    • setExecutablePath Path (optional)#

      Path to a browser executable to run instead of the bundled one. If setExecutablePath is a relative path, then it is resolved relative to the current working directory. Note that Playwright only works with the bundled Chromium, Firefox or WebKit, use at your own risk.

    • setFirefoxUserPrefs Map<String, Object> (optional)#

      Firefox user preferences. Learn more about the Firefox user preferences at about:config.

      You can also provide a path to a custom policies.json file via PLAYWRIGHT_FIREFOX_POLICIES_JSON environment variable.

    • setHandleSIGHUP boolean (optional)#

      Close the browser process on SIGHUP. Defaults to true.

    • setHandleSIGINT boolean (optional)#

      Close the browser process on Ctrl-C. Defaults to true.

    • setHandleSIGTERM boolean (optional)#

      Close the browser process on SIGTERM. Defaults to true.

    • setHeadless boolean (optional)#

      Whether to run browser in headless mode. More details for Chromium and Firefox. Defaults to true unless the setDevtools option is true.

    • setIgnoreAllDefaultArgs boolean (optional) Added in: v1.9#

      If true, Playwright does not pass its own configurations args and only uses the ones from setArgs. Dangerous option; use with care. Defaults to false.

    • setIgnoreDefaultArgs List<String> (optional)#

      If true, Playwright does not pass its own configurations args and only uses the ones from setArgs. Dangerous option; use with care.

    • setProxy Proxy (optional)#

      • setServer String

        Proxy to be used for all requests. HTTP and SOCKS proxies are supported, for example http://myproxy.com:3128 or socks5://myproxy.com:3128. Short form myproxy.com:3128 is considered an HTTP proxy.

      • setBypass String (optional)

        Optional comma-separated domains to bypass proxy, for example ".com, chromium.org, .domain.com".

      • setUsername String (optional)

        Optional username to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.

      • setPassword String (optional)

        Optional password to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.

      Network proxy settings.

    • setSlowMo double (optional)#

      Slows down Playwright operations by the specified amount of milliseconds. Useful so that you can see what is going on.

    • setTimeout double (optional)#

      Maximum time in milliseconds to wait for the browser instance to start. Defaults to 30000 (30 seconds). Pass 0 to disable timeout.

    • setTracesDir Path (optional)#

      If specified, traces are saved into this directory.

Returns

launchPersistentContext​

Added before v1.9 browserType.launchPersistentContext

Returns the persistent browser context instance.

Launches browser that uses persistent storage located at userDataDir and returns the only context. Closing this context will automatically close the browser.

Usage

BrowserType.launchPersistentContext(userDataDir);
BrowserType.launchPersistentContext(userDataDir, options);

Arguments

  • userDataDir Path#

    Path to a User Data Directory, which stores browser session data like cookies and local storage. Pass an empty string to create a temporary directory.

    More details for Chromium and Firefox. Chromium's user data directory is the parent directory of the "Profile Path" seen at chrome://version.

    Note that browsers do not allow launching multiple instances with the same User Data Directory.

    warning

    Chromium/Chrome: Due to recent Chrome policy changes, automating the default Chrome user profile is not supported. Pointing userDataDir to Chrome's main "User Data" directory (the profile used for your regular browsing) may result in pages not loading or the browser exiting. Create and use a separate directory (for example, an empty folder) as your automation profile instead. See https://developer.chrome.com/blog/remote-debugging-port for details.

  • options BrowserType.LaunchPersistentContextOptions (optional)

    • setAcceptDownloads boolean (optional)#

      Whether to automatically download all the attachments. Defaults to true where all the downloads are accepted.

    • setArgs List<String> (optional)#

      warning

      Use custom browser args at your own risk, as some of them may break Playwright functionality.

      Additional arguments to pass to the browser instance. The list of Chromium flags can be found here.

    • setBaseURL String (optional)#

      When using Page.navigate(), Page.route(), Page.waitForURL(), Page.waitForRequest(), or Page.waitForResponse() it takes the base URL in consideration by using the URL() constructor for building the corresponding URL. Unset by default. Examples:

      • baseURL: http://localhost:3000 and navigating to /bar.html results in http://localhost:3000/bar.html
      • baseURL: http://localhost:3000/foo/ and navigating to ./bar.html results in http://localhost:3000/foo/bar.html
      • baseURL: http://localhost:3000/foo (without trailing slash) and navigating to ./bar.html results in http://localhost:3000/bar.html

    • setBypassCSP boolean (optional)#

      Toggles bypassing page's Content-Security-Policy. Defaults to false.

    • setChannel String (optional)#

      Browser distribution channel.

      Use "chromium" to opt in to new headless mode.

      Use "chrome", "chrome-beta", "chrome-dev", "chrome-canary", "msedge", "msedge-beta", "msedge-dev", or "msedge-canary" to use branded Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

    • setChromiumSandbox boolean (optional)#

      Enable Chromium sandboxing. Defaults to false.

    • setClientCertificates List<ClientCertificates> (optional) Added in: 1.46#

      • setOrigin String

        Exact origin that the certificate is valid for. Origin includes https protocol, a hostname and optionally a port.

      • setCertPath Path (optional)

        Path to the file with the certificate in PEM format.

      • setCert byte[] (optional)

        Direct value of the certificate in PEM format.

      • setKeyPath Path (optional)

        Path to the file with the private key in PEM format.

      • setKey byte[] (optional)

        Direct value of the private key in PEM format.

      • setPfxPath Path (optional)

        Path to the PFX or PKCS12 encoded private key and certificate chain.

      • setPfx byte[] (optional)

        Direct value of the PFX or PKCS12 encoded private key and certificate chain.

      • setPassphrase String (optional)

        Passphrase for the private key (PEM or PFX).

      TLS Client Authentication allows the server to request a client certificate and verify it.

      Details

      An array of client certificates to be used. Each certificate object must have either both certPath and keyPath, a single pfxPath, or their corresponding direct value equivalents (cert and key, or pfx). Optionally, passphrase property should be provided if the certificate is encrypted. The origin property should be provided with an exact match to the request origin that the certificate is valid for.

      Client certificate authentication is only active when at least one client certificate is provided. If you want to reject all client certificates sent by the server, you need to provide a client certificate with an origin that does not match any of the domains you plan to visit.

      note

      When using WebKit on macOS, accessing localhost will not pick up client certificates. You can make it work by replacing localhost with local.playwright.

    • setColorScheme null | enum ColorScheme { LIGHT, DARK, NO_PREFERENCE } (optional)#

      Emulates prefers-colors-scheme media feature, supported values are 'light' and 'dark'. See Page.emulateMedia() for more details. Passing null resets emulation to system defaults. Defaults to 'light'.

    • setContrast null | enum Contrast { NO_PREFERENCE, MORE } (optional)#

      Emulates 'prefers-contrast' media feature, supported values are 'no-preference', 'more'. See Page.emulateMedia() for more details. Passing null resets emulation to system defaults. Defaults to 'no-preference'.

    • setDeviceScaleFactor double (optional)#

      Specify device scale factor (can be thought of as dpr). Defaults to 1. Learn more about emulating devices with device scale factor.

    • setDevtools boolean (optional)#

      Deprecated

      Use debugging tools instead.

      Chromium-only Whether to auto-open a Developer Tools panel for each tab. If this option is true, the setHeadless option will be set false.

    • setDownloadsPath Path (optional)#

      If specified, accepted downloads are downloaded into this directory. Otherwise, temporary directory is created and is deleted when browser is closed. In either case, the downloads are deleted when the browser context they were created in is closed.

    • setEnv Map<String, String> (optional)#

      Specify environment variables that will be visible to the browser. Defaults to process.env.

    • setExecutablePath Path (optional)#

      Path to a browser executable to run instead of the bundled one. If setExecutablePath is a relative path, then it is resolved relative to the current working directory. Note that Playwright only works with the bundled Chromium, Firefox or WebKit, use at your own risk.

    • setExtraHTTPHeaders Map<String, String> (optional)#

      An object containing additional HTTP headers to be sent with every request. Defaults to none.

    • setFirefoxUserPrefs Map<String, Object> (optional) Added in: v1.40#

      Firefox user preferences. Learn more about the Firefox user preferences at about:config.

      You can also provide a path to a custom policies.json file via PLAYWRIGHT_FIREFOX_POLICIES_JSON environment variable.

    • setForcedColors null | enum ForcedColors { ACTIVE, NONE } (optional)#

      Emulates 'forced-colors' media feature, supported values are 'active', 'none'. See Page.emulateMedia() for more details. Passing null resets emulation to system defaults. Defaults to 'none'.

    • setGeolocation Geolocation (optional)#

      • setLatitude double

        Latitude between -90 and 90.

      • setLongitude double

        Longitude between -180 and 180.

      • setAccuracy double (optional)

        Non-negative accuracy value. Defaults to 0.

    • setHandleSIGHUP boolean (optional)#

      Close the browser process on SIGHUP. Defaults to true.

    • setHandleSIGINT boolean (optional)#

      Close the browser process on Ctrl-C. Defaults to true.

    • setHandleSIGTERM boolean (optional)#

      Close the browser process on SIGTERM. Defaults to true.

    • setHasTouch boolean (optional)#

      Specifies if viewport supports touch events. Defaults to false. Learn more about mobile emulation.

    • setHeadless boolean (optional)#

      Whether to run browser in headless mode. More details for Chromium and Firefox. Defaults to true unless the setDevtools option is true.

    • setHttpCredentials HttpCredentials (optional)#

      • setUsername String

      • setPassword String

      • setOrigin String (optional)

        Restrain sending http credentials on specific origin (scheme://host:port).

      • setSend enum HttpCredentialsSend { UNAUTHORIZED, ALWAYS } (optional)

        This option only applies to the requests sent from corresponding APIRequestContext and does not affect requests sent from the browser. 'always' - Authorization header with basic authentication credentials will be sent with the each API request. 'unauthorized - the credentials are only sent when 401 (Unauthorized) response with WWW-Authenticate header is received. Defaults to 'unauthorized'.

      Credentials for HTTP authentication. If no origin is specified, the username and password are sent to any servers upon unauthorized responses.

    • setIgnoreAllDefaultArgs boolean (optional) Added in: v1.9#

      If true, Playwright does not pass its own configurations args and only uses the ones from setArgs. Dangerous option; use with care. Defaults to false.

    • setIgnoreDefaultArgs List<String> (optional)#

      If true, Playwright does not pass its own configurations args and only uses the ones from setArgs. Dangerous option; use with care.

    • setIgnoreHTTPSErrors boolean (optional)#

      Whether to ignore HTTPS errors when sending network requests. Defaults to false.

    • setIsMobile boolean (optional)#

      Whether the meta viewport tag is taken into account and touch events are enabled. isMobile is a part of device, so you don't actually need to set it manually. Defaults to false and is not supported in Firefox. Learn more about mobile emulation.

    • setJavaScriptEnabled boolean (optional)#

      Whether or not to enable JavaScript in the context. Defaults to true. Learn more about disabling JavaScript.

    • setLocale String (optional)#

      Specify user locale, for example en-GB, de-DE, etc. Locale will affect navigator.language value, Accept-Language request header value as well as number and date formatting rules. Defaults to the system default locale. Learn more about emulation in our emulation guide.

    • setOffline boolean (optional)#

      Whether to emulate network being offline. Defaults to false. Learn more about network emulation.

    • setPermissions List<String> (optional)#

      A list of permissions to grant to all pages in this context. See BrowserContext.grantPermissions() for more details. Defaults to none.

    • setProxy Proxy (optional)#

      • setServer String

        Proxy to be used for all requests. HTTP and SOCKS proxies are supported, for example http://myproxy.com:3128 or socks5://myproxy.com:3128. Short form myproxy.com:3128 is considered an HTTP proxy.

      • setBypass String (optional)

        Optional comma-separated domains to bypass proxy, for example ".com, chromium.org, .domain.com".

      • setUsername String (optional)

        Optional username to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.

      • setPassword String (optional)

        Optional password to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.

      Network proxy settings.

    • setRecordHarContent enum HarContentPolicy { OMIT, EMBED, ATTACH } (optional)#

      Optional setting to control resource content management. If omit is specified, content is not persisted. If attach is specified, resources are persisted as separate files and all of these files are archived along with the HAR file. Defaults to embed, which stores content inline the HAR file as per HAR specification.

    • setRecordHarMode enum HarMode { FULL, MINIMAL } (optional)#

      When set to minimal, only record information necessary for routing from HAR. This omits sizes, timing, page, cookies, security and other types of HAR information that are not used when replaying from HAR. Defaults to full.

    • setRecordHarOmitContent boolean (optional)#

      Optional setting to control whether to omit request content from the HAR. Defaults to false.

    • setRecordHarPath Path (optional)#

      Enables HAR recording for all pages into the specified HAR file on the filesystem. If not specified, the HAR is not recorded. Make sure to call BrowserContext.close() for the HAR to be saved.

    • setRecordHarUrlFilter String | Pattern (optional)#

    • setRecordVideoDir Path (optional)#

      Enables video recording for all pages into the specified directory. If not specified videos are not recorded. Make sure to call BrowserContext.close() for videos to be saved.

    • setRecordVideoSize RecordVideoSize (optional)#

      • setWidth int

        Video frame width.

      • setHeight int

        Video frame height.

      Dimensions of the recorded videos. If not specified the size will be equal to viewport scaled down to fit into 800x800. If viewport is not configured explicitly the video size defaults to 800x450. Actual picture of each page will be scaled down if necessary to fit the specified size.

    • setReducedMotion null | enum ReducedMotion { REDUCE, NO_PREFERENCE } (optional)#

      Emulates 'prefers-reduced-motion' media feature, supported values are 'reduce', 'no-preference'. See Page.emulateMedia() for more details. Passing null resets emulation to system defaults. Defaults to 'no-preference'.

    • setScreenSize ScreenSize (optional)#

      • setWidth int

        page width in pixels.

      • setHeight int

        page height in pixels.

      Emulates consistent window screen size available inside web page via window.screen. Is only used when the setViewportSize is set.

    • setServiceWorkers enum ServiceWorkerPolicy { ALLOW, BLOCK } (optional)#

      Whether to allow sites to register Service workers. Defaults to 'allow'.

      • 'allow': Service Workers can be registered.
      • 'block': Playwright will block all registration of Service Workers.

    • setSlowMo double (optional)#

      Slows down Playwright operations by the specified amount of milliseconds. Useful so that you can see what is going on.

    • setStrictSelectors boolean (optional)#

      If set to true, enables strict selectors mode for this context. In the strict selectors mode all operations on selectors that imply single target DOM element will throw when more than one element matches the selector. This option does not affect any Locator APIs (Locators are always strict). Defaults to false. See Locator to learn more about the strict mode.

    • setTimeout double (optional)#

      Maximum time in milliseconds to wait for the browser instance to start. Defaults to 30000 (30 seconds). Pass 0 to disable timeout.

    • setTimezoneId String (optional)#

      Changes the timezone of the context. See ICU's metaZones.txt for a list of supported timezone IDs. Defaults to the system timezone.

    • setTracesDir Path (optional)#

      If specified, traces are saved into this directory.

    • setUserAgent String (optional)#

      Specific user agent to use in this context.

    • setViewportSize null | ViewportSize (optional)#

      • setWidth int

        page width in pixels.

      • setHeight int

        page height in pixels.

      Emulates consistent viewport for each page. Defaults to an 1280x720 viewport. Use null to disable the consistent viewport emulation. Learn more about viewport emulation.

      note

      The null value opts out from the default presets, makes viewport depend on the host window size defined by the operating system. It makes the execution of the tests non-deterministic.

Returns

name​

Added before v1.9 browserType.name

Returns browser name. For example: 'chromium', 'webkit' or 'firefox'.

Usage

BrowserType.name();

Returns