New in Playwright end-to-end testing detect & close unpredictable overlays with addLocatorHandler
AI Summary
This video covers a new Playwright 1.42 method called
page.addLocatorHandlerthat improves handling of unpredictable UI elements like cookie banners or modal popups that appear randomly during tests. The presenter demonstrates the challenges of flaky tests caused by such random elements and how previously try-catch blocks were used to handle them but with drawbacks like slower tests and brittle code.Using
addLocatorHandler, Playwright can now check for these disruptive elements before every action or assertion, automatically handling them when they appear. This leads to more stable and robust tests, especially for non-deterministic user flows. The video explains how to add the handler, the best use cases (elements that appear randomly, not triggered by user actions), and caveats such as timeout considerations and how low-level actions might be impacted.Overall, the new method is framed as a significant improvement for end-to-end testing with Playwright, helping testers deal effectively with real-world UI interruptions. The presenter also recommends using Playwright in combination with Checkly for synthetic monitoring of production environments.