Playwright Advanced Configuring
Environment Variable Expansion
All values in your saucectl
configuration support environment variable expansion. $var
in config.yml
will be replaced according to your shell's environment variables. References to undefined variables will be replaced with an empty string.
Predefined Environment Variables
The following environment variables are available during test execution.
Environment Variable | Description |
---|---|
SAUCE_JOB_ID | Job ID |
SAUCE_SUITE_NAME | Suite Name |
SAUCE_ARTIFACTS_DIRECTORY | Absolute path to the artifacts directory. Files placed in this folder are persisted with the Job. |
Tailoring Your Test File Bundle
The saucectl
command line bundles your root directory (rootDir
parameter of config.yml
) and transmits it to the Sauce Labs cloud or your own infrastructure via Docker, then unpacks the bundle and runs the tests. This functionality is partly what allows Sauce Control to operate in a framework-agnostic capacity. However, you can and should manage the inclusion and exclusion of files that get bundled to optimize performance and ensure security.
Excluding Files from the Bundle
The .sauceignore
file allows you to designate certain files to be excluded from bundling.
Add any files that are not direct test dependencies to .sauceignore
to reduce the size of your bundle, improve test speed, and protect sensitive information.
Examples of what can be included in .sauceignore
:
# .sauceignore
# Ignore node_modules
node_modules/
# Ignore all log files
*.log
# Ignore executables/binaries
*.exe
*.bin
**/*/bin
# Ignore media files
*.png
*.jpeg
*.jpg
*.mp4
# Ignore documentation
*.rst
*.md
# Ignore sensitive data
credentials.yml
Sometimes it's easier to do the inverse: Including files for the bundle.
# Ignore all files by default.
/*
# Re-include files we selectively want as part of the payload by prefixing the lines with '!'.
!/node_modules
!/cypress
!cypress.config.js
# Since the whole '/cypress' folder is now included, this would also include any
# subdirectories that potentially contain auto-generated test artifacts from
# the local dev environment.
# It'd be wasteful to include them in the payload, so let's ignore those subfolders.
/cypress/videos/
/cypress/results/
/cypress/screenshots/
Including Node Dependencies
The default .sauceignore
file lists node_modules/
so locally installed node dependencies are excluded from the bundle. If your tests require node dependencies to run, you can either:
Remove "node_modules" from .sauceignore
Delete or comment out node_modules/
in your .sauceignore
file to bundle your node dependencies. For example,
# Do NOT exclude node_modules from bundle
# node_modules/
Node dependencies can increase your bundle by potentially hundreds of megabytes, so consider including only the required dependencies rather than the entire node_modules
directory. The following sections provide some methods for limiting the scope of dependencies you must include.
Install "devDependencies" Only
Consider only installing NPM devDependencies
if your tests do not require all prod dependencies
.
# Only install dev dependencies
npm install --only=dev
saucectl run
Uninstall Nonessential Dependencies
If your standard install includes dependencies that aren't needed to run your tests, uninstall them prior to bundling.
# Install node dependencies
npm ci # or "npm install"
# Remove unneeded dependencies
npm uninstall appium
npm uninstall express
saucectl run
Install Essential Dependencies Individually
If you know that your tests require only specific dependencies, install them individually instead of running npm install
or npm ci
.
# Install individual dependencies
npm install playwright-xpath
npm install @playwright/react
saucectl run
Set NPM Packages in config.yml
You can avoid installing or uninstalling dependencies prior to each bundling operation by defining a default set of NPM packages to install in your sauce configuration file using the npm
parameter, as shown in the following example:
npm:
registry: https://registry.npmjs.org
packages:
lodash: "4.17.20"
"@babel/preset-typescript": "7.12"
"@playwright/react": "^5.0.1"
Alternatively, you can let saucectl
selectively include already installed dependencies from the node_modules
folder.
npm:
dependencies:
- lodash
This feature is highly experimental.
Attaching Test Assets
Any test assets created by your tests at runtime (such as logs, screenshots or reports) you wish to retain along with your test results must be placed in the __assets__
directory of your project root folder. On Sauce Labs VMs, this path is relative to the current working directory.
Test Screenshots uploaded to Sauce Labs are currently not viewable in Test Results screen of the Sauce Labs UI, but can be retrieved using the Get Job Asset File API. Alternatively, you can use the artifacts.download configuration parameter to download test assets to a local file upon completion of your test.
Nested assets are stored flat in Sauce Labs. A test asset like __assets__/mylogs/log.txt
would therefore be stored and available for download as log.txt
.
Please keep that in mind when creating custom assets, as examples like __assets__/mylogs/log.txt
and __assets__/myotherlogs/log.txt
would eventually collide when persisted.
Setting up a Proxy
If you need to go through a proxy server, you can set it through the following variables:
HTTP_PROXY
: Proxy to use to access HTTP websitesHTTPS_PROXY
: Proxy to use to access HTTPS websites
Docker Proxy Considerations
When running in docker-mode, saucectl
still must reach the Sauce Labs platform get the latest docker image available or upload the test package to Sauce Cloud, and the docker container needs to access the tested website and Sauce Labs to upload results.
Therefore, you may be required to set the proxy twice, as shown in the following examples:
PS> $Env:HTTP_PROXY=http://my.proxy.org:3128/
PS> $Env:HTTPS_PROXY=http://my.proxy.org:3128/
PS> saucectl run -e HTTP_PROXY=${Env:HTTP_PROXY} -e HTTPS_PROXY=${Env:HTTPS_PROXY}
$> export HTTP_PROXY=http://my.proxy.org:3128/
$> export HTTPS_PROXY=http://my.proxy.org:3128/
$> saucectl run -e HTTP_PROXY=${HTTP_PROXY} -e HTTPS_PROXY=${HTTPS_PROXY}
Filtering Tests
Playwright supports filtering tests using the grep
and grepInvert
options.
Reporters
By default, playwright on Sauce Labs runs with these preconfigured reporters:
- list: Prints results to standard output.
- junit: Creates junit.xml files.
- @saucelabs/playwright-reporter: Sauce Lab's own reporter that routes test results to the Test Results page.
If you have a custom reporter, simply set it in your playwright.config.js/ts file:
const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
reporter: [
['./fancy.reporter.ts'],
],
};
Your reporter runs automatically alongside our reporters.
We do not filter out duplicate reporters, which also means that if you already have a list
reporter set, you'd see twice the output.
If you'd like a different set of reporters when running on Sauce versus local, check the env variable SAUCE_VM
. In the following example, if SAUCE_VM
is set (which it will be when running on a Sauce Labs VM), then fancy.reporter.ts is used, otherwise just the built-in list
reporter.
const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
reporter: process.env.SAUCE_VM ? [
['./fancy.reporter.ts'],
] : 'list',
};
A limitation on Sauce Labs exists with playwright 1.27.1 or below, where the user defined reporter is only honored when defined as an array: reporter: [['./fancy.reporter.ts']]
. Using a string like reporter: './fancy.reporter.ts'
would therefore always be ignored.