Introduction to Playwright-Python: Installation, Usage, and Automation Examples

Microsoft has open‑sourced the Playwright‑Python project, a powerful automation tool that can control Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit browsers through a single API, supporting both headless and headed modes on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

1. Playwright Overview

Playwright enables pure Python automation without writing low‑level code, offering fast, reliable, and cross‑browser testing capabilities, including mobile device emulation.

2. Playwright Usage

Installation

pip install playwright
python -m playwright install

The first command installs the Playwright library, and the second installs the required browser drivers.

Recording (codegen)

python -m playwright codegen

Running the above command opens a browser; user actions are recorded and translated into code.

Codegen Options

python -m playwright codegen --help
Usage: index codegen [options] [url]

Options:
  -o, --output <file name>   saves the generated script to a file
  --target <language>        language to use, one of javascript, python, python-async, csharp (default: "python")
  -h, --help                 display help for command

Examples:
  $ codegen
  $ codegen --target=python
  $ -b webkit codegen https://example.com

Example generated script:

from playwright import sync_playwright

def run(playwright):
    browser = playwright.chromium.launch(headless=False)
    context = browser.newContext()
    page = context.newPage()
    page.goto("https://www.baidu.com/")
    page.click("input[name=wd]")
    page.fill("input[name=wd]", "jingdong")
    page.click("text=京东")
    with page.expect_navigation():
        with page.expect_popup() as popup_info:
            page.click("//a[normalize-space(.)='京东JD.COM官网 多快好省 只为品质生活']")
        page1 = popup_info.value
    context.close()
    browser.close()

with sync_playwright() as playwright:
    run(playwright)

Synchronous API Example

from playwright import sync_playwright
with sync_playwright() as p:
    for browser_type in [p.chromium, p.firefox, p.webkit]:
        browser = browser_type.launch()
        page = browser.newPage()
        page.goto('https://baidu.com/')
        page.screenshot(path=f'example-{browser_type.name}.png')
        browser.close()

Asynchronous API Example

import asyncio
from playwright import async_playwright
async def main():
    async with async_playwright() as p:
        for browser_type in [p.chromium, p.firefox, p.webkit]:
            browser = await browser_type.launch()
            page = await browser.newPage()
            await page.goto('http://baidu.com/')
            await page.screenshot(path=f'example-{browser_type.name}.png')
            await browser.close()
asyncio.get_event_loop().run_until_complete(main())

Mobile Device Emulation

from playwright import sync_playwright
with sync_playwright() as p:
    iphone_11 = p.devices['iPhone 11 Pro']
    browser = p.webkit.launch(headless=False)
    context = browser.newContext(
        **iphone_11,
        locale='en-US',
        geolocation={'longitude': 12.492507, 'latitude': 41.889938},
        permissions=['geolocation']
    )
    page = context.newPage()
    page.goto('https://maps.google.com')
    page.click('text="Your location"')
    page.screenshot(path='colosseum-iphone.png')
    browser.close()

Playwright also integrates with pytest for test suites.

3. Summary

Advantages include support for all modern browsers (Chromium, Firefox, WebKit), cross‑platform execution, headless/headed modes, automatic waiting, robust selectors, network interception, and mobile emulation. Limitations are lack of support for legacy Edge/IE11, no Java or Ruby bindings yet, and reliance on desktop browsers for mobile simulation.

Despite these constraints, Playwright continues to evolve (currently at version 1.7.0) and remains a valuable tool for developers seeking a low‑learning‑curve, powerful automation solution.