Playwright Architecture

Table of Contents

Playwright Architecture

Playwright is a modern automation framework designed for end-to-end testing of web applications. It allows developers and testers to automate browsers like Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit with a single API. Playwright provides robust features such as headless execution, parallel testing, and cross-browser support, making it a powerful choice for web automation.

Understanding Playwright Architecture

Playwright follows a client-server architecture where the test script communicates with the browser through Playwright’s API. The key components of Playwright’s architecture include:

Playwright API: The Playwright library provides an API that allows users to interact with web applications, perform actions, and validate test results.
Browser Communication: Playwright directly communicates with the browser using WebSockets or native browser protocols, enabling fast and reliable automation.
Application Under Test (AUT): The web application being tested runs in a browser, and Playwright scripts interact with it just like a real user would.

Script Execution Using Playwright API

Playwright scripts are written using the Playwright API, which allows users to automate various browser actions such as launching a browser, navigating to a webpage, interacting with elements, and capturing screenshots. Below is a simple example:

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: 'screenshot.png' });
 await browser.close();
})();

Browser Communication

Unlike Selenium-based automation, Playwright communicates with the browser using native browser protocols instead of a WebDriver. This enables faster execution and better stability. Playwright supports both headless and headed execution modes, allowing tests to run in different environments efficiently.

Playwright supports major types of browser engines like Chromium, Firefox and WebKit. The team manages the patched versions. The patched versions provide an event-driven architecture to different browser processes.

Application Under Test (AUT)

The application under test (AUT) is the web application being tested. Playwright scripts interact with the AUT by simulating real user actions such as clicking buttons, filling out forms, and verifying page elements. Playwright supports automation for single-page applications (SPAs) and modern web frameworks.

Playwright is a powerful automation tool that offers cross-browser testing, parallel execution, and fast browser communication. Its architecture ensures reliable and efficient testing, making it a great choice for web automation.