Playwright - Set timeout, parallelisation and retries directly in your test files

• 00:02 Introduction to 'configure' method in Playwright
• 00:27 Setting up a test file for demonstrating configurations
• 01:53 Setting execution mode, retries and timeout
• 04:31 Configuring different parameters for top level and 'describe' block tests
• 06:30 Verifying that configurations only affect specific files

In the video tutorial, we dive into a feature of the describe annotation in Playwright - the configure method. Playwright facilitates various configurations for setting up tests, which are demonstrated using well-explained examples in the tutorial.

To begin with, we explore a test file in the code editor, featuring a single test scoped at the top level and a test scoped within a describe block. Then, we observe the impact of different configurations on the execution of these tests.

Notably, various aspects of the configuration can be controlled. For instance, the execution mode can be set to parallel or serial. Tests can also be retried multiple times or not retried at all, and the timeout duration can also be adjusted.

Next, we experiment with these configurations, starting with setting parallel execution, a retry value of one, and a timeout of 3000 milliseconds. After running the tests, it's noted that they are running in two separate workers due to the parallel mode being set, while the retries and timeouts also occur as configured.

The next piece of the video involves setting different configuration parameters for the tests inside the top level and the 'describe' block. It's shown that the configurations are respected in their respective scopes without affecting each other.

Finally, the video demonstrates that the configuration settings affect only the specific files in which they are set. We verify this by creating a duplicate of our test file without any configuration settings and noticing that the default values are used when the tests in this file are run.

In conclusion, the configure method provided by Playwright is a powerful way to manage the settings for your test scenarios, whether they are broad end-to-end tests or narrow, atomic tests.