Playwright in Drupal (in DDEV)

This project, building on lullabot/ddev-playwright, enables full support for Playwright testing of Drupal websites.

1. Supports fast parallel tests by installing sites into sqlite databases.
2. Enables Playwright tests to run Drush commands against a test site.
3. Shows browser console errors during the test.
4. Attaches PHP's error log to the Playwright test results.

Requirements

• The Drupal site must be using DDEV for development environments.
• The Drupal site is meant to be tested after a site install, like how Drupal core tests work.
• The Playwright tests must be using npm as their package manager, or creating an npm-like node_modules directory. It's unclear at this moment how we could integrate yarn packages into the separate directory Playwright requires for test libraries. PRs welcome!
• Playwright tests will be written in TypeScript.

How This Works

• This library includes an extended version of Playwright's test function that sets up and tears down isolated Drupal sites.
• We use Playwright's concept of "packages" to allow for a npm dependency to export a test function.
• Test requests from the web browser are directed to the right database though settings.php additions.
• drush-playwright does its own bootstrap to route drush commands to the right site.
• We use Task as a task runner to install Drupal and set up the tests. This allows developers to easily run individual components of the test setup and teardown without having to step through JavaScript, or reuse them in other non-testing scenarios.
• While as of this writing (March 2024) this is new code, a nearly identical version of this has been running on a real-world project for over a year.

Getting Started

Integrating this library into a site takes several steps. For the sake of completeness, these steps start as if you are starting a brand-new Drupal site.

Create the Drupal Site and Initialize DDEV

composer create-project drupal/recommended-project pwtest
composer require drush/drush
cd pwtest
ddev config --project-type drupal10
ddev get Lullabot/ddev-playwright
ddev start

Initialize Playwright Tests

mkdir -p test/playwright
ddev exec -- npx create-playwright@latest --lang=TypeScript --quiet test/playwright --no-browsers

Install Playwright Dependencies

This command will build a web image that contains the browsers we omitted above. Building this way allows for much faster startup times for environments that don't need Playwright, and also allows for caching of large downloads.

ddev install-playwright

Check Playwright Works

Before going further, make sure Playwright can run a sample test against https://playwright.dev.

ddev exec -d /var/www/html/test/playwright npx playwright test

Add the playwright-drupal Integration

ddev exec -d /var/www/html/test/playwright npm i playwright-drupal

# Or, to pull from GitHub's main branch:
ddev exec -d /var/www/html/test/playwright npm i playwright-drupal@github:Lullabot/playwright-drupal

Configure Playwright

Set the following in test/playwright/tsconfig.json, merging with any existing configuration:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "noEmit": true,
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "paths": {
      "~": ["./src"],
      "~*": ["./src/*"],
      "@packages/playwright-drupal": ["./packages/playwright-drupal"]
    }
  },
  "include": [
    "tests/**/*.ts"
  ]
}

Add the following globalSetup and use line to the defineConfig section in test/playwright/playwright.config.ts:

export default defineConfig({
  globalSetup: require.resolve('./node_modules/playwright-drupal/lib/setup/global-setup'),
  baseURL: process.env.DDEV_PRIMARY_URL,
  use: {
    ignoreHTTPSErrors: true,
  }
})

Ignore playwright-drupal from Git

We have to copy the library outside the node_modules directory for Playwright to work correctly. Ignore this directory from git, since it's effectively a npm package:

echo '/packages/playwright-drupal' >> test/playwright/.gitignore

Create Taskfile.yml

In the root of your project, create Taskfile.yml:

version: '3'
silent: true
includes:
  playwright:
    taskfile: test/playwright/node_modules/playwright-drupal/tasks/playwright.yml
    optional: true

Add Playwright to Drupal's Settings

Add the following line to web/sites/default/settings.php:

include '../test/playwright/node_modules/playwright-drupal/settings/settings.playwright.php';

Create and Run an Example Drupal Test

Copy the following to test/playwright/tests/example.drupal.spec.ts.

import { test, expect, execDrushInTestSite } from '@packages/playwright-drupal';

test('has title', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/');

  // Expect a title "to contain" a substring.
  await expect(page).toHaveTitle(/Playwright/);
});

// This tests proves parallel databases work by setting a random title for the
// first node created in the site.
test('proves parallel tests work', async ({ page }) => {
  await execDrushInTestSite('user:password admin "correct horse battery staple"');
  await page.goto('/user/login');
  const username = page.getByLabel('Username');
  const password = page.getByLabel('Password');
  const loginButton = page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Log in' });
  await username.fill('admin');
  await password.fill('correct horse battery staple');
  await loginButton.click();

  await page.goto('/node/add/article');

  let randomTitle = (Math.random() + 1).toString(36).substring(2);
  await page.getByLabel('Title', { exact: true }).fill(randomTitle);
  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Save' }).click();

  await expect(page.url()).toMatch('node/1')

  await expect(page).toHaveTitle(`${randomTitle} | Playwright`);
  await expect(page.locator('h1')).toHaveText(randomTitle);
});

Run the test with:

ddev playwright test

# Or you can run inside the container with:
ddev ssh
cd test/playwright
npx playwright test

You should see output similar to this. If you see JavaScript browser console errors, those are likely Drupal core bugs to investigate and report.

$ ddev playwright test
Task playwright:install:hook does not exist. Running drush site:install --yes...
 You are about to:
 * CREATE the '/tmp/sqlite/.ht.sqlite' database.

 // Do you want to continue?: yes.

 [notice] Starting Drupal installation. This takes a while.
 [notice] Performed install task: install_select_language
 [notice] Performed install task: install_select_profile
 [notice] Performed install task: install_load_profile
 [notice] Performed install task: install_verify_requirements
 [notice] Performed install task: install_verify_database_ready
 [notice] Performed install task: install_base_system
 [notice] Performed install task: install_bootstrap_full
 [notice] Performed install task: install_profile_modules
 [notice] Performed install task: install_profile_themes
 [notice] Performed install task: install_install_profile
 [notice] Performed install task: install_configure_form
 [notice] Performed install task: install_finished
 [success] Installation complete.  User name: admin  User password: ifVQZgGpRK

Running 6 tests using 4 workers

  ✓  1 [chromium] › example.spec.ts:3:5 › has title (1.9s)
     2 [firefox] › example.spec.ts:3:5 › has title
  ✓  2 [firefox] › example.spec.ts:3:5 › has title (2.4s)
  ✓  3 [chromium] › example.spec.ts:12:5 › proves parallel tests work (4.2s)
  ✓  4 [firefox] › example.spec.ts:12:5 › proves parallel tests work (4.5s)
  ✓  5 [webkit] › example.spec.ts:3:5 › has title (1.6s)

 [success] Changed password for admin.


 [success] Changed password for admin.

  ✓  6 [webkit] › example.spec.ts:12:5 › proves parallel tests work (2.8s)

 [success] Changed password for admin.


  6 passed (9.9s)

To open last HTML report run:

  npx playwright show-report

You're now ready for the hard part - writing tests for your own application! 🙌

Writing Tests

The important part of writing a test is to use the Test class shipped with this library (that extends Playwright's normal Test class):

import { test, expect } from '@packages/playwright-drupal';

This will trigger the setup and teardown of the separate Drupal site.

If you have a test that you don't want to run this way, import test and expect from @playwright/test as normal.

Visual Comparisons (Diffs)

Playwright Visual Comparisons are a great way to add additional assertions to your tests. Since visual comparisons are integrated into the testing system, developers can compare all aspects of a site - including content forms or other authenticated content.

We've found that taking a screenshot for a visual comparison is a great point to check for accessibility issues. Unlike other steps in a test, a visual comparison is specifically declaring that the page is ready for human consumption.

The takeAccessibleScreenshot() method will:

1. Ensure that complex pages like node forms have time to stabilize before taking screenshots.
2. Handle browsers that have non-deterministic rendering of images (in particular, WebP) and allow for minute pixel differences in images that are not observable by a human.
3. Automatically trigger loading of all lazy-loaded images.
4. Automatically trigger loading of all lazy-loaded iframes.
5. Generate an accessibility report of the element being tested.

The accessibility reports save a JSON object with all accessibility failures. Commit these to your repository to mark those failures as ignored. Pages with no failures will generate a report with an empty array ([]).

Visual Comparisons for Static Content

The above workflow is great for testing after creating or editing content. However, teams may also want visual comparisons purely of the front-end. In that case, there's no concurrency issues (every request can use the same Drupal database), and often the content itself comes from a test website whose database has been copied down.

The VisualDiffTestCases class scaffolds out support for this use case, including:

• The ability to define a configuration file of URLs to test.
• Grouping of related tests for better reporting.
• The ability to skip specific tests. This is useful when a test is added and later determined to be flaky.
• Links to related content, such as a link to a production URL similar to the tested content, or a ticket for fixing the underlying reason behind a skipped test.

To set up visual comparisons this way:

1. Create a file at test/playwright/src/visualdiff-urls.ts to hold pages to compare. Here is an example using the Drupal Umami install profile.

import { defineVisualDiffConfig } from '@packages/playwright-drupal';

export const config = defineVisualDiffConfig({
  name: "Umami Visual Diffs",
  description: "Execute a series of visual diffs against the Umami site.",
  groups: [
    {
      name: "Landing Pages",
      description: "Pages built with Layout Builder and Views.",
      // There isn't a stable link to a running copy of the Umami profile, but
      // imagine this goes to a production website.
      representativeUrl: "https://drupal.org/...",
      testCases: [
        {
          name: "Home Page",
          path: "/",
        },
        {
          name: "Articles",
          path: "/en/articles",
        },
        {
          name: "Recipes",
          path: "/en/recipes",
        },
        {
          name: "Alternate Recipe View",
          path: "/en/recipes-alt",
          skip: {
            reason: "The recipes are listed in random order",
            willBeFixedIn: "https://drupal.org/node/12345",
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
});

2. Create a test file at test/playwright/tests/visualdiff/visualdiffs.spec.ts:

import {config} from '~/visualdiff-urls';

config.describe();

3. Update the Playwright configuration to skip these tests in normal functional tests, and skip normal functional tests when running these tests.

For all existing tests, add testIgnore like so:

{
  name: 'desktop chrome',
  testIgnore: '/visualdiff/*',
  use: { ...devices['Desktop Chrome'] },
},

Then, add the following as projects to run the new visual diffs, editing as needed.

{
  name: 'visualdiff-desktop',
  testMatch: '/visualdiff/*',
  use: { baseURL: "https://<MYPROJECT>.ddev.site/", ...devices['Desktop Chrome'] },
},
{
  name: 'visualdiff-tablet',
  testMatch: '/visualdiff/*',
  use: { baseURL: "https://<MYPROJECT>.ddev.site/", ...devices['Galaxy Tab S4'] },
},
{
  name: 'visualdiff-phone',
  testMatch: '/visualdiff/*',
  use: { baseURL: "https://<MYPROJECT>.ddev.site/", ...devices['Pixel 5'] },
},

Now, you can run just these tests with a command like:

# Run all visual diff tests, using path matching.
ddev playwright test -- tests/visualdiff

# Run all tests, but only at desktop.
ddev playwright --project 'visualdiff-desktop'

Including the Visual Comparison Drupal database as a fixture

It's important that the database with the content is tied to version control somehow. Otherwise, changes to content will yield false failures and developer tears. Since every site is different, we don't automatically set this up in this project. However, if you are using lullabot/drainpipe, you likely already have much of this wired up. Otherwise, consider adding something like the following to the end of your playwright:install:hook task:

# Now set up the Visual Comparison database.
unset PLAYWRIGHT_SETUP

# Remove any old databases from prior checkouts.
rm -f .private/databases/MYSITE-live_*_database.sql.gz

# Create the directory for first-runs.
mkdir -p ./private/databases

# Copy the database to the expected location before refreshing the site.
cp ./test/playwright/tests/visualdiff/fixtures/MYSITE-live_*_database.sql.gz ./private/databases/

# Restore the database, but don't download a new one, and don't enable
# development dependencies.
# "refresh" should be the command that imports the database, runs database
# updates, and so on.
task refresh site=@mysite no_fetch=1 production_mode=1

# Enable Stage File Proxy for images.
./vendor/bin/drush @mysite -y en stage_file_proxy

Replacing the test case with your own

The describe() function can optionally take a replacement test function. This is useful if you need to mock HTTP responses or add other custom logic.

import {config} from '~/visualdiff-urls';
import {defaultTestFunction, VisualDiff, VisualDiffGroup} from "@packages/playwright-drupal";
import {test, TestInfo} from "@playwright/test";

/**
 * Skips Firefox on /en/articles.
 */
const skipFirefox = function (testCase: VisualDiff, group: VisualDiffGroup) {
  const defaultFunction = defaultTestFunction(testCase, group);
  return async ({page, context, browserName}, testInfo: TestInfo) => {
    test.skip(browserName == 'firefox' && testCase.path == '/en/articles', 'Skip Firefox as we are trying to save CI budget.');
    await defaultFunction({page, context}, testInfo);
  };
}

config.describe(skipFirefox);

import {config} from '~/visualdiff-urls';
import {defaultTestFunction, VisualDiff, VisualDiffGroup} from "@packages/playwright-drupal";
import {TestInfo} from "@playwright/test";

/**
 * Mirror all console messages to the Playwright console, even if they aren't
 * errors.
 */
const consoleLoggingTestFunction = function (testCase: VisualDiff, group: VisualDiffGroup) {
  const defaultFunction = defaultTestFunction(testCase, group);
  return async ({page, context}, testInfo: TestInfo) => {
    context.on('console', (message) => {
      console.log(message.text());
    });

    await defaultFunction({page, context}, testInfo);
  };
}

config.describe(consoleLoggingTestFunction);

Replacing the Standard Profile With Your Own

Out of the box, we can't know what setup steps your site needs to work correctly. To use your own steps, add a playwright:install:hook task to your Taskfile. This will be called with the right environment set so that the site is installed into sqlite (and not your normal ddev database). From here, run Drush commands or call other tasks as needed to install your site. To test this when developing, feel free to call task playwright:install without actually running tests.

Running Drush in Tests

There's many good reasons to want to run Drush in a test. The above example sets a known password for an account so the test can log in. Other good reasons are to scaffold out test data, or turn on testing-related modules.

To run Drush during a test, use execDrushInTestSite as shown in the example test. This ensures that Drush bootstraps against the test site, and not the default site.

There may be times you want to run Drush once, globally before all tests. In that case, add a playwright:install:hook task to your Taskfile, and from there you can call Drush or anything else you may need to do during setup.

Running Tests Without Isolation

There are times you may want to run Playwright without isolating test runs. Perhaps you're manually scaffolding test content by hand, before writing code to create it. Or perhaps you would like to be absolutely sure that a test passes or fails when running against mariadb.

To do this, run export PLAYWRIGHT_NO_TEST_ISOLATION=1. This must be done inside a ddev shell (via ddev ssh) and not ddev playwright or ddev exec. Consider running Playwright with --workers=1 and with a single browser, since any changes to the database will persist.