What steps can I take to manage the actions displayed in the 'Actions' tab in Playwright's UI Mode?

Answer

Here's how you can manage what appears in the 'Actions' tab in Playwright's UI Mode:

1. Run npx playwright test --ui to open the UI Mode.
2. You'll see a list of your test files in the sidebar. Expand each file and describe block to run, view, watch, and debug each test.
3. Use the search bar to filter tests by text or tags.

Playwright records every action during a test run and displays them in the 'Actions' tab. These actions include interactions like clicks, inputs, navigations, and more.

To customize what actions are displayed, you can modify your tests. For instance, you can add conditional statements or assertions before certain actions. This ensures they only appear if specific conditions are met.

You can also organize your tests into separate describe blocks based on different scenarios or functionalities. This way, only relevant actions are shown when viewing a particular block.

Here's an example in TypeScript:

import { test } from '@playwright/test';

test.describe('Login functionality', () => {
  test('Successful login', async ({ page }) => {
    await page.goto('https://ray.run/login');
    await page.fill('input[name="username"]', 'testuser');
    await page.fill('input[name="password"]', 'testpass');
    await page.click('button[type="submit"]');
    // Add assertion to check successful login
    const welcomeMessage = await page.innerText('.welcome-message');
    test.expect(welcomeMessage).toContain('Welcome, testuser');
  });
});

By structuring your tests thoughtfully and adding appropriate logic and assertions, you can control what appears in the 'Actions' tab. For more tips on writing efficient Playwright test scripts, check out this blog post.