Interface BrowserType<Unused>

BrowserType provides methods to launch a specific browser instance or connect to an existing one. The following is a typical example of using Playwright to drive automation:

const { chromium } = require('playwright');  // Or 'firefox' or 'webkit'.

(async () => {
const browser = await chromium.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com');
// other actions...
await browser.close();
})();

Type Parameters

  • Unused = {}

Hierarchy

  • BrowserType

Methods

  • This method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance. When connecting to another browser launched via BrowserType.launchServer in Node.js, the major and minor version needs to match the client version (1.2.3 → is compatible with 1.2.x).

    Parameters

    • wsEndpoint: string

      A browser websocket endpoint to connect to.

    • Optional options: ConnectOptions
      Optional

    Returns Promise<Browser>

  • This method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance. When connecting to another browser launched via BrowserType.launchServer in Node.js, the major and minor version needs to match the client version (1.2.3 → is compatible with 1.2.x).

    Parameters

    Returns Promise<Browser>

  • This method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance using the Chrome DevTools Protocol.

    The default browser context is accessible via browser.contexts().

    NOTE Connecting over the Chrome DevTools Protocol is only supported for Chromium-based browsers.

    Usage

    const browser = await playwright.chromium.connectOverCDP('http://localhost:9222');
    const defaultContext = browser.contexts()[0];
    const page = defaultContext.pages()[0];

    Parameters

    • endpointURL: string

      A CDP websocket endpoint or http url to connect to. For example http://localhost:9222/ or ws://127.0.0.1:9222/devtools/browser/387adf4c-243f-4051-a181-46798f4a46f4.

    • Optional options: ConnectOverCDPOptions
      Optional

    Returns Promise<Browser>

  • This method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance using the Chrome DevTools Protocol.

    The default browser context is accessible via browser.contexts().

    NOTE Connecting over the Chrome DevTools Protocol is only supported for Chromium-based browsers.

    Usage

    const browser = await playwright.chromium.connectOverCDP('http://localhost:9222');
    const defaultContext = browser.contexts()[0];
    const page = defaultContext.pages()[0];

    Parameters

    Returns Promise<Browser>

  • A path where Playwright expects to find a bundled browser executable.

    Returns string

  • Returns the browser instance.

    Usage

    You can use ignoreDefaultArgs to filter out --mute-audio from default arguments:

    const browser = await chromium.launch({  // Or 'firefox' or 'webkit'.
    ignoreDefaultArgs: ['--mute-audio']
    });

    Chromium-only Playwright can also be used to control the Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browsers, but it works best with the version of Chromium it is bundled with. There is no guarantee it will work with any other version. Use executablePath option with extreme caution.

    If Google Chrome (rather than Chromium) is preferred, a Chrome Canary or Dev Channel build is suggested.

    Stock browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are suitable for tests that require proprietary media codecs for video playback. See this article for other differences between Chromium and Chrome. This article describes some differences for Linux users.

    Parameters

    Returns Promise<Browser>

  • Returns the persistent browser context instance.

    Launches browser that uses persistent storage located at userDataDir and returns the only context. Closing this context will automatically close the browser.

    Parameters

    • userDataDir: string

      Path to a User Data Directory, which stores browser session data like cookies and local storage. More details for Chromium and Firefox. Note that Chromium's user data directory is the parent directory of the "Profile Path" seen at chrome://version. Pass an empty string to use a temporary directory instead.

    • Optional options: {
          acceptDownloads?: boolean;
          args?: string[];
          baseURL?: string;
          bypassCSP?: boolean;
          channel?: string;
          chromiumSandbox?: boolean;
          colorScheme?: "light" | "dark" | "no-preference";
          deviceScaleFactor?: number;
          devtools?: boolean;
          downloadsPath?: string;
          env?: {
              [key: string]: string | number | boolean;
          };
          executablePath?: string;
          extraHTTPHeaders?: {
              [key: string]: string;
          };
          firefoxUserPrefs?: {
              [key: string]: string | number | boolean;
          };
          forcedColors?: "active" | "none";
          geolocation?: {
              accuracy?: number;
              latitude: number;
              longitude: number;
          };
          handleSIGHUP?: boolean;
          handleSIGINT?: boolean;
          handleSIGTERM?: boolean;
          hasTouch?: boolean;
          headless?: boolean;
          httpCredentials?: {
              origin?: string;
              password: string;
              username: string;
          };
          ignoreDefaultArgs?: boolean | string[];
          ignoreHTTPSErrors?: boolean;
          isMobile?: boolean;
          javaScriptEnabled?: boolean;
          locale?: string;
          logger?: Logger;
          offline?: boolean;
          permissions?: string[];
          proxy?: {
              bypass?: string;
              password?: string;
              server: string;
              username?: string;
          };
          recordHar?: {
              content?: "omit" | "embed" | "attach";
              mode?: "full" | "minimal";
              omitContent?: boolean;
              path: string;
              urlFilter?: string | RegExp;
          };
          recordVideo?: {
              dir: string;
              size?: {
                  height: number;
                  width: number;
              };
          };
          reducedMotion?: "reduce" | "no-preference";
          screen?: {
              height: number;
              width: number;
          };
          serviceWorkers?: "allow" | "block";
          slowMo?: number;
          strictSelectors?: boolean;
          timeout?: number;
          timezoneId?: string;
          tracesDir?: string;
          userAgent?: string;
          videoSize?: {
              height: number;
              width: number;
          };
          videosPath?: string;
          viewport?: {
              height: number;
              width: number;
          };
      }
      Optional
      • Optional acceptDownloads?: boolean

        Whether to automatically download all the attachments. Defaults to true where all the downloads are accepted.

      • Optional args?: string[]

        NOTE Use custom browser args at your own risk, as some of them may break Playwright functionality.

        Additional arguments to pass to the browser instance. The list of Chromium flags can be found here.

      • Optional baseURL?: string

        When using page.goto(url[, options]), page.route(url, handler[, options]), page.waitForURL(url[, options]), page.waitForRequest(urlOrPredicate[, options]), or page.waitForResponse(urlOrPredicate[, options]) it takes the base URL in consideration by using the URL() constructor for building the corresponding URL. Unset by default. Examples:

        • baseURL: http://localhost:3000 and navigating to /bar.html results in http://localhost:3000/bar.html
        • baseURL: http://localhost:3000/foo/ and navigating to ./bar.html results in http://localhost:3000/foo/bar.html
        • baseURL: http://localhost:3000/foo (without trailing slash) and navigating to ./bar.html results in http://localhost:3000/bar.html
      • Optional bypassCSP?: boolean

        Toggles bypassing page's Content-Security-Policy. Defaults to false.

      • Optional channel?: string

        Browser distribution channel. Supported values are "chrome", "chrome-beta", "chrome-dev", "chrome-canary", "msedge", "msedge-beta", "msedge-dev", "msedge-canary". Read more about using Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

      • Optional chromiumSandbox?: boolean

        Enable Chromium sandboxing. Defaults to false.

      • Optional colorScheme?: "light" | "dark" | "no-preference"

        Emulates 'prefers-colors-scheme' media feature, supported values are 'light', 'dark', 'no-preference'. See page.emulateMedia([options]) for more details. Passing null resets emulation to system defaults. Defaults to 'light'.

      • Optional deviceScaleFactor?: number

        Specify device scale factor (can be thought of as dpr). Defaults to 1. Learn more about emulating devices with device scale factor.

      • Optional devtools?: boolean

        Chromium-only Whether to auto-open a Developer Tools panel for each tab. If this option is true, the headless option will be set false.

        Deprecated

        Use debugging tools instead.

      • Optional downloadsPath?: string

        If specified, accepted downloads are downloaded into this directory. Otherwise, temporary directory is created and is deleted when browser is closed. In either case, the downloads are deleted when the browser context they were created in is closed.

      • Optional env?: {
            [key: string]: string | number | boolean;
        }

        Specify environment variables that will be visible to the browser. Defaults to process.env.

        • [key: string]: string | number | boolean
      • Optional executablePath?: string

        Path to a browser executable to run instead of the bundled one. If executablePath is a relative path, then it is resolved relative to the current working directory. Note that Playwright only works with the bundled Chromium, Firefox or WebKit, use at your own risk.

      • Optional extraHTTPHeaders?: {
            [key: string]: string;
        }

        An object containing additional HTTP headers to be sent with every request. Defaults to none.

        • [key: string]: string
      • Optional firefoxUserPrefs?: {
            [key: string]: string | number | boolean;
        }

        Firefox user preferences. Learn more about the Firefox user preferences at about:config.

        • [key: string]: string | number | boolean
      • Optional forcedColors?: "active" | "none"

        Emulates 'forced-colors' media feature, supported values are 'active', 'none'. See page.emulateMedia([options]) for more details. Passing null resets emulation to system defaults. Defaults to 'none'.

      • Optional geolocation?: {
            accuracy?: number;
            latitude: number;
            longitude: number;
        }
        • Optional accuracy?: number

          Non-negative accuracy value. Defaults to 0.

        • latitude: number

          Latitude between -90 and 90.

        • longitude: number

          Longitude between -180 and 180.

      • Optional handleSIGHUP?: boolean

        Close the browser process on SIGHUP. Defaults to true.

      • Optional handleSIGINT?: boolean

        Close the browser process on Ctrl-C. Defaults to true.

      • Optional handleSIGTERM?: boolean

        Close the browser process on SIGTERM. Defaults to true.

      • Optional hasTouch?: boolean

        Specifies if viewport supports touch events. Defaults to false. Learn more about mobile emulation.

      • Optional headless?: boolean

        Whether to run browser in headless mode. More details for Chromium and Firefox. Defaults to true unless the devtools option is true.

      • Optional httpCredentials?: {
            origin?: string;
            password: string;
            username: string;
        }

        Credentials for HTTP authentication. If no origin is specified, the username and password are sent to any servers upon unauthorized responses.

        • Optional origin?: string

          Restrain sending http credentials on specific origin (scheme://host:port).

        • password: string
        • username: string
      • Optional ignoreDefaultArgs?: boolean | string[]

        If true, Playwright does not pass its own configurations args and only uses the ones from args. If an array is given, then filters out the given default arguments. Dangerous option; use with care. Defaults to false.

      • Optional ignoreHTTPSErrors?: boolean

        Whether to ignore HTTPS errors when sending network requests. Defaults to false.

      • Optional isMobile?: boolean

        Whether the meta viewport tag is taken into account and touch events are enabled. isMobile is a part of device, so you don't actually need to set it manually. Defaults to false and is not supported in Firefox. Learn more about mobile emulation.

      • Optional javaScriptEnabled?: boolean

        Whether or not to enable JavaScript in the context. Defaults to true. Learn more about disabling JavaScript.

      • Optional locale?: string

        Specify user locale, for example en-GB, de-DE, etc. Locale will affect navigator.language value, Accept-Language request header value as well as number and date formatting rules. Defaults to the system default locale. Learn more about emulation in our emulation guide.

      • Optional logger?: Logger

        Logger sink for Playwright logging.

      • Optional offline?: boolean

        Whether to emulate network being offline. Defaults to false. Learn more about network emulation.

      • Optional permissions?: string[]

        A list of permissions to grant to all pages in this context. See browserContext.grantPermissions(permissions[, options]) for more details. Defaults to none.

      • Optional proxy?: {
            bypass?: string;
            password?: string;
            server: string;
            username?: string;
        }

        Network proxy settings.

        • Optional bypass?: string

          Optional comma-separated domains to bypass proxy, for example ".com, chromium.org, .domain.com".

        • Optional password?: string

          Optional password to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.

        • server: string

          Proxy to be used for all requests. HTTP and SOCKS proxies are supported, for example http://myproxy.com:3128 or socks5://myproxy.com:3128. Short form myproxy.com:3128 is considered an HTTP proxy.

        • Optional username?: string

          Optional username to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.

      • Optional recordHar?: {
            content?: "omit" | "embed" | "attach";
            mode?: "full" | "minimal";
            omitContent?: boolean;
            path: string;
            urlFilter?: string | RegExp;
        }

        Enables HAR recording for all pages into recordHar.path file. If not specified, the HAR is not recorded. Make sure to await browserContext.close([options]) for the HAR to be saved.

        • Optional content?: "omit" | "embed" | "attach"

          Optional setting to control resource content management. If omit is specified, content is not persisted. If attach is specified, resources are persisted as separate files or entries in the ZIP archive. If embed is specified, content is stored inline the HAR file as per HAR specification. Defaults to attach for .zip output files and to embed for all other file extensions.

        • Optional mode?: "full" | "minimal"

          When set to minimal, only record information necessary for routing from HAR. This omits sizes, timing, page, cookies, security and other types of HAR information that are not used when replaying from HAR. Defaults to full.

        • Optional omitContent?: boolean

          Optional setting to control whether to omit request content from the HAR. Defaults to false. Deprecated, use content policy instead.

        • path: string

          Path on the filesystem to write the HAR file to. If the file name ends with .zip, content: 'attach' is used by default.

        • Optional urlFilter?: string | RegExp

          A glob or regex pattern to filter requests that are stored in the HAR. When a baseURL via the context options was provided and the passed URL is a path, it gets merged via the new URL() constructor. Defaults to none.

      • Optional recordVideo?: {
            dir: string;
            size?: {
                height: number;
                width: number;
            };
        }

        Enables video recording for all pages into recordVideo.dir directory. If not specified videos are not recorded. Make sure to await browserContext.close([options]) for videos to be saved.

        • dir: string

          Path to the directory to put videos into.

        • Optional size?: {
              height: number;
              width: number;
          }

          Optional dimensions of the recorded videos. If not specified the size will be equal to viewport scaled down to fit into 800x800. If viewport is not configured explicitly the video size defaults to 800x450. Actual picture of each page will be scaled down if necessary to fit the specified size.

          • height: number

            Video frame height.

          • width: number

            Video frame width.

      • Optional reducedMotion?: "reduce" | "no-preference"

        Emulates 'prefers-reduced-motion' media feature, supported values are 'reduce', 'no-preference'. See page.emulateMedia([options]) for more details. Passing null resets emulation to system defaults. Defaults to 'no-preference'.

      • Optional screen?: {
            height: number;
            width: number;
        }

        Emulates consistent window screen size available inside web page via window.screen. Is only used when the viewport is set.

        • height: number

          page height in pixels.

        • width: number

          page width in pixels.

      • Optional serviceWorkers?: "allow" | "block"

        Whether to allow sites to register Service workers. Defaults to 'allow'.

        • 'allow': Service Workers can be registered.
        • 'block': Playwright will block all registration of Service Workers.
      • Optional slowMo?: number

        Slows down Playwright operations by the specified amount of milliseconds. Useful so that you can see what is going on.

      • Optional strictSelectors?: boolean

        If set to true, enables strict selectors mode for this context. In the strict selectors mode all operations on selectors that imply single target DOM element will throw when more than one element matches the selector. This option does not affect any Locator APIs (Locators are always strict). Defaults to false. See Locator to learn more about the strict mode.

      • Optional timeout?: number

        Maximum time in milliseconds to wait for the browser instance to start. Defaults to 30000 (30 seconds). Pass 0 to disable timeout.

      • Optional timezoneId?: string

        Changes the timezone of the context. See ICU's metaZones.txt for a list of supported timezone IDs. Defaults to the system timezone.

      • Optional tracesDir?: string

        If specified, traces are saved into this directory.

      • Optional userAgent?: string

        Specific user agent to use in this context.

      • Optional videoSize?: {
            height: number;
            width: number;
        }

        Deprecated

        Use recordVideo instead.

        • height: number

          Video frame height.

        • width: number

          Video frame width.

      • Optional videosPath?: string

        Deprecated

        Use recordVideo instead.

      • Optional viewport?: {
            height: number;
            width: number;
        }

        Emulates consistent viewport for each page. Defaults to an 1280x720 viewport. Use null to disable the consistent viewport emulation. Learn more about viewport emulation.

        NOTE The null value opts out from the default presets, makes viewport depend on the host window size defined by the operating system. It makes the execution of the tests non-deterministic.

        • height: number

          page height in pixels.

        • width: number

          page width in pixels.

    Returns Promise<BrowserContext>

  • Returns the browser app instance. You can connect to it via browserType.connect(wsEndpoint[, options]), which requires the major/minor client/server version to match (1.2.3 → is compatible with 1.2.x).

    Usage

    Launches browser server that client can connect to. An example of launching a browser executable and connecting to it later:

    const { chromium } = require('playwright');  // Or 'webkit' or 'firefox'.

    (async () => {
    const browserServer = await chromium.launchServer();
    const wsEndpoint = browserServer.wsEndpoint();
    // Use web socket endpoint later to establish a connection.
    const browser = await chromium.connect(wsEndpoint);
    // Close browser instance.
    await browserServer.close();
    })();

    Parameters

    • Optional options: {
          args?: string[];
          channel?: string;
          chromiumSandbox?: boolean;
          devtools?: boolean;
          downloadsPath?: string;
          env?: {
              [key: string]: string | number | boolean;
          };
          executablePath?: string;
          firefoxUserPrefs?: {
              [key: string]: string | number | boolean;
          };
          handleSIGHUP?: boolean;
          handleSIGINT?: boolean;
          handleSIGTERM?: boolean;
          headless?: boolean;
          ignoreDefaultArgs?: boolean | string[];
          logger?: Logger;
          port?: number;
          proxy?: {
              bypass?: string;
              password?: string;
              server: string;
              username?: string;
          };
          timeout?: number;
          tracesDir?: string;
          wsPath?: string;
      }
      Optional
      • Optional args?: string[]

        NOTE Use custom browser args at your own risk, as some of them may break Playwright functionality.

        Additional arguments to pass to the browser instance. The list of Chromium flags can be found here.

      • Optional channel?: string

        Browser distribution channel. Supported values are "chrome", "chrome-beta", "chrome-dev", "chrome-canary", "msedge", "msedge-beta", "msedge-dev", "msedge-canary". Read more about using Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

      • Optional chromiumSandbox?: boolean

        Enable Chromium sandboxing. Defaults to false.

      • Optional devtools?: boolean

        Chromium-only Whether to auto-open a Developer Tools panel for each tab. If this option is true, the headless option will be set false.

        Deprecated

        Use debugging tools instead.

      • Optional downloadsPath?: string

        If specified, accepted downloads are downloaded into this directory. Otherwise, temporary directory is created and is deleted when browser is closed. In either case, the downloads are deleted when the browser context they were created in is closed.

      • Optional env?: {
            [key: string]: string | number | boolean;
        }

        Specify environment variables that will be visible to the browser. Defaults to process.env.

        • [key: string]: string | number | boolean
      • Optional executablePath?: string

        Path to a browser executable to run instead of the bundled one. If executablePath is a relative path, then it is resolved relative to the current working directory. Note that Playwright only works with the bundled Chromium, Firefox or WebKit, use at your own risk.

      • Optional firefoxUserPrefs?: {
            [key: string]: string | number | boolean;
        }

        Firefox user preferences. Learn more about the Firefox user preferences at about:config.

        • [key: string]: string | number | boolean
      • Optional handleSIGHUP?: boolean

        Close the browser process on SIGHUP. Defaults to true.

      • Optional handleSIGINT?: boolean

        Close the browser process on Ctrl-C. Defaults to true.

      • Optional handleSIGTERM?: boolean

        Close the browser process on SIGTERM. Defaults to true.

      • Optional headless?: boolean

        Whether to run browser in headless mode. More details for Chromium and Firefox. Defaults to true unless the devtools option is true.

      • Optional ignoreDefaultArgs?: boolean | string[]

        If true, Playwright does not pass its own configurations args and only uses the ones from args. If an array is given, then filters out the given default arguments. Dangerous option; use with care. Defaults to false.

      • Optional logger?: Logger

        Logger sink for Playwright logging.

      • Optional port?: number

        Port to use for the web socket. Defaults to 0 that picks any available port.

      • Optional proxy?: {
            bypass?: string;
            password?: string;
            server: string;
            username?: string;
        }

        Network proxy settings.

        • Optional bypass?: string

          Optional comma-separated domains to bypass proxy, for example ".com, chromium.org, .domain.com".

        • Optional password?: string

          Optional password to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.

        • server: string

          Proxy to be used for all requests. HTTP and SOCKS proxies are supported, for example http://myproxy.com:3128 or socks5://myproxy.com:3128. Short form myproxy.com:3128 is considered an HTTP proxy.

        • Optional username?: string

          Optional username to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.

      • Optional timeout?: number

        Maximum time in milliseconds to wait for the browser instance to start. Defaults to 30000 (30 seconds). Pass 0 to disable timeout.

      • Optional tracesDir?: string

        If specified, traces are saved into this directory.

      • Optional wsPath?: string

        Path at which to serve the Browser Server. For security, this defaults to an unguessable string.

        NOTE Any process or web page (including those running in Playwright) with knowledge of the wsPath can take control of the OS user. For this reason, you should use an unguessable token when using this option.

    Returns Promise<BrowserServer>

  • Returns browser name. For example: 'chromium', 'webkit' or 'firefox'.

    Returns string

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