When it comes to automating browser tasks and interactions, Playwright has emerged as a powerful tool in the developer’s toolkit. In this tutorial, we’ll explore how to use Playwright with TypeScript to automate tasks like navigating to websites and capturing screenshots.
Prerequisites
Before we begin, make sure you have the following installed on your system:
- Node.js (which includes npm, the Node Package Manager)
- TypeScript (install globally using
npm install -g typescript
)
Getting Started
1. Project Setup
Create a new directory for your project and navigate to it using your terminal or command prompt.
mkdir playwright-tutorial
cd playwright-tutorial
2. Installing Playwright
In the project directory, install the Playwright library using npm:
npm install playwright
This will install the Playwright library along with its dependencies.
3. Writing the Script
Create a TypeScript file in the project directory. You can name it playwright_script.ts
. Open this file in your favorite code editor and paste the following code:
import { chromium, Browser, Page } from 'playwright';
(async () => {
// Launch the browser
const browser: Browser = await chromium.launch();
// Create a new browser context
const context = await browser.newContext();
// Create a new page
const page: Page = await context.newPage();
// Navigate to a website
await page.goto('https://www.example.com');
// Take a screenshot
await page.screenshot({ path: 'screenshot.png' });
// Close the browser
await browser.close();
})();
4. Compiling and Running the Script
To compile the TypeScript code into JavaScript, run the following command in the terminal:
tsc playwright_script.ts
This will generate a playwright_script.js
file in the same directory.
Now, run the compiled script using Node.js:
node playwright_script.js
After running the script, you should see a new screenshot file named screenshot.png
in your project directory. This screenshot captures the webpage you navigated to.
Customization
Feel free to customize the script to suit your needs. You can change the URL to any website you want to automate, modify interaction steps, or capture additional data using Playwright’s rich API.
Conclusion
With Playwright and TypeScript, automating browser tasks becomes efficient and enjoyable. The combination of Playwright’s powerful capabilities and TypeScript’s static typing makes for robust and maintainable browser automation scripts.
Now that you’ve learned the basics, explore Playwright’s documentation to discover more advanced features and possibilities for automating web interactions.
Happy scripting!