Test Playwright Patterns

Test Playwright Patterns

Write maintainable Playwright tests using page objects, fixtures, and parallel execution

When to Use

• Writing E2E tests that remain maintainable as the application grows
• Abstracting page interactions into reusable page objects
• Testing complex user flows (multi-step forms, navigation, authentication)
• Debugging flaky tests and improving test reliability

Instructions

1. Page Object Model — encapsulate page interactions:

// e2e/pages/login-page.ts
import { Page, Locator, expect } from '@playwright/test';

export class LoginPage {
  readonly emailInput: Locator;
  readonly passwordInput: Locator;
  readonly submitButton: Locator;

  constructor(private page: Page) {
    this.emailInput = page.getByLabel('Email');
    this.passwordInput = page.getByLabel('Password');
    this.submitButton = page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Log in' });
  }

  async goto() {
    await this.page.goto('/login');
  }

  async login(email: string, password: string) {
    await this.emailInput.fill(email);
    await this.passwordInput.fill(password);
    await this.submitButton.click();
  }
}

2. Use locators — prefer accessible selectors:

// Best — accessible
page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Submit' });
page.getByLabel('Email address');
page.getByText('Welcome back');
page.getByPlaceholder('Search...');

// Acceptable — test IDs
page.getByTestId('user-avatar');

// Avoid — brittle
page.locator('.btn-primary');
page.locator('#submit-form');
page.locator('div > span:nth-child(2)');

3. Test user flows, not individual elements:

import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('user can create and publish a post', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/posts/new');

  await page.getByLabel('Title').fill('My First Post');
  await page.getByLabel('Content').fill('Hello, world!');
  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Save draft' }).click();

  await expect(page.getByText('Draft saved')).toBeVisible();

  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Publish' }).click();

  await expect(page).toHaveURL(/\/posts\/[\w-]+$/);
  await expect(page.getByRole('heading', { name: 'My First Post' })).toBeVisible();
});

4. Wait for network and state — use auto-waiting:

// Playwright auto-waits for elements to be actionable
await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Submit' }).click(); // Waits for button to be enabled

// Wait for navigation
await Promise.all([
  page.waitForURL('/dashboard'),
  page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Log in' }).click(),
]);

// Wait for API response
const responsePromise = page.waitForResponse('/api/users');
await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Load users' }).click();
const response = await responsePromise;
expect(response.status()).toBe(200);

5. Handle dialogs and popups:

page.on('dialog', (dialog) => dialog.accept());

await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Delete' }).click();
await expect(page.getByText('Item deleted')).toBeVisible();

6. Visual regression with screenshots:

test('homepage matches snapshot', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/');
  await expect(page).toHaveScreenshot('homepage.png', {
    maxDiffPixels: 100,
  });
});

7. Parallel test isolation:

// Each test gets its own browser context
test('user A sees their data', async ({ page }) => {
  /* ... */
});
test('user B sees their data', async ({ page }) => {
  /* ... */
});
// These run in parallel without interference

8. Tag and filter tests:

test('critical: checkout flow', { tag: '@critical' }, async ({ page }) => {
  // ...
});

// Run only critical tests
// npx playwright test --grep @critical

Details

Playwright tests run against real browsers with full DOM, network, and JavaScript execution. They are the closest thing to manual testing that can be automated.

Auto-waiting: Playwright automatically waits for elements to be visible, enabled, and stable before interacting. This eliminates most explicit waits and reduces flakiness compared to Selenium or Cypress.

Locator best practices:

1. getByRole — always first choice. Forces accessible markup
2. getByLabel — for form inputs, anchored to their label
3. getByText — for visible text content
4. getByTestId — when no accessible name exists. Add data-testid attributes
5. CSS/XPath — last resort, only for complex DOM structures

Debugging tools:

• npx playwright test --ui — interactive test runner with time-travel debugging
• npx playwright test --debug — step through with browser DevTools
• npx playwright show-trace trace.zip — replay recorded traces

Handling flakiness:

• Use locators (auto-waiting) instead of explicit waits
• Wait for specific conditions, not arbitrary timeouts
• Ensure test data isolation (each test creates its own data)
• Use retries: 2 in CI as a safety net, but investigate repeated flakes

Trade-offs:

• Page objects improve maintainability — but add abstraction layers
• Parallel execution speeds up suites — but requires data isolation between tests
• Visual regression catches CSS bugs — but screenshot diffs are sensitive to rendering differences across environments
• Multi-browser testing improves confidence — but triples CI time

Source

https://playwright.dev/docs/test-patterns

Process

1. Read the instructions and examples in this document.
2. Apply the patterns to your implementation, adapting to your specific context.
3. Verify your implementation against the details and edge cases listed above.

Harness Integration

• Type: knowledge — this skill is a reference document, not a procedural workflow.
• No tools or state — consumed as context by other skills and agents.

Success Criteria

• The patterns described in this document are applied correctly in the implementation.
• Edge cases and anti-patterns listed in this document are avoided.