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Tracing

API for collecting and saving Playwright traces. Playwright traces can be opened in Trace Viewer after Playwright script runs.

Start recording a trace before performing actions. At the end, stop tracing and save it to a file.

browser = chromium.launch()
context = browser.new_context()
context.tracing.start(screenshots=True, snapshots=True)
page = context.new_page()
page.goto("https://playwright.dev")
context.tracing.stop(path = "trace.zip")

Methods​

group​

Added in: v1.49 tracing.group
caution

Use test.step instead when available.

Creates a new group within the trace, assigning any subsequent API calls to this group, until tracing.group_end() is called. Groups can be nested and will be visible in the trace viewer.

Usage

# All actions between group and group_end
# will be shown in the trace viewer as a group.
page.context.tracing.group("Open Playwright.dev > API")
page.goto("https://playwright.dev/")
page.get_by_role("link", name="API").click()
page.context.tracing.group_end()

Arguments

  • name str#

    Group name shown in the trace viewer.

  • location Dict (optional)#

    • file str

    • line int (optional)

    • column int (optional)

    Specifies a custom location for the group to be shown in the trace viewer. Defaults to the location of the tracing.group() call.

Returns

group_end​

Added in: v1.49 tracing.group_end

Closes the last group created by tracing.group().

Usage

tracing.group_end()

Returns

start​

Added in: v1.12 tracing.start

Start tracing.

Usage

context.tracing.start(screenshots=True, snapshots=True)
page = context.new_page()
page.goto("https://playwright.dev")
context.tracing.stop(path = "trace.zip")

Arguments

  • name str (optional)#

    If specified, intermediate trace files are going to be saved into the files with the given name prefix inside the traces_dir directory specified in browser_type.launch(). To specify the final trace zip file name, you need to pass path option to tracing.stop() instead.

  • screenshots bool (optional)#

    Whether to capture screenshots during tracing. Screenshots are used to build a timeline preview.

  • snapshots bool (optional)#

    If this option is true tracing will

    • capture DOM snapshot on every action
    • record network activity

  • sources bool (optional) Added in: v1.17#

    Whether to include source files for trace actions.

  • title str (optional) Added in: v1.17#

    Trace name to be shown in the Trace Viewer.

Returns

start_chunk​

Added in: v1.15 tracing.start_chunk

Start a new trace chunk. If you'd like to record multiple traces on the same BrowserContext, use tracing.start() once, and then create multiple trace chunks with tracing.start_chunk() and tracing.stop_chunk().

Usage

context.tracing.start(screenshots=True, snapshots=True)
page = context.new_page()
page.goto("https://playwright.dev")

context.tracing.start_chunk()
page.get_by_text("Get Started").click()
# Everything between start_chunk and stop_chunk will be recorded in the trace.
context.tracing.stop_chunk(path = "trace1.zip")

context.tracing.start_chunk()
page.goto("http://example.com")
# Save a second trace file with different actions.
context.tracing.stop_chunk(path = "trace2.zip")

Arguments

  • name str (optional) Added in: v1.32#

    If specified, intermediate trace files are going to be saved into the files with the given name prefix inside the traces_dir directory specified in browser_type.launch(). To specify the final trace zip file name, you need to pass path option to tracing.stop_chunk() instead.

  • title str (optional) Added in: v1.17#

    Trace name to be shown in the Trace Viewer.

Returns

stop​

Added in: v1.12 tracing.stop

Stop tracing.

Usage

tracing.stop()
tracing.stop(**kwargs)

Arguments

Returns

stop_chunk​

Added in: v1.15 tracing.stop_chunk

Stop the trace chunk. See tracing.start_chunk() for more details about multiple trace chunks.

Usage

tracing.stop_chunk()
tracing.stop_chunk(**kwargs)

Arguments

Returns