A Beginner's Guide to Web Automation with Playwright

What is Playwright?

Playwright is a Node.js library developed by Microsoft for browser automation. It provides a high-level API to control Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit, making it an excellent choice for cross-browser testing.

Getting Started

First, you need to install Playwright:

npm i -D playwright

Then, you can write a simple script to take a screenshot of a website:

const { chromium } = require('playwright');

(async () => {
  const browser = await chromium.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  await page.screenshot({ path: `example.png` });
  await browser.close();
})();

Why Choose Playwright?

Playwright offers several advantages over older tools like Selenium, including auto-waits, better handling of modern web features, and the ability to test across multiple browser engines with a single API.