Distributed Playwright Testing for Enhanced Scalability

As apps become more intricate and user expectations grow, software testing frameworks should adapt to meet these critical challenges head-on. Playwright, the most preferred automation framework for web apps, has gained significant attention for its reliability and speed. 

To harness Playwright’s effectiveness and full potential, companies are increasingly moving to distributed testing—a strategy that enhances scalability and supercharges QA test processes. 

In this article, we will discover the concept of distributed Playwright testing and how it can transform your entire testing process.

Understanding Playwright

Playwright is an open-source test automation framework or library designed by Microsoft. It offers a dynamic API, supports multiple programming languages (NodeJS, TypeScript, JavaScript, C#, Python, and . NET), and is known for its speed and reliability. Playwright’s versatility extends to headless and full-page browser automation, making it an ideal choice for testing complex web applications. It provides a unified solution for automating web apps across browsers like Firefox, Chromium, and WebKit.  With Playwright test automation, you can create tests that communicate with web pages and simulate user activities such as filling out forms, clicking buttons, and scrolling.

As of 2023, according to the recent overview of MS Playwright on Github, there are around 23.2k Active Users. Playwright is built to allow cross-browser web automation that is ever-green, reliable, capable, and fast.

History of Playwright

Playwright is an automation framework for web apps developed by Microsoft. It was initially announced in Jan 2020, and since then, it has gained fame and popularity in the world of software testing and web development. It was developed to address the shortcomings of current automation frameworks and offer a versatile, modern tool for automating web apps. Playwright’s history is marked by its speedy growth and acceptance within the software development and QA testing groups. Its focus on cross-platform compatibility, multi-language support, and multi-browser support has made it a powerful and versatile tool for automating web apps. As the web development arena evolves, Playwright will likely endure at the forefront of web automation expertise and technologies.  

Key Traits of Playwright

It allows developers and testers to automate interactions with web applications in a cross-browser and cross-platform manner. Here are some key traits of Playwright:

• Multi-Browser Support: Capacity to automate multiple browsers, comprising Firefox, WebKit (Safari), and Chromium (Google Chrome). This cross-browser compatibility confirms that web apps are comprehensively tested on multiple versions, browsers, and platforms and confirms constant behavior across distinct environments.

• Headful and Headless Modes: Supports both headful and headless implementation. Headful mode lets you view the browser’s GI (graphical interface) while running tests, assisting in troubleshooting and debugging. Conversely, Headless mode enables tests to run in the background with zero visible browser windows, offering faster test implementation and better performance. 

• Asynchronous Execution: Leverages JavaScript’s await/ async syntax, making it simple to write asynchronous code, manage promises, and execute activities in a highly manageable and readable manner. 

• Element selection: Playwright proffers a simple-to-use API for choosing components on a page and running actions on them. This makes testing precise sections or components of your app effortless. Consequently, full test isolation isn’t a matter of concern with Playwright. 

• Automated browser context management: Playwright manages browser contexts automatically for you, making it simpler to launch, close, and move between multiple tabs in similar tests. Context management makes it simple to test intricate scenarios that involve multiple windows or tabs, and it lessens the effort needed to set up and handle your test environment.

• Powerful Selector Engine: Uses a strong selector engine that supports an extensive suite of selectors, counting XPath, CSS, and text-based selectors. This flexibility enables software developers to locate components correctly, even in complicated and dynamic web apps.

• Automatic Waits & Timeouts: Automatically manage to wait for components to become accessible on the web page, reducing the requirement for explicit waits in test scripts. This trait amazingly mitigates flakiness and enhances test stability. 
• Community Contributions: As an open-source project, Playwright rapidly attracted contributions from the software developer and test communities. This resulted in the improvement of its traits, improved documentation, and expanded browser support.

Playwright Architecture

To comprehend Playwright’s architecture, let us draw a comparison with Selenium. Selenium operates by sending individual commands as independent HTTP requests and receiving JSON responses. Every interaction, like opening a browser window, clicking an element, or inputting text into a form field, is sent as an individual HTTP request.

This approach entails waiting for responses, which can prolong the process and raise the likelihood of encountering errors.

Unlike communicating with individual drivers through individual WebSocket connections, Playwright opts for a single WebSocket connection that remains active throughout the test process. This approach allows rapid transmission of commands, thereby reducing potential points of failure.

Playwright testing Drawbacks

Here are some drawbacks linked with Playwright testing:

• Playwright does not give support for legacy IE11 or Edge browsers.
• The test() function in Playwright captures videos, screenshots, plus failure traces for single tests within a test.describe() function. It doesn’t give consolidated reports for the complete root test function.
• The Playwright uses desktop browsers to simulate mobile devices, which might not completely emulate the behavior of actual mobile devices.
• Although Playwright supports API testing, its APIRequest method does not give the choice to disable follow redirects.
• The Playwright does not have built-in support for the TeamCity reporter. Users may be required to create custom reporters for CI/CD builds when incorporating with TeamCity.

These points highlight some considerations and constraints when utilizing Playwright for testing purposes.

Why perform Scalability testing?

As web apps become feature-rich and more intricate, the number of test scenarios and cases can grow exponentially. To accommodate this growth, companies should employ scalable test solutions. Scalability in QA testing refers to the competencies to smartly manage an increasing workload without compromising reliability or performance. 

Distributed testing is a key strategy to accomplish this scalability. In simple words, Scalability testing helps to achieve the following goals, which are great from the perspective of business growth. It mainly helps:

• To analyze how the app performs with an increase in workload and at what point the software product or app stops scaling so that we can detect the reasons behind it. 
• To signify the user restriction linked to a software app or product.
• To determine the software’s capacity to scale up its operations with increased data traffic and workload. 
• Regulate end-user experience, server-side robustness, and server stability. 

Distributed Playwright Testing: A Game Changer

Distributed testing includes the simultaneous implementation of tests across multiple nodes or machines, resulting in more efficient and faster test runs. When applied to Playwright, distributed testing can revolutionize your QA test processes: 

1. Cross-Browser Testing: Playwright supports multiple browsers, and distributed testing allows simultaneous testing on distinct forms and versions. This confirms comprehensive cross-browser compatibility tests.
2. Scalable Infrastructure: Companies can establish a scalable infrastructure using cloud-centric solutions or on-premises clusters. This dynamic resource allocation guarantees optimal resource use based on test demands.
3. Parallel Execution: Unlike executing tests one after the other on an individual machine, distributed Playwright testing allows parallel implementation of test cases across multiple virtual environments or machines. This extremely reduces the time required to complete test suites.
4. Load Testing: Beyond functional tests, distributed Playwright tests can be employed for load tests, aiding QA teams in assessing how apps run under heavy user loads.

A Few Examples of Playwright Tests

Playwright offers a versatile framework to automate web app tests. Here are some examples of Playwright tests written in JS (JavaScript) to illustrate its proficiencies:

1. Opening a Web Page:
2. Filling out a Form:
3. Taking Screenshots:
4. Navigation and Interactions:

These are just some of the common examples to demonstrate Playwright’s capacities. Playwright supports various communications, including hovering, typing, clicking, and more. You can use Playwright to generate comprehensive E2E testing for your web apps, covering several scenarios and user interactions. 

Some of the Advantages of Distributed Playwright Test

1. Speedy Feedback: Parallel execution offers rapid test feedback, letting software developers address issues promptly, leading to accelerated development cycles.
2. Resource Optimization: Companies can assign resources dynamically, dropping idle time and optimizing infrastructure expenses.
3. Comprehensive Testing: Simultaneous testing across multiple platforms and browsers ensures complete coverage, boosting app quality.
4. Scalability: As your app scales, distributed testing smoothly scales with it to accommodate better testing requirements.
5. Improved Test Coverage: Parallel implementation enables QA teams to cover extra test cases quickly, leading to excellent test coverage.

How to implement Playwright for Improved Scalability?

Implementing Playwright testing for improved scalability involves setting up a framework that enables you to run tests competently and concurrently across multiple configurations and environments. Here is a step-by-step guide to executing the Playwright test with scalability in mind: 

1. Install Playwright and Node.js: Ensure you have Node.js installed on your PC. After that, install Playwright by running the following command.
2. Set Up a Project: Generate a new directory for your specific Playwright project and initialize it with yarn or npm:
3. Install Browsers: Playwright supports various browser engines, such as WebKit, Chromium, and Firefox. Install the browsers you are planning to utilize for testing:
4. Write Test Scripts: Generate test scripts using Playwright’s Application Programming Interface. Organize your tests into test suites, and make sure they are written to be concurrently implemented. For instance:
5. Configure Test Execution: Implement a test runner to perform your tests in parallel. You can use popular test runners like MochJS or JEST or build a custom solution using Node.js’s built-in process module to run tests parallel.
6. Implement Scalable Infrastructure: For high scalability, consider using cloud-centric solutions like Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud to build a scalable infrastructure. You can use virtual containers or machines to execute tests simultaneously in a distributed manner.
7. Parallel Test Implementation: Configure your test runner to run tests in parallel across multiple browsers. This enables you to leverage the complete power of distributed tests and considerably reduce test implementation time.
8. Reporting & Analysis: Execute reporting and analysis tools to capture test outcomes, including screenshots, pass/fail status, and logs. This assists in detecting and addressing problems competently.
9. Continuous Integration (CI): Incorporate Playwright testing into your CI/CD pipeline. Most CI/CD platforms, like Travis CI, CircleCI, and Jenkins, support parallel test implementation.
10. Scalable Resource Allocation: Depending on your testing requirements, you can allocate resources (virtual containers or machines) dynamically based on the number of test suites or tests, guaranteeing optimal resource utilization.
11. Monitoring and Scaling: Execute monitoring tools for tracking the performance and resource utilization of your test infrastructure. This allows you to scale resources down or up as needed.
12. Maintenance and Optimization: Frequently review & optimize your test suite for scalability. Detect bottlenecks and zones where further parallelization can be applied.

By following these steps and integrating scalable infrastructure, efficient resource management, and parallel execution, you can run Playwright testing for improved scalability, letting your team conduct comprehensive testing while reducing test time and enhancing overall efficiency.

You can leverage diverse features offered by the Playwright framework. But, its true potential can be determined only over a cloud-centric test platform like LambdaTest. LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform that lets you run manual and automated tests at scale. You can also execute your Playwright test scripts in parallel and trim down test implementation cycles by several folds.

LambdaTest: Enhancing Distributed Playwright Test

As companies strive for improved efficiency and scalability in their testing processes, tools like LambdaTest provide invaluable assistance. LambdaTest proffers a scalable, online Selenium Grid that flawlessly incorporates Playwright, allowing distributed Playwright testing with ease.

Core LambdaTest Features:

1. Scalable Selenium Grid: LambdaTest provides a highly scalable Selenium Grid that enables you to run Playwright tests simultaneously on multiple versions, browsers, and operating systems. This guarantees effective test implementation and faster feedback.
2. Cross-Browser Compatibility: Test your web apps on an extensive suite of browsers, including Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and MS Edge, confirming comprehensive cross-browser compatibility. 
3. Parallel Execution: Implement Playwright testing in parallel to significantly lessen test implementation time and accelerate your software development cycles.
4. Incorporation with CI/CD: Incorporate LambdaTest flawlessly with popular CI/CD tools like CircleCI, Travis CI, Jenkins, and more to automate your test pipeline and confirm continuous testing.
5. Detailed Reporting: LambdaTest offers comprehensive test reports, counting logs and screenshots, and to help you recognize and resolve issues quickly.

Using a real device cloud like Lambdatest allows you to test in real-world scenarios and confirm that outcomes are accurate every single time. Bug-free and rigorous testing guarantees that no significant problems slip into production, letting your app provide the best user experience.

Here are some other traits that make Playwright testing a breeze with a pristine platform like LambdaTest.

1. Access to 3000+ real device clouds, browsers, and OS combinations.
2. Alleviate test flakiness, shorten job times, and get speedy feedback on code modifications with Test At Scale.
3. Run fast test implementation with HyperExecute – an E2E test orchestration cloud.
4. Test across manifold geographies with a geolocation test trait.
5. 120+ third-party incorporations with your preferred tool for Codeless Automation, Project Management, CI/CD, and more.

Steps to Execute Playwright Tests on the LambdaTest 

Check the steps to run Playwright tests on the LambdaTest platform.

1. Sign up for free & login to your account (LambdaTest platform).
2. Simulate the LambdaTest LambdaTest Playwright GitHub repository
3. Using npm install, Install the npm dependencies.
4. Set your LambdaTest access key and username in the environment variables. You can acquire them from the Automation Dashboard (Lambdatest) by clicking the Access Key button at the top-right.
5. Utilize the command node playwright-single.js in the terminal to execute the test.
6. Then, check the LambdaTest Automation Dashboard to check your test outcomes.

You can check the details of the Playwright test session you just performed by clicking the session name. A screenshot below reflects test implementation details for a Playwright testing, counting Test ID, Test Name, test logs, selected configurations, input configuration, basic information, and test session video.

Presented below is the Playwright test script that searches the word LambdaTest on the Bing browser. The test is executed on the Windows 10 operating system and Chrome browser. 

Conclusion

In an era where reliability, scalability, and speed are paramount, distributed Playwright testing emerges as a fast-track and game-changing solution for web app testing. By harnessing the power of scalable infrastructure and parallel execution, companies can attain optimized resource utilization and rapid feedback and guarantee comprehensive testing of their apps. As web apps continue to evolve in scope and complexity, embracing distributed Playwright testing, along with tools such as LambdaTest, becomes crucial to maintaining quality and accelerating development cycles. Embrace the future of testing, and watch your web apps thrive in the dynamic digital arena.