Test private websites using Playwright

A guide to running your Playwright tests on your privately hosted websites.

BrowserStack enables you to run automated tests on your internal development environments, on localhost, and from behind a corporate firewall. This feature is called Local Testing.

Local Testing establishes a secure connection between your machine and the BrowserStack cloud. Once you set up Local Testing, all URLs work out of the box, including HTTPS URLs and those behind a proxy or firewall. Learn more about how Local Testing works.

Run your first Playwright test against a private website

Local Testing can be enabled through two methods and both of them have been detailed below:

Note: Testing on BrowserStack requires username and access key that can be found in account settings.
If you have not created an account yet, you can sign up for a Free Trial or purchase a plan.

Using npm package
Using binary

Local testing connection can be set up using the npm package for BrowserStack Local. Please follow the steps below to run our sample test:

Step 1: Clone our sample repository and install dependencies (if not already done)

All our sample tests are available on this GitHub repository. The first step is to download this repository on your system and install the dependencies as shown below:

Command Line
```
# The following command will clone the repository on your system

git clone https://github.com/browserstack/playwright-browserstack.git
cd playwright-browserstack
npm install
```
The important dependency for Local Testing is browserstack-local and you can install it in your project using npm i --save-dev browserstack-local
Step 2: Configuring BrowserStack credentials (if not already done)

All our sample scripts need your BrowserStack credentials to run. Please set the environment variables BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME and BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY with your credentials as shown below:

Command Line
```
export BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME="YOUR_USERNAME"
export BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"
```
Alternatively, your can put your credentials in the browserstack.username and browserstack.accessKey capabilities in the single_test.js file (and all other files) in the sample repository.
Step 3: Run your first Local test

After you have configured the credentials and installed the npm dependencies, you can invoke your first Playwright test against your internal environment on BrowserStack using the following:

Command Line
```
node local_test_using_bindings.js
```

Local testing connection can be set up using the npm package for BrowserStack Local. Please follow the steps below to run our sample test:

Step 1: Clone our sample repository and install dependencies (if not already done)

All our sample tests are available on this GitHub repository. The first step is to download this repository on your system and install the dependencies as shown below:

Command Line
```
# The following command will clone the repository on your system

git clone https://github.com/browserstack/playwright-browserstack.git
cd playwright-browserstack
npm install
```
Step 2: Configuring BrowserStack credentials (if not already done)

All our sample scripts need your BrowserStack credentials to run. Please set the environment variables BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME and BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY with your credentials as shown below:

Command Line
```
export BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME="YOUR_USERNAME"
export BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"
```
Alternatively, your can put your credentials in the browserstack.username and browserstack.accessKey capabilities in the single_test.js file (and all other files) in the sample repository.
Step 3: Download the BrowserStack Local binary from the links below (depending on your local machine’s environment):
Step 4: Once you have downloaded and unzipped the file, you can initiate the binary by running the command:

Command Line
```
./BrowserStackLocal --key YOUR_ACCESS_KEY
```
You can invoke the BrowserStackLocal binary using a lot of configurable options that may suit your use case.
Step 5: Once you see the terminal say “[SUCCESS] You can now access your local server(s) in our remote browser”, your local testing connection is considered established.
Step 6: Run your sample Local test

Command Line
```
node local_test.js
```

After the test has run, you can access the test results on the BrowserStack Automate dashboard.

Details of your first test

In this section, we will walk you through the details of the test that you just ran and also explain the changes (in comments) that you need to make in your existing Playwright scripts to make them run on BrowserStack using both the approaches.

Using npm package
Using binary

The sample script that has run, is shown below (see in GitHub):

local_test_using_bindings.js

const { chromium } = require('playwright');
const BrowserStackLocal = require('browserstack-local');

const cp = require('child_process');
const clientPlaywrightVersion = cp.execSync('npx playwright --version').toString().trim().split(' ')[1];

const bsLocal = new BrowserStackLocal.Local();

// replace YOUR_ACCESS_KEY with your key. You can also set an environment variable - "BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY".
const BS_LOCAL_ARGS = {
    'key': process.env.BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY || 'YOUR_ACCESS_KEY'
};

/**
 * Mark test status on BrowserStack.
 *
 * @param {Page} page - Page object created by Puppeteer context.
 * @param {String} status - Status string can be either passed|failed.
 * @param {String} reason - Explanatory reason for the status marked.
 * @return {Promise<String>} Stringified response from BrowserStack regarding the
 * execution of the jsExecutor.
 */
function markTest(page, status, reason) {
    return page.evaluate(
        _ => {},
        `browserstack_executor: ${JSON.stringify({
            action: 'setSessionStatus',
            arguments: { status, reason }
        })}`);
}

/**
 * Driver Test Function.
 *
 * @async
 * @return {Promise<void>}
 */
async function testFn() {
    console.log('Started BrowserStackLocal');

    // Check if BrowserStack local instance is running
    console.log(`BrowserStackLocal running: ${bsLocal.isRunning()}`);

    const caps = {
        'browser': 'edge',  // allowed browsers are `chrome`, `edge`, `playwright-chromium`, `playwright-firefox` and `playwright-webkit`
        'os': 'osx',
        'os_version': 'catalina',
        'name': 'Playwright sample Local test',
        'build': 'playwright-build-3',
        'browserstack.local': 'true',
        'browserstack.username': process.env.BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME || 'YOUR_USERNAME',
        'browserstack.accessKey': process.env.BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY || 'YOUR_ACCESS_KEY',
        'client.playwrightVersion': clientPlaywrightVersion  // Playwright version being used on your local project needs to be passed in this capability for BrowserStack to be able to map request and responses correctly
    };

    // Use `.connect()` to initiate an Automate session on BrowserStack
    const browser = await chromium.connect({
        wsEndpoint: `wss://cdp.browserstack.com/playwright?caps=${encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify(caps))}`,
      });
    // BrowserStack specific code ends here

    const page = await browser.newPage();
    await page.goto('http://localhost:45691');
    try {
        await page.waitForFunction(
            `document
                .querySelector("body")
                .innerText
                .includes("This is an internal server for BrowserStack Local")`,
        );
        // Following line of code is responsible for marking the status of the
        // test on BrowserStack as 'passed'. You can use this code in your
        // after hook after each test
        await markTest(page, 'passed', 'Local is up and running');
    } catch {
        await markTest(page, 'failed', 'BrowserStack Local binary is not running');
    }
    await browser.close();

    // Stop the Local instance after your test run is completed, i.e after driver.quit
    bsLocal.stop(() => console.log('Stopped BrowserStackLocal'));
}

// Starts the Local instance with the required arguments
bsLocal.start(BS_LOCAL_ARGS, testFn);

The sample script that has run, is shown below (see in GitHub):

local_test.js

const expect = require('chai').expect
const { chromium } = require('playwright');

const cp = require('child_process');
const clientPlaywrightVersion = cp.execSync('npx playwright --version').toString().trim().split(' ')[1];

(async () => {
  const caps = {
  	'browser': 'chrome',  // allowed browsers are `chrome`, `edge`, `playwright-chromium`, `playwright-firefox` and `playwright-webkit`
    'os': 'osx',
    'os_version': 'catalina',
    'name': 'Playwright sample Local test',
    'build': 'playwright-build-3',
    'browserstack.local': 'true',
    'browserstack.username': process.env.BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME || 'YOUR_USERNAME',
    'browserstack.accessKey': process.env.BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY || 'YOUR_ACCESS_KEY',
    'client.playwrightVersion': clientPlaywrightVersion  // Playwright version being used on your local project needs to be passed in this capability for BrowserStack to be able to map request and responses correctly
  };
  const browser = await chromium.connect({
    wsEndpoint: `wss://cdp.browserstack.com/playwright?caps=${encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify(caps))}`,
  });
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.goto('http://localhost:45454');
  const title = await page.title('');
  console.log(title);
  try {
    expect(title).to.equal("BrowserStack Local", 'Expected page title is incorrect!');
    // following line of code is responsible for marking the status of the test on BrowserStack as 'passed'. You can use this code in your after hook after each test
    await page.evaluate(_ => {}, `browserstack_executor: ${JSON.stringify({action: 'setSessionStatus',arguments: {status: 'passed',reason: 'Local connection established successfully'}})}`);
  } catch {
    await page.evaluate(_ => {}, `browserstack_executor: ${JSON.stringify({action: 'setSessionStatus',arguments: {status: 'failed',reason: 'Page title did not match'}})}`);
  }
  await browser.close();
})();

Note: Playwright tests run on BrowserStack using a client-server architecture. So, test assertions run on the client side and hence BrowserStack won’t know whether your tests have passed or failed. Learn more how to mark tests as passed or failed on BrowserStack.

You can learn more about how to make your existing Playwright scripts run on BrowserStack and you can also learn about how to run cross-browser Playwright tests in parallel.