Test generator
Playwright comes with the ability to generate tests out of the box and is a great way to quickly get started with testing. It will open two windows, a browser window where you interact with the website you wish to test and the Playwright Inspector window where you can record your tests, copy the tests, clear your tests as well as change the language of your tests.
You will learn
Running Codegen
Use the codegen command to run the test generator followed by the URL of the website you want to generate tests for. The URL is optional and you can always run the command without it and then add the URL directly into the browser window instead.
mvn exec:java -e -D exec.mainClass=com.microsoft.playwright.CLI -D exec.args="codegen demo.playwright.dev/todomvc"
Recording a test
Run codegen and perform actions in the browser. Playwright will generate the code for the user interactions. Codegen will look at the rendered page and figure out the recommended locator, prioritizing role, text and test id locators. If the generator identifies multiple elements matching the locator, it will improve the locator to make it resilient and uniquely identify the target element, therefore eliminating and reducing test(s) failing and flaking due to locators.
Generating locators
You can generate locators with the test generator.
- Press the
'Record'button to stop the recording and the'Pick Locator'button will appear. - Click on the
'Pick Locator'button and then hover over elements in the browser window to see the locator highlighted underneath each element. - To choose a locator click on the element you would like to locate and the code for that locator will appear in the field next to the Pick Locator button.
- You can then edit the locator in this field to fine tune it or use the copy button to copy it and paste it into your code.
Emulation
You can also generate tests using emulation so as to generate a test for a specific viewport, device, color scheme, as well as emulate the geolocation, language or timezone. The test generator can also generate a test while preserving authenticated state. Check out the Test Generator guide to learn more.