manikantasai-playwright-automation

name	manikantasai-playwright-automation
description	Browser automation using Playwright API directly. Navigate websites, interact with elements, extract data, take screenshots, generate PDFs, record videos, and automate complex workflows. More reliable than MCP approach.
metadata	{"openclaw":{"emoji":"🎭","os":["linux","darwin","win32"],"requires":{"bins":["node","npx"]},"install":[{"id":"npm-playwright","kind":"npm","package":"playwright","bins":["playwright"],"label":"Install Playwright"}]}}

Playwright Browser Automation

Direct Playwright API for reliable browser automation without MCP complexity.

Installation

# Install Playwright
npm install -g playwright

# Install browsers (one-time, ~100MB each)
npx playwright install chromium
# Optional:
npx playwright install firefox
npx playwright install webkit

# For system dependencies on Ubuntu/Debian:
sudo npx playwright install-deps chromium

Quick Start

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

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

Best Practices

1. Use Locators (Auto-waiting)

// ✅ GOOD: Uses auto-waiting and retries
await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Submit' }).click();
await page.getByLabel('Username').fill('user');
await page.getByPlaceholder('Search').fill('query');

// ❌ BAD: May fail if element not ready
await page.click('#submit');

2. Prefer User-Facing Attributes

// ✅ GOOD: Resilient to DOM changes
await page.getByRole('heading', { name: 'Welcome' });
await page.getByText('Sign in');
await page.getByTestId('login-button');

// ❌ BAD: Brittle CSS selectors
await page.click('.btn-primary > div:nth-child(2)');

3. Handle Dynamic Content

// Wait for network idle
await page.goto('https://spa-app.com', { waitUntil: 'networkidle' });

// Wait for specific element
await page.waitForSelector('.results-loaded');
await page.waitForFunction(() => document.querySelectorAll('.item').length > 0);

4. Use Contexts for Isolation

// Each context = isolated session (cookies, storage)
const context = await browser.newContext();
const page = await context.newPage();

// Multiple pages in one context
const page2 = await context.newPage();

5. Network Interception

// Mock API responses
await page.route('**/api/users', route => {
  route.fulfill({
    status: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify({ users: [] })
  });
});

// Block resources
await page.route('**/*.{png,jpg,css}', route => route.abort());

Common Patterns

Form Automation

// Fill form
await page.goto('https://example.com/login');
await page.getByLabel('Username').fill('myuser');
await page.getByLabel('Password').fill('mypass');
await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Sign in' }).click();

// Wait for navigation/result
await page.waitForURL('/dashboard');
await expect(page.getByText('Welcome')).toBeVisible();

Data Extraction

// Extract table data
const rows = await page.$$eval('table tr', rows =>
  rows.map(row => ({
    name: row.querySelector('td:nth-child(1)')?.textContent,
    price: row.querySelector('td:nth-child(2)')?.textContent
  }))
);

// Extract with JavaScript evaluation
const data = await page.evaluate(() => {
  return Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('.product')).map(p => ({
    title: p.querySelector('.title')?.textContent,
    price: p.querySelector('.price')?.textContent
  }));
});

Screenshots & PDFs

// Full page screenshot
await page.screenshot({ path: 'full.png', fullPage: true });

// Element screenshot
await page.locator('.chart').screenshot({ path: 'chart.png' });

// PDF (Chromium only)
await page.pdf({ 
  path: 'page.pdf', 
  format: 'A4',
  printBackground: true 
});

Video Recording

const context = await browser.newContext({
  recordVideo: {
    dir: './videos/',
    size: { width: 1920, height: 1080 }
  }
});
const page = await context.newPage();

// ... do stuff ...

await context.close(); // Video saved automatically

Mobile Emulation

const context = await browser.newContext({
  viewport: { width: 375, height: 667 },
  userAgent: 'Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 14_0)',
  isMobile: true,
  hasTouch: true
});

Authentication

// Method 1: HTTP Basic Auth
const context = await browser.newContext({
  httpCredentials: { username: 'user', password: 'pass' }
});

// Method 2: Cookies
await context.addCookies([
  { name: 'session', value: 'abc123', domain: '.example.com', path: '/' }
]);

// Method 3: Local Storage
await page.evaluate(() => {
  localStorage.setItem('token', 'xyz');
});

// Method 4: Reuse auth state
await context.storageState({ path: 'auth.json' });
// Later: await browser.newContext({ storageState: 'auth.json' });

Advanced Features

File Upload/Download

// Upload
await page.setInputFiles('input[type="file"]', '/path/to/file.pdf');

// Download
const [download] = await Promise.all([
  page.waitForEvent('download'),
  page.click('a[download]')
]);
await download.saveAs('/path/to/save/' + download.suggestedFilename());

Dialogs Handling

page.on('dialog', dialog => {
  if (dialog.type() === 'alert') dialog.accept();
  if (dialog.type() === 'confirm') dialog.accept();
  if (dialog.type() === 'prompt') dialog.accept('My answer');
});

Frames & Shadow DOM

// Frame by name
const frame = page.frame('frame-name');
await frame.click('button');

// Frame by locator
const frame = page.frameLocator('iframe').first();
await frame.getByRole('button').click();

// Shadow DOM
await page.locator('my-component').locator('button').click();

Tracing (Debug)

await context.tracing.start({ screenshots: true, snapshots: true });

// ... run tests ...

await context.tracing.stop({ path: 'trace.zip' });
// View at https://trace.playwright.dev

Configuration Options

const browser = await chromium.launch({
  headless: true,        // Run without UI
  slowMo: 50,           // Slow down by 50ms (for debugging)
  devtools: false,      // Open DevTools
  args: ['--no-sandbox', '--disable-setuid-sandbox'] // Docker/Ubuntu
});

const context = await browser.newContext({
  viewport: { width: 1920, height: 1080 },
  locale: 'ru-RU',
  timezoneId: 'Europe/Moscow',
  geolocation: { latitude: 55.7558, longitude: 37.6173 },
  permissions: ['geolocation'],
  userAgent: 'Custom Agent',
  bypassCSP: true,      // Bypass Content Security Policy
});

Error Handling

// Retry with timeout
try {
  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Load' }).click({ timeout: 10000 });
} catch (e) {
  console.log('Button not found or not clickable');
}

// Check if element exists
const hasButton = await page.getByRole('button').count() > 0;

// Wait with custom condition
await page.waitForFunction(() => 
  document.querySelectorAll('.loaded').length >= 10
);

Sudoers Setup

For Playwright browser installation:

# /etc/sudoers.d/playwright
username ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/npx playwright install-deps *
username ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/npx playwright install *

References

• Playwright Docs
• API Reference
• Best Practices
• Locators Guide