Playwright Test was created specifically to accommodate the needs of end-to-end testing. Playwright supports all modern rendering engines including Chromium, WebKit, and Firefox. Test on Windows, Linux, and macOS, locally or on CI, headless or headed with native mobile emulation of Google Chrome for Android and Mobile Safari.
Get started by installing Playwright and generating a test to see it in action. Alternatively you can also get started and run your tests using the [CLI](./intro.md).
Install the [VS Code extension from the marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-playwright.playwright) or from the extensions tab in VS Code.
<imgwidth="1100"alt="VS Code extension for Playwright"src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/13063165/197744119-5ed72385-2037-450b-b988-83b2f7554cf1.png"/>
Select **Test: Install Playwright** and Choose the browsers you would like to run your tests on. These can be later configured in the [playwright.config](./test-configuration.md) file. You can also choose if you would like to have a GitHub Actions setup to [run your tests on CI](./ci-intro.md).
You can run a single test by clicking the green triangle next to your test block to run your test. Playwright will run through each line of the test and when it finishes you will see a green tick next to your test block as well as the time it took to run the test.
You can also run your tests and show the browsers by selecting the option **Show Browsers** in the testing sidebar. Then when you click the green triangle to run your test the browser will open and you will visually see it run through your test. Leave this selected if you want browsers open for all your tests or uncheck it if you prefer your tests to run in headless mode with no browser open.
<imgwidth="1350"alt="Show browsers while running tests"src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/13063165/197714311-1d8c0955-9c5b-44ec-b429-160fa3d6b7a4.png"/>
View all tests in the testing sidebar and extend the tests by clicking on each test. Tests that have not been run will not have the green check next to them. Run all tests by clicking on the white triangle as you hover over the tests in the testing sidebar.
<imgwidth="1114"alt="Run all tests in file"src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/13063165/197712455-496f5300-79ed-4eae-9cc1-52cc9f3c019b.png"/>
The VS Code test runner runs your tests on the default browser of Chrome. To run on other/multiple browsers click the play button's dropdown and choose another profile or modify the default profile by clicking **Select Default Profile** and select the browsers you wish to run your tests on.
Choose various or all profiles to run tests on multiple profiles. These profiles are read from the [playwright.config](./test-configuration.md) file. To add more profiles such as a mobile profile, first add it to your config file and it will then be available here.
If your test fails VS Code will show you error messages right in the editor showing what was expected, what was received as well as a complete call log.
<imgwidth="1339"alt="error messaging in vs code"src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/13063165/197967016-b4c35689-0c04-4ea3-a288-35b98056efec.png"/>
To set a breakpoint click next to the line number where you want the breakpoint to be until a red dot appears. Run the tests in debug mode by right clicking on the line next to the test you want to run. A browser window will open and the test will run and pause at where the breakpoint is set.
<imgwidth="1149"alt="setting debug test mode"src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/13063165/197715919-98f32957-2ae1-478b-9588-d93cc4548c67.png"/>
You can modify your test right in VS Code while debugging and Playwright will highlight the selector in the browser. This is a great way of seeing if the selector exits or if there is more than one result. You can step through the tests, pause the test and rerun the tests from the menu in VS Code.
<imgwidth="1350"alt="Live Debugging in VS Code"src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/13063165/197967885-512df81f-12e3-45e5-b90f-42ed0f064eac.png"/>
Debug your tests on specific browsers by selecting a profile from the dropdown. Set the default profile or select more than one profile to debug various profiles. Playwright will launch the first profile and once finished debugging it will then launch the next one.
<imgwidth="1221"alt="debugging on specific profile"src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/13063165/197738552-06aa8a83-6a6b-4aad-ab23-d449640e1f5f.png"/>
To learn more about debugging, see [Debugging in Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/debugging).
CodeGen will auto generate your tests for you as you perform actions in the browser and is a great way to quickly get started. The viewport for the browser window is set to a specific width and height. See the [configuration guide](./test-configuration.md) to change the viewport or emulate different environments.
To record a test click on the **Record new** button from the Testing sidebar. This will create a `test-1.spec.ts` file as well as open up a browser window. In the browser go to the URL you wish to test and start clicking around. Playwright will record your actions and generate a test for you. Once you are done recording click the **cancel** button or close the browser window. You can then inspect your `test-1.spec.ts` file and see your generated test.
To record from a specific point in your test file click the **Record at cursor** button from the Testing sidebar. This generates actions into the existing test at the current cursor position. You can run the test, position the cursor at the end of the test and continue generating the test.
Pick a locator and copy it into your test file by clicking the **Pick locator** button form the testing sidebar. Then in the browser click the element you require and it will now show up in the **Pick locator** box in VS Code. Press 'enter' on your keyboard to copy the locator into the clipboard and then paste anywhere in your code. Or press 'escape' if you want to cancel.
