When testing multi-user applications with Playwright, managing different user roles and sessions efficiently is crucial. This can be achieved by leveraging custom fixtures to provide fresh page object instances to use to test user actions and application behavior in a clean and maintainable fashion. In this post, we’ll explore how to create custom page object fixtures to use for testing a multi-user application. Our approach is to override the built-in browser fixture and create multiple isolated browser contexts for multiple users.

Introduction to Page Object Fixtures

Page object fixtures in Playwright allow you to define reusable setup and teardown logic that can be shared across multiple tests. This approach simplifies test maintenance by capturing element selectors in one place and providing an abstraction layer for interacting with your application.

Playwright Built-In Fixtures

Playwright provides built-in fixtures for browser instances, contexts, and pages, ensuring each test runs in an isolated environment. However, this setup is designed for single-user scenarios, where each test case uses a separate browser context within a larger browser instance.

Playwright’s built-in fixtures include:

• Browser Instance: Shared across tests in the same worker for efficiency.
• Browser Context: Isolated for each test, providing a fresh environment.
• Page Instance: Created within the context for each test.

These fixtures are ideal for single-user tests but need to be adapted for multi-user scenarios.

Overriding the Browser Fixture for Multi-User Testing

To test a multi-user application, you need multiple browser contexts within a single browser instance. This requires overwriting the default browser fixture so that it is scoped to each test case rather than worker.

Creating Browser Contexts

Now that our browser fixture is scoped to each test cases, we can now create multiple isolated browser contexts for multiple user roles.

Creating Page Fixtures

To effectively use the created browser contexts, you must create a page instance within each context. This page instance is served as a page fixture that you can pass into your page object models.

Using Flags for Local and Cloud Runs

When running tests locally versus in the cloud, you might need to configure your browser differently. For instance, you might use a headless browser in the cloud but a headed browser locally. You can use a flag to differentiate between these environments.

Conclusion

By leveraging page object fixtures and overriding the browser fixture, you can efficiently manage multiple user roles in your Playwright tests. Using flags to differentiate between local and cloud runs ensures that your tests are adaptable to various environments. This approach not only simplifies test maintenance but also enhances the reliability of your test suite.