Playwright Browser Launch

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Slide 1: Introduction to Playwright Browser Launch

Playwright is a Node.js library for browser automation, supporting multiple browsers like Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit. This tutorial demonstrates how to launch a browser manually, open a page, and navigate to a website.

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Slide 2: Code Breakdown

const browser = await chromium.launch({ channel: 'chrome' })

• Launch Chromium: The chromium.launch() function starts the Chromium browser (or any other browser you specify).

• channel: 'chrome': This specifies that Playwright should use the Google Chrome installation if available.

  • Other Options:

    • 'msedge' for Microsoft Edge

    • 'firefox' for Mozilla Firefox

    • 'webkit' for WebKit (Safari)

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Slide 3: Creating a Context

const context = await browser.newContext()

• New Context: Creates a new browser context.

  • A context is like an incognito window. It isolates cookies, storage, and other data from the main browser session.

• Why Use Context?: Allows multiple sessions to run independently (e.g., testing different logins at the same time).

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Slide 4: Opening a Page

const page1 = await context.newPage()

• New Page: Opens a new tab within the browser context.

• A page is where all actions (e.g., navigation, clicks, form filling) occur.

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Slide 5: Navigation to Google

await page1.goto('https://www.google.com')

• goto(): Navigates the page to the specified URL (in this case, Google).

  • Why Use: This is the starting point for automation (loading a website).

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Slide 6: Optional Enhancements

• Headless Mode: By default, Playwright runs browsers in headless mode (no GUI). To see the browser, set:

headless: false

• Slow Motion: You can slow down actions for debugging:

slowMo: 50 // Delay each action by 50ms

• Error Handling:

  • Add try-catch blocks to handle errors safely.

  • Always close the browser in a finally block to prevent hanging processes.

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Slide 7: Full Example with Error Handling

const { chromium } = require('playwright'); // Import Playwright

(async () => {
  try {
    const browser = await chromium.launch({ headless: false, channel: 'chrome' });
    const context = await browser.newContext();
    const page = await context.newPage();
    await page.goto('https://www.google.com');
    await page.waitForTimeout(5000); // Optional: Pause for 5 seconds to observe
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error:', error); // Log any errors
  } finally {
    await browser.close(); // Ensure browser is closed
  }
})();

• finally block: Ensures the browser is closed even if an error occurs.

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