feat: normalize whitespace to expect().toHaveValue()

[pengooseDev]

Closes #23037

This PR fixes the issue where inputValue returns non-breaking spaces (NBSP, U+00A0) instead of regular spaces. The previous PR attempted to address the problem within toHaveValue, but the root cause was identified as inputValue itself returning U+00A0.

• Although we initially tried to detect and normalize NBSP within toHaveValue, the normalization did not applied. For now, inputValue has been updated to replace NBSP with a regular space.
• I'm not entirely sure if modifying inputValue is the ideal solution, but it resolves the issue for the time being.

Additionally, if you could share reproduction steps or documentation (as mentioned in the previous PR feedback regarding web browser tests), it would greatly help in future improvements.

Thank you.

[Skn0tt]

This is a breaking change. Please put this behaviour change behind a flag, as pointed out in #23037 (comment). It should be configurable from expect().toHaveValue() as well.

[pengooseDev]

Thanks for nice feedback.

After adding the normalize flag to toHaveValue, I believe encouraging this usage pattern could effectively resolve the issue.

 await expect(locator).toHaveValue('Text and content');

However, third-party matchers—such as toContain (as seen in the provided example)—that do not offer a normalize option may still encounter this issue.

Additionally, none of the current matchers expose the normalizeWhiteSpace option externally. Following the team's existing approach, I have added the normalizeWhiteSpace flag accordingly. If the team later decides this flag should be exposed externally, I’d be happy to add it in a subsequent commit. :)

[pavelfeldman]

I'm not even sure we want to accept the patch, the issue does not sound convincing to me. Value is a value, so we should compare it as such with no tolerance for error.

[pengooseDev]

@pavelfeldman
I agree. It would be appreciated if the team could discuss whether to close the issue. :)

[github-actions]

Test results for "tests 1"

6 flaky

⚠️ [chromium-library] › tests/library/headful.spec.ts:233:3 › should click in OOPIF @chromium-ubuntu-22.04-node20
⚠️ [chromium-library] › tests/library/chromium/oopif.spec.ts:284:3 › should click @chromium-ubuntu-22.04-node22
⚠️ [firefox-page] › tests/page/page-evaluate.spec.ts:403:3 › should throw for too deep reference chain @firefox-ubuntu-22.04-node18
⚠️ [webkit-library] › tests/library/browsercontext-clearcookies.spec.ts:52:3 › should remove cookies by name @webkit-ubuntu-22.04-node18
⚠️ [webkit-library] › tests/library/browsercontext-device.spec.ts:45:5 › device › should scroll to click @webkit-ubuntu-22.04-node18
⚠️ [webkit-page] › tests/page/page-filechooser.spec.ts:24:5 › should upload multiple large files @webkit-ubuntu-22.04-node18

38678 passed, 794 skipped
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Merge workflow run.