Debug and fix a failing test case in Playwright by using UI mode to visually trace actions and ensure user nodes appear correctly.

Exercise 01 (Solution)

[00:00] So I've got this failed test, but to debug it I would love to see visually what's happening to my app as this test runs. To do that I will use a feature in Playwright called UI Mode. To run my tests in UI mode, I will use the same command npm run test end to end and provide it the UI flag. Running this test with the UI flag does not immediately run the tests, but instead you can see it brings forth this special DevTool window. This is the UI mode.

[00:30] Let's explore it in more detail. This window is split in numerous sections. So let's start from the left. I can see the list of all my tests over here, some controls, how to run them. I can search for tests by name or tags.

[00:42] I can refresh them in case I've added a new test and it's not appearing here. Here I can also have a server side logs which is really handy if I'm testing apps that have server side. So at least now I can see, okay, my application started correctly. There are no errors. This is already some great pieces of information when I'm debugging.

[00:58] Now I will run my failed test by hovering over it and clicking on this play button. Immediately you can see things happening on the screen. Here on the left, there is a list of actions that the test performs. Up top, there is this chart that allows me to travel in time, basically approaching and viewing my end to end test as if I'm editing a video. This is my timeline, which is really cool.

[01:20] On the right, I can see the browser representation, which gives me the look in the app live as the test goes through it. And below there are a couple panels that help me figure out what's happening, like errors that I see over here, what gets printed to console, the network request, and so forth. So now I know that my test failed. If I scroll down, I can see this is the fail assertion over here. If I double click on it, I will focus on this action.

[01:45] You can see this timeline focusing here, and I can explore what happened before this action and after. So before, I was on a different page, then I clicked on the notes, and I arrived at this screen. So at least I can confirm that the page navigation was correct, but something is still failing. And to figure out what, I will take a look at the failed assertion. So I know that it fails because this element assertion times out.

[02:09] But I can see this heading element on the page is right over here. So why is it erroring? I can double check myself and check the locator of this element if I click on this pick locator button. And now I can hover over elements on the page and by clicking on them, Playwright will print me this copy pasteable way to describe a locator for this element. So I don't wanna select the link here.

[02:32] I wanna select the heading that's a child of this link. I can see here in the area snapshot, then clink has this heading element with this accessible name. In this case, it's the text content of the element. But here's the thing. I can clearly see that it uses user's full name and not the username as the accessible text.

[02:51] And I think this is where I made a mistake. I constructed this locator incorrectly. Now instead of going back to my code and trying to find this failed assertion and this test, I can go there straight from the UI mode. If I go to the source, I can see that Playwright already selected this failed assertion. I can click on this open button, and I will immediately be brought back to my IDE focused exactly at the failed assertion.

[03:16] So So let's fix it. I know that instead of user dot username, I should use name instead. I will save this action, and I can run the test again, or even run it in watch mode perhaps, if we wanna do any more adjustments. So let's run it. Now the test goes through and finally passes.

[03:35] I can confirm that this last step actually found this element over here, you can see, and proceeded with asserting the list of notes and the particular notes content. The UI mode is really powerful, and Polaroid gives me a lot of tools here to figure out what's wrong with my tasks. And even more, when I wanna dive deeper and just open this exact browser window, I can go here in this overview and click on this open icon, and this will open the actual Chrome window that I can use to debug in whichever way I'm used to. Basically, I have all my dev tools here. The only thing to keep in mind is that the state of this app is frozen in time.

[04:09] It's no longer interactive. It is a snapshot. But it can still be useful because I can access a lot of elements. I can have that whole dome here under my fingertips, see the console, dive into sources, explore the network, and so forth, maybe even use my Chrome extensions to help me figure out what's wrong with my app. What I love about the UI mode is that I don't have to write my tests in any special way or have some configs for it to work.

[04:33] Just passing the UI flag is enough for Playwright to bring forth this UI mode and for me to take advantage of it while developing and debugging. What I actually like to do in my practice is just spawn the UI mode and keep it there in the background as I'm working on my app and as I'm writing my end to end tests. It gives me an immediate visual summary over my test suite and helps me debug failed tests when they happen. As you might have noticed, using the UI mode is equivalent to running your tests in the Hetful browser, the one you can see. So while that's handy while working on your tests locally, unfortunately that's not something you can use on the CI.

[05:07] That's what I would have said if Playwright didn't have a way of running any test in UI mode, even those tests that happened in the past.

UI mode

[00:00] I've added a new test case for user nodes, and they can be found by searching for them. But here's the thing, the test is failing. If I take a closer look at the test results, I can see that the reason it fails is because of this assertion. It tries to find an element by role heading with its accessible name equal to username's notes. But this element is never found, the assertion times out, and the test errors.

[00:22] So that probably means that this element is never on the page. Or is it? And this is where I need your help. Debug this failed test, find the root cause for that failure, and fix it. The tricky part here is that the test itself involves multiple steps, so we authenticate as the user, we go to the homepage, we search for a particular note, find the search results, click on the user, and then click on the exact note that we searched for to assert that it's visible.

[00:47] It would be really nice if you were able to go through those actions step by step and see them visually as Playwright performs them in your app. And that's exactly what UI mode is built for. And in this exercise, you will use the UI mode in Playwright to help you debug and fix the failing test.

Do you know this feeling when you finally trust your tests? When running them no longer makes you brace for impact, but instead gives you the confidence to ship without second-guessing every deploy. End-to-end tests rarely earn that trust. They've earned a reputation for being expensive, slow, and unreliable, and most of the time, that reputation is deserved.

Today, I want to change that for you with Playwright.

In this workshop, my goal is to make you rethink what end-to-end testing can be. That means stepping beyond the cargo-culted patterns that gave E2E tests their bad reputation in the first place. That means getting so good at Playwright that you would feel confident writing tests that are meaningful and performant, and, dare I say, a pleasure to maintain.

Welcome to the Playwright workshop!

## What You'll Learn

End-to-end tests can get really complex really fast. I will teach you how to deal with that complexity by making intentional choices throughout the workshop: from configuring Playwright to arranging your test setup to reduce flakiness and get the test suite that you can trust.

On top of that, you will be crafting your own test experience through custom fixtures, disposable test data, and reproducible authentication snapshots. This will help you orchestrate tests for complex, real-world applications.

### Fundamentals

In the first block, you will get comfortable with Playwright. From installing it and covering the essential configuration options for a great testing experience both locally and on CI, to getting familiar with the test structure, the `page` object, and why it gives you element *locators* instead of direct DOM references. You will wrap up by writing your own custom fixture for type-safe page navigation in your end-to-end tests.

### Authentication

You will learn the difference between testing authentication as a feature and testing features that are *behind* authentication. Yes, those require entirely different approaches. Then, you will write tests for the most common authentication methods in web applications. With **basic auth**, you will create a disposable `createUser()` utility that creates a test user in the database and deletes it when the test is done. With **two-factor authentication**, you will create test OTP tokens and store their verification records in the database for your test user. And with **passkeys**, you will leverage a Chrome Developer Protocol session to create a web authentication client with the passkey you provide and use it in your test.

After that, you will explore how to create and manage authentication in your test setup using [Personas](https://github.com/kettanaito/playwright-persona), reproducible snapshots of different authentication states that bridge the DX gap of `setStorageState` in Playwright.

### Guides

Next, you will dive straight into practical tips for writing end-to-end tests: from provisioning mock databases and test data to mocking client-side requests. As a bonus, I will show you how to write tests by recording your interactions in the browser using Playwright's extension for Visual Studio Code.

### Debugging

And yes, I've saved the best for last. Debugging.

It's become somewhat of a tradition to include debugging techniques in my workshops, and this one will be no different. You will master the UI mode to preview and debug your tests *visually*, and after that, learn how to debug failed CI tests with the Trace Viewer. **This is, seriously, such a time-saver.** No more guessing why a test failed three commits ago on a machine you don't have access to. You will have the entire test run at your fingertips.

## Who Is This Workshop For

This workshop is for any developer who wants to write end-to-end tests they can actually rely on. For everyone who has watched a CI pipeline turn red because of a flaky test that passes locally. For everyone who has been told that end-to-end tests are inherently slow and unreliable, and refused to accept that as the answer.

You don't need prior Playwright experience to get the most out of these exercises, but a working familiarity with modern web applications and a healthy skepticism toward the current state of E2E testing will serve you well.

Master Playwright end-to-end testing: setup, authentication (basic, 2FA, passkeys), mocking, fixtures, and debugging with UI mode and Trace Viewer.

React End-to-End Testing with Playwright

Artem Zakharchenko

Writing tests for their own sake is a pointless chore:

```tsx
describe('add numbers', () => {
  it('should add two numbers', () => {
    expect(add(1, 2)).toBe(3)
  })

  it('should add two other numbers', () => {
    expect(add(3, 4)).toBe(7)
  })
});
```

Another annoying testing problem is when tests are too brittle, and paint your logs red even though the application seems to work just fine.

When your tests lack real purpose or seem to fail for no good reason, it's no wonder you start to question their value.

Tests are supposed to give you confidence in your code, and save you from shipping broken stuff to prod. So why does writing them feel like such a burden?

The problem is that tests like these are focused on implementation details instead of the underlying behavior. Everyone talks about the importance of testing, but there's a lack of understanding about how to write tests that are actually useful.

How would it feel to have 100% trust in your tests, knowing that any failures are not a false alarm? What if you could seamlessly translate the underlying behavior of your application into tests that are easy (and even fun) to write?

It's possible, but it requires you to take a step back from just syntax.

In order to have the confidence you're testing the right things in the right ways, you need to dig into the underlying patterns behind the scenes of a testing framework.

This is exactly what you will do in Testing Fundamentals.

In this workshop, Artem Zakharchenko, testing expert and creator of the Mock Service Worker API mocking library, will guide you through creating your own version of the Vitest testing framework.

Building a testing framework from scratch will give you a deep understanding of how the pieces fit together, and change the way you think about testing for the better.

## What You'll Learn

The workshop is broken out into four parts, each with its own challenges and exercises that build upon the last:

### Principles

First, you'll explore the principles and mental models that underlie testing strategies. This is where you will begin to distinguish between the intention of your code and its implementation details. When you focus the intention of what your code should accomplish, you can write tests that are more resilient to change.

### Test Structure

Next, you'll do a deep dive into the structure of the testing framework. You'll create your own `expect` and `test` functions, configure your test environment, and use hooks to manage side effects in your tests.

### Testing Asynchronous Code

Testing asynchronous code requires a slightly different approach when compared to testing synchronous code. Here you'll practice with testing promises and async functions, as well as handling errors and rejections.

### Moving to Vitest

Once you've learned the fundamentals of testing and built your own mini-framework, you will migrate your tests to the Vitest framework. This process will cement your understanding of not just the "hows", but also the "whys" of testing.

## Who This Workshop Is For

This workshop is for developers who have some testing experience, but feel like they're missing the bigger picture. If you're tired of writing tests that feel like a chore, and want to understand how to write tests that are actually useful, this workshop is for you.

Testing Fundamentals

Let’s face it, mocking can be really confusing.

First, you need to know what to mock. Then, find the right way to mock that thing so it doesn’t compromise your test suite. Over-mock, and your tests become pointless. Under-mock, and they get brittle instead.

In either case, you put in so much effort, and you don’t feel like you’re getting much in return.

This is where Artem comes in. He’s been proving developer misconceptions around mocking wrong for nearly a decade, and he’s here to make you a mocking pro.

## What You’ll Learn

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn:

- The purpose of mocking;
- What to mock and when;
- How to write mocks that bring value instead of being a maintenance chore;
- How to separate your mocks from implementation details;
- Type safety strategies for your mocks;
- And **all the mocking techniques** you will need to test your code!

By solving targeted, real-world problems using the Vitest framework, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of mocking and finally unlock it as a useful tool in your testing arsenal.

## Workshop Structure

This workshop contains 6 exercise blocks dedicated to various techniques on mocking different data types.

### Boundaries

Understand what mocking really is, and learn how it helps you create test boundaries. See what each mock you introduce does to your tested code using visual metaphors.

### Mocking Functions

Functions are at the heart of JavaScript logic. Learn how to mock functions for effective input-output testing. Create mock functions, spy on function calls, and mock function implementation to tap into the right behaviors of the tested code.

### Mocking Date and Time

Eliminate the side effects of ever-changing date and time in your tests. Learn how to freeze time and mock date/time-dependent code to ensure consistent test results across different runs and time zones.

### Mocking Globals

Explore how to mock implicit dependencies, in a non-intrusive way. Learn to mock global values, methods, and environment variables to create the perfect test setup without meddling with things you don't own.

### Mocking Network

Gain control over network communication and test your client-side code reliably. Intercept requests and mock responses using Mock Service Worker. Reproduce various network scenarios, from success and error responses to offline behavior and response timing.

### Mocking Modules

Understand when to use module mocking and explore alternative techniques before you do. Learn how to mock modules in a type-safe and efficient way using built-in APIs in Vitest.

## Who This Workshop Is For

This workshop is meant for all developers, both those who are new to automated testing and those who’ve been writing tests for years. If you are unsure when to introduce mocks into your test suite, or how to do that so you don’t have to refactor it the next day, this workshop was made specifically for you.

Mocking Techniques in Vitest

The closer your tests resemble how your software is being used, the more confidence they will give you. There’s so many great patterns stemming from this simple rule, patterns I’m sure you’re already using to write better tests.

Then, there’s the elephant in the room. **Your test environment.**

For decades, web developers have been testing their UIs in make-believe environments that are neither the browser nor Node.js. It made them come up with a frankly ridiculous amount of test setup, polyfills, and workarounds just to make it work. Remember when you had to mock `location` in tests? `window.matchMedia`? Yeah…

It’s time to abandon such practices. The tools have improved and there’s no excuse for you to be sleeping on it. It’s time for you to learn how to use Vitest Browser Mode for in-browser component testing!

## What You’ll Learn

In this workshop, you will learn a new approach to component testing that’s both different and the same. It is different because you will write and run your tests in the actual browser, taking advantage of the standard APIs and powerful browser automation. It is the same because it’s still the component level test you know and love, with rendering, querying, and asserting. 

Your users don’t interact with the UIs you build in JSDOM. They do that in the real browser, and now your tests will too!

### **Sunsetting JSDOM**

The first step in our journey is understanding why browser-like environments fall short. JSDOM has served us well, but it's time to recognize its limitations. You'll experience firsthand how browser-like environments like JSDOM are letting you down.

We'll explore examples of valid JavaScript code that works perfectly in browsers and Node.js but fails in JSDOM, undermining the value of the tests you work so hard to write. You'll discover why these inconsistencies happen and why moving to real browser testing is the solution.

### **Vitest Browser Mode**

Vitest Browser Mode allows you to run isolated component-level tests in the actual browser while providing the convenience and flexibility of integration-level testing. It's not a full end-to-end testing framework like Playwright or Cypress, but rather the perfect middle ground for component testing.

In this module, you'll learn:

- How to install and configure Vitest Browser Mode in your project;
- The technical differences between how JSDOM and Browser Mode run your tests;
- Steps needed to migrate existing JSDOM tests to Browser Mode;
- How to set up Playwright as the browser automation provider for your component tests;
- Common setup scenarios like applying global assets in tests and configuring Vitest for both unit and component-level testing within the same project.

### **Best Practices**

Choosing the right tools is important, but knowledge that transcends any particular tool is even more valuable. In this section, we'll focus on five key areas of best practices when it comes to testing your React components:

- **Queries**: Find elements on the page the same way your users or their assistive technology would;
- **User events**: Interact with the tested elements from the user’s perspective;
- **API mocking**: Use Mock Service Worker to intercept requests and handle their responses as well as discover how to efficiently use MSW in Vitest Browser Mode by creating a custom test context;
- **Element presence**: Test elements that should (or shouldn't) appear on the page reliably without false positives or flaky results.
- **Page navigation**: Learn where to draw the line when testing page transitions and routing in the actual browser.

### **Debugging Tests**

The true value of tests comes when they fail. But dealing with failing tests can be quite frustrating without the right techniques.

In this block, you'll learn some of my favorite debugging techniques that go well beyond console logging:

- How to inspect the DOM state at any point in test;
- Using the debugger statement to stop JavaScript execution entirely;
- Wielding conditional breakpoints to step through the problematic code.

These techniques will transform your approach to test failures from dread to confidence so the next time you see a failing test you will know what to do.

## Who Is This Workshop For

This workshop is for all React developers who want to write reliable and valuable tests for their components. Whether you're new to component testing or have been writing tests for years, you will inevitably learn new tools, APIs, and techniques to gain more value out of your test suite. That’s my sole motivation behind this material.

React Component Testing with Vitest

Do you know this feeling when a tool “clicks”? When you suddenly become so comfortable with it that it’s no longer just a means to an end but an instrument to craft better experiences for yourself. Over the past decade, that transition has happened with a bunch of tools for me.

Today, I want it to happen for you with Vitest.

In this workshop, my goal is to make you a Vitest superuser. And that means stepping beyond the basics and into the advanced. That means getting so good at Vitest that you would feel confident crafting custom test experiences, understanding the inner works of your test runner, and equipping that knowledge to solve everything from complexity issues to poor test performance.

Welcome to the Advanced Vitest Patterns workshop!

## What You’ll Learn

The overarching theme of this workshop is ***customization***. I believe your experience with tools is defined by how well you understand them and how comfortable you are when it comes to customizing them. With this workshop, I’ve collected some of the best techniques and pieces of advice to make you a true Vitest superuser.

I’m also taking this workshop as an opportunity to teach you the importance of the test setup. Throughout the exercises, you will be crafting your own test experience through things like custom fixtures, matchers, and equality testers. This will help you orchestrate tests for complex, real-world applications.

### Setup

In the first block, you will get more comfortable with Vitest. From writing and debugging tests faster with the Vitest’s extension for Visual Studio Code, to configuring and visually exploring code coverage and setting up multiple test projects to use your test runner to the fullest.

### Context

You will learn how to customize your test experience by creating *custom fixtures*. Discover the fixture syntax, its life-cycle, and how to implement them in a type-safe way. Then, note down the best practices of fixture design to make sure your custom fixtures eradicate complexity, not introduce it.

### Assertions

Following the topic of customization, find out how you can supercharge your assertions. First, you will create your own matchers to help express your expectations toward your tested app and make your tests read like human language. Then, explore what is an equality tester and how you can teach the Vitest’s built-in `.toEqual` matcher to compare the incomparable.

Nail down how to write assertions for eventual states with `expect.poll` and become in full control of how much information you get out of failed assertions by understanding the balance between the hard and soft assertions.

### Performance

And yes, I’ve saved the best for last. Performance.

Learn how to profile slow test runs using built-in metrics in Vitest as well as the `vitest-profiler-plugin`. You will read the CPU and heap profiles, understand what they mean, and how you can use them to hunt down the problematic areas of your tests.

Everything past this point is techniques to make your tests faster. **We are talking up to x40 times faster** (that’s not a typo). Take a peek behind the scenes to see how Vitest orchestrates test runs and what defaults it has in place to ensure reliable results. Go through the difference between parallelization and concurrency in tests, explore the effects test isolation has on performance, and learn how to split your tests into shards for faster CI/CD jobs.

## Who Is This Workshop For

This workshop is for all developers who want to learn how to customize Vitest to create better, custom test experiences on top of it. For everyone who has felt like adding a new test in your project feels like fighting against the entire world. For everyone who has found themselves lost before a slow test suite.

As the name suggests, you will be going through advanced topics, which makes a prior basic experience with Vitest mandatory to get the most out of these exercises.

Advanced Vitest Patterns 

The Testing Bundle

Master Playwright for efficient end-to-end testing, covering setup, authentication, and debugging to enhance your web app's reliability.

React End-to-End Testing with Playwright Introduction

Workshop Introduction

Master end-to-end testing for web applications and ensure quality from UI to backend, using effective strategies to simulate real user scenarios.

Fundamentals Intro

Master end-to-end testing with Playwright by installing dependencies, configuring settings, and writing your first test to enhance your web development skills.

Install & configure

Refactor your Playwright configuration to run the Epic Notes app in tests. Enhance your end-to-end testing skills and ensure your app functions flawlessly.

Exercise 02 (Solution)

Running the app

Enhance your Playwright tests with type-safe routing. Implement a custom fixture to avoid navigation errors and streamline your end-to-end testing process.

Exercise 03 (Solution)

Custom fixtures

Master Playwright by installing, configuring, and implementing custom fixtures, then prepare for essential authentication testing in your app.

Fundamentals Outro

Fundamentals

Master end-to-end testing by effectively handling authentication as both a feature and a dependency, ensuring robust app functionality and user experience.

Authentication Intro

Master username and password authentication by creating a test user and implementing successful and failed login test cases to ensure robust functionality.

Basic

Master two-factor authentication testing by implementing OTP code verification. Enhance security in your app while building effective test cases with ease.

Two-factor authentication

Master passwordless authentication by writing end-to-end tests for passkey login flows using Playwright and enhance your web development skills today.

Passkeys

Master testing user behaviors behind authentication by managing notes in your app. Enhance your skills with practical, hands-on exercises.

Exercise 04 (Solution)

Protected logic

Master efficient authentication testing and enhance your end-to-end tests. Unlock the secrets to robust application security with Item 99.

Authentication Outro

Authentication

Master end-to-end testing by enhancing your setup with best practices, efficient test data management, and user-centric approaches for reliable results.

Guides Introduction

Enhance your testing strategy by isolating your test database. Set up a dedicated test environment with Playwright for reliable end-to-end testing.

Mock database

Master note management by testing user authentication and data handling. Prepare and clean test data to ensure seamless functionality in your application.

Test data

Master end-to-end testing by using Playwright to automate changing a user's name in an app. Enhance your skills and streamline your testing workflow!

Recording tests

Master API mocking with Playwright to ensure reliable end-to-end tests by intercepting third-party requests and creating stable test environments.

API mocking

Master debugging techniques in end-to-end testing and enhance your development skills. Dive into practical exercises and elevate your problem-solving abilities!

Guides Outro

Guides

Master debugging end-to-end tests with Playwright. Gain insights into test failures and enhance your app's reliability through effective strategies.

Debugging Introduction

Master debugging with Playwright's Trace Viewer to analyze a failed test run, identify issues, and enhance your testing efficiency. Fix it now!

Trace viewer

Master essential debugging in Playwright with UI mode, Trace Viewer, and more. Enhance your testing skills and troubleshoot like a pro!

Debugging Outro

Debugging

Master Playwright for comprehensive web app testing and enhance your skills with effective end-to-end user journey tests. Stay safe and test smart!

React End-to-End Testing with Playwright

React End-to-End Testing with Playwright

Transcript

UI mode

Transcript