page-visual-tests

name	page-visual-tests
description	Playwright + Chromatic full-page visual tests for ethereum.org. Trigger on "add a page to the visual suite", "the snapshot keeps changing", "chromatic pages", "chromatic playwright", or edits to `tests/visual/`, `playwright.visual.config.ts`, or `.github/workflows/chromatic-pages.yml`. Skip for Storybook Chromatic (`chromatic.yml`), e2e (`tests/e2e/`), unit (`tests/unit/`).

Page Visual Tests (Playwright + Chromatic)

This repo has two Chromatic projects: Storybook (chromatic.yml + pnpm chromatic) and page visual tests (chromatic-pages.yml + pnpm chromatic:pages). This skill is the second one only.

The Playwright suite captures DOM archives (not PNGs) per page × viewport; Chromatic re-renders them in the cloud to diff. A green local pnpm test:visual just means archives were produced — the diff happens after upload.

Files that matter

• playwright.visual.config.ts — visual-only config (3 viewports + webServer)
• playwright.config.ts — base (e2e + unit; no webServer)
• tests/visual/pages.spec.ts — page list + readiness pattern
• .github/workflows/chromatic-pages.yml — CI
• src/components/ui/skeleton.tsx, src/components/ui/spinner.tsx — loading primitives
• package.json scripts: test:visual*, chromatic:pages

Non-obvious constraints

Dual Playwright config. webServer lives only in playwright.visual.config.ts. Moving it into the base config breaks pnpm test:unit and pnpm test:e2e in CI — they try to start Next against a missing .next build.

Desktop viewport is 1024, not 1280. Chromatic caps snapshots at width × height ≤ 25M px. The tallest tested pages reach ~22.5k px; 1280 overflows, 1024 fits. Measure document.documentElement.scrollHeight before raising the viewport or adding a long page.

Loading contract: data-slot="loading". The shared Skeleton and Spinner primitives carry this attribute. Each test waits until document.querySelectorAll('[data-slot="loading"]').length === 0 before snapshotting. Any bespoke loader — raw animate-pulse-light, a local Skeleton copy, a custom spinner — is invisible to the wait and will silently flake. Fix by routing through the shared primitive or adding data-slot="loading" to the bespoke loader's root.

Imports come from @chromatic-com/playwright, not @playwright/test. The two packages re-export expect with skewed types, so expect(...).toHaveCount(0) misbehaves — prefer page.waitForFunction for the loading wait.

Environment. USE_MOCK_DATA=true and NEXT_PUBLIC_BUILD_LOCALES=en are required at build and test time. Paths in the spec are unprefixed (/wallets/, not /en/wallets/) because localePrefix: "as-needed" serves English at the root — adding /en would just trigger a redirect.

Random ordering: maybeShuffle. Lodash shuffle and .sort(() => Math.random() - 0.5) flake snapshots independently of loaders. Wrap them with maybeShuffle from src/lib/utils/random.ts — it returns the list unchanged when IS_VISUAL_TEST=true. Current call sites: wallets.ts, apps.ts (Highlights/Discover/AppOfTheWeek), useStakingProductsCardGrid.ts. The env var is exposed to the client bundle via next.config.js's env block; without that, process.env.IS_VISUAL_TEST evaluates to undefined in client components and the shuffle still runs.

Use domcontentloaded, not networkidle. Analytics and background fetches keep the network perpetually busy.

Canonical test

import { takeSnapshot, test } from "@chromatic-com/playwright"

const pages: Array<{ name: string; path: string }> = [
  { name: "Homepage", path: "/" },
  { name: "Docs - Smart Contracts", path: "/developers/docs/smart-contracts/" },
  // ...
]

test.describe("Page Visual Tests", () => {
  for (const { name, path } of pages) {
    test(name, async ({ page }, testInfo) => {
      await page.goto(path, { waitUntil: "domcontentloaded" })
      await page.waitForFunction(
        () => document.querySelectorAll('[data-slot="loading"]').length === 0
      )
      await takeSnapshot(page, testInfo)
    })
  }
})

Common situations

Adding a page. Each entry costs three snapshots (one per viewport) against Chromatic's budget, so check whether the page's layout (under src/layouts/) is already covered before adding. Scan the page subtree for bespoke loaders — they're the single biggest flake cause — and confirm full-page height stays under the 25M-pixel budget. Local loop: pnpm test:visual:build once, then pnpm test:visual:desktop for iteration, pnpm test:visual for the full sweep.

Flaky snapshot. Two main causes. (1) A loader without data-slot="loading" — run with --trace=on and inspect the waitForFunction step; ~0 ms duration means it isn't being waited on. (2) Random ordering — grep the page subtree for shuffle(, Math.random(), or .sort(() => and route through safeShuffle. If dynamic content is drifting, double-check USE_MOCK_DATA=true is set in both build and test steps.

Local pnpm dev masks a regression. playwright.visual.config.ts sets reuseExistingServer: true, which is correct for CI but means a pnpm dev already running on :3000 will be used silently in place of the production build the suite assumes. If a snapshot diff doesn't reproduce in CI, kill the dev server and run pnpm test:visual:build to rebuild against the production output before retrying.

Pixel-limit error. Measure the page's full-page height at 1024 px; if it exceeds ~24,400 px, the page needs shortening or removal from the suite. Cropping to viewport was considered and rejected — it defeats the below-the-fold regression coverage that justifies using Playwright over Storybook here.

Works locally, fails in CI. Usually HOME: /root missing from the test step — GitHub Actions overrides HOME inside containers, and Playwright can no longer find the browsers baked into the mcr.microsoft.com/playwright image. Also check that the image tag matches @playwright/test in package.json.

Branch: feat/playwright-chromatic-page-visual-tests · PR: https://github.com/ethereum/ethereum-org-website/pull/18009