orchardcore-tester

name	orchardcore-tester
description	Tests OrchardCore CMS features through browser automation. Use when the user needs to build, run, setup, or test OrchardCore functionality including admin features, content management, media library, and module testing.

OrchardCore Feature Testing

This skill guides you through testing OrchardCore CMS features using browser automation with playwright-cli.

Prerequisites

• OrchardCore repository (working directory)
• .NET SDK 10.0+ installed
• playwright-cli skill available, with a browser engine installed. On macOS (or any machine without Chrome) use webkit:

  playwright-cli --browser webkit install
  

  Then pass --browser webkit on the first open of a session. See references/playwright-cli.md.

The examples below show PowerShell and bash. The repo targets macOS/.NET 10; bash works everywhere. Use whichever matches your shell.

Core Workflow

Testing an OrchardCore feature follows these steps:

1. Build the application
2. Run the application server (background)
3. Setup a test site (AutoSetup is the recommended unattended path)
4. Test the feature via browser
5. Verify results and clean up

TL;DR (fastest reliable path)

# 1. build
dotnet build src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web -c Debug -f net10.0

# 2. fresh state + pick a port
rm -rf src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/App_Data
PORT=$(( (RANDOM % 1000) + 5000 )); echo -n $PORT > .orchardcore-port

# 3. run with AutoSetup (provisions Default tenant on first request, no wizard)
cd src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__AutoSetupPath= \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__ShellName=Default \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__SiteName=TestSite \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__SiteTimeZone=America/Los_Angeles \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__AdminUsername=admin \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__AdminEmail=[e-mail] \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__AdminPassword=Password1! \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__DatabaseProvider=Sqlite \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__RecipeName=Blog \
dotnet run -f net10.0 --no-build --urls "http://localhost:$PORT" > autosetup-console.log 2>&1 &
cd ../..

# 4. trigger + confirm
curl -s -o /dev/null "http://localhost:$PORT/"
grep -m1 "successfully provisioned" src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/autosetup-console.log

Then log in (see Step 4 — the login password field needs the native-setter workaround). Full AutoSetup details and gotchas: references/autosetup.md.

Step 1: Build

dotnet build src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/OrchardCore.Cms.Web.csproj -c Debug -f net10.0

Step 2: Run Application (Background)

Since multiple agents may run OrchardCore from different worktrees simultaneously, use a random port and run in background.

Get or Create Session Port

# Check for existing port file, or generate random port (5000-5999)
$portFile = ".orchardcore-port"
if (Test-Path $portFile) {
    $port = Get-Content $portFile
} else {
    $port = Get-Random -Minimum 5000 -Maximum 6000
    $port | Out-File $portFile -NoNewline
}
Write-Host "Using port: $port"

Start Application in Background

# Start OrchardCore in background process
$proc = Start-Process dotnet `
    -ArgumentList "run","-f","net10.0","--no-build","--urls","http://localhost:$port" `
    -WorkingDirectory "src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web" `
    -PassThru -NoNewWindow

# Save PID for later cleanup
$proc.Id | Out-File ".orchardcore-pid" -NoNewline
Write-Host "Started OrchardCore (PID: $($proc.Id)) on http://localhost:$port"

Wait for Application Ready

# Poll until app responds (max 60 seconds)
$port = Get-Content ".orchardcore-port"
$timeout = 60; $elapsed = 0
while ($elapsed -lt $timeout) {
    try {
        $response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "http://localhost:$port" -UseBasicParsing -TimeoutSec 2
        Write-Host "Application ready at http://localhost:$port"
        break
    } catch {
        Start-Sleep -Seconds 2
        $elapsed += 2
    }
}

Stop Application

# Stop the background process
if (Test-Path ".orchardcore-pid") {
    $pid = Get-Content ".orchardcore-pid"
    Stop-Process -Id $pid -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    Remove-Item ".orchardcore-pid" -Force
    Write-Host "Stopped OrchardCore (PID: $pid)"
}

# bash: find the process actually listening on the port and kill it.
# (Backgrounding dotnet via a subshell makes $! unreliable, so resolve by port.)
PORT=$(cat .orchardcore-port)
PID=$(lsof -ti tcp:$PORT -sTCP:LISTEN | head -1)
[ -n "$PID" ] && kill "$PID" && echo "Stopped OrchardCore (PID: $PID)"
rm -f .orchardcore-pid

Step 3: Setup Test Site

A fresh App_Data is uninitialized, so the site must be provisioned. There are two paths.

Option A — AutoSetup (recommended, unattended)

Provision the Default tenant from configuration on first request — no browser, no wizard. OrchardCore.Cms.Web already wires AutoSetup in (Program.cs → .AddSetupFeatures("OrchardCore.AutoSetup")); you just supply env vars when starting the app (see the TL;DR above, or run them inline with dotnet run from Step 2).

Key rules (full details in references/autosetup.md):

• Prefix is OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__<Option> — __ is the separator, the single _ in OrchardCore_AutoSetup is literal.
• No quotes around values in bash inline-env form (quotes become part of the value and corrupt the admin password/email).
• SiteTimeZone is required (e.g. America/Los_Angeles).

Confirm success with the log line:

The AutoSetup successfully provisioned the site 'TestSite'.

grep -m1 "successfully provisioned" src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/autosetup-console.log

Option B — Interactive setup wizard (browser)

Start the app without AutoSetup env vars, then drive the wizard with playwright-cli. The plain inputs (Site Name, User Name, Email) fill normally, but the password and confirmation fields cannot be filled with fill/type — use the native-setter eval workaround. Full step-by-step: references/setup-wizard.md. Quick shape:

PORT=$(cat .orchardcore-port)
playwright-cli --browser webkit open "http://localhost:$PORT/"
playwright-cli snapshot
# fill <sitename>, <username>, <email>; pick Blog from the recipe dropdown
# set passwords via native setter (see below / setup-wizard.md), then click Finish Setup

Reset for fresh setup:

rm -rf src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/App_Data

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/App_Data

Step 4: Test Features

Important: Replace 5000 with the actual port from .orchardcore-port file.

Login to Admin

The username fills normally, but the login password field (input[name="LoginForm.Password"]) cannot be filled with fill/type — use the native-setter eval (same limitation as the setup wizard; see references/playwright-cli.md).

PORT=$(cat .orchardcore-port)
playwright-cli --browser webkit open "http://localhost:$PORT/Login"
playwright-cli snapshot                       # get the username/login-button refs

# username: plain fill works
playwright-cli fill <username-ref> "admin"

# password: fill is a no-op here — set it via the native setter + events
playwright-cli eval '((p)=>{var s=Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(window.HTMLInputElement.prototype,"value").set; s.call(p,"Password1!"); p.dispatchEvent(new Event("input",{bubbles:true})); p.dispatchEvent(new Event("change",{bubbles:true})); return p.value.length})(document.querySelector("input[name=\"LoginForm.Password\"]"))'

# submit, then confirm /Admin loads (does NOT redirect back to /Login)
playwright-cli click <login-button-ref>
playwright-cli open "http://localhost:$PORT/Admin"
playwright-cli eval 'window.location.pathname'   # -> "/Admin" when authenticated

The eval prints a benign result is not a function message (it returns a number); the value is still set — verify with playwright-cli eval 'document.querySelector("input[name=\"LoginForm.Password\"]").value'.

Common Test Scenarios

Test Media Library:

playwright-cli open http://localhost:$port/Admin/Media
playwright-cli snapshot

Test Content Creation:

playwright-cli open http://localhost:$port/Admin/Contents/ContentItems
playwright-cli snapshot
# Click New, select content type, fill fields, publish

Enable a Feature:

playwright-cli open http://localhost:$port/Admin/Features
playwright-cli snapshot
# Search for feature, click Enable

See references/common-features.md for detailed workflows.

Step 5: Verify Results

After each action:

# Check page state
playwright-cli snapshot

# Check for JavaScript errors
playwright-cli console error

# Verify page title
playwright-cli eval "document.title"

Debugging with Log Files

Console output is not visible when running in background. Use log files instead:

# View last 50 lines of today's log
Get-Content "src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/App_Data/logs/orchard-log-$(Get-Date -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd').log" -Tail 50

# Search for errors
Select-String -Path "src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/App_Data/logs/orchard-log-$(Get-Date -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd').log" -Pattern "ERROR|Exception" -Context 2,5

See references/debugging.md for more debugging techniques.

Quick Reference

Task	URL Path
Admin Dashboard	/Admin
Features	/Admin/Features
Content Items	/Admin/Contents/ContentItems
Media Library	/Admin/Media
Users	/Admin/Users/Index
Themes	/Admin/Themes

Session Files

File	Purpose
.orchardcore-port	Persisted port number for session
.orchardcore-pid	Process ID for cleanup

Default Credentials

• Username: admin
• Email: [e-mail]
• Password: Password1!

References

• references/autosetup.md - Unattended AutoSetup (env-var recipe, gotchas, troubleshooting)
• references/playwright-cli.md - playwright-cli specifics: browser install, eval constraint, the password-field workaround
• references/setup-wizard.md - Interactive browser setup wizard (with password workaround)
• references/admin-navigation.md - Admin URLs and UI patterns
• references/common-features.md - Feature-specific testing guides
• references/debugging.md - Log files and troubleshooting
• AGENTS.md (repo root) - Build and development instructions