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Tracing

API for collecting and saving Playwright traces. Playwright traces can be opened in Trace Viewer after Playwright script runs.

NOTE: You probably want to enable tracing in your config file instead of using context.tracing.

The context.tracing API captures browser operations and network activity, but it doesn't record test assertions (like expect calls). We recommend enabling tracing through Playwright Test configuration, which includes those assertions and provides a more complete trace for debugging test failures.

Start recording a trace before performing actions. At the end, stop tracing and save it to a file.

browser.new_context do |context|
  context.tracing.start(screenshots: true, snapshots: true)
  page = context.new_page
  page.goto('https://playwright.dev')
  context.tracing.stop(path: 'trace.zip')
end

start​

def start(
      name: nil,
      screenshots: nil,
      snapshots: nil,
      sources: nil,
      title: nil)

Start tracing.

NOTE: You probably want to enable tracing in your config file instead of using Tracing.start.

The context.tracing API captures browser operations and network activity, but it doesn't record test assertions (like expect calls). We recommend enabling tracing through Playwright Test configuration, which includes those assertions and provides a more complete trace for debugging test failures.

Usage

context.tracing.start(screenshots: true, snapshots: true)
page = context.new_page
page.goto('https://playwright.dev')
context.tracing.stop(path: 'trace.zip')

start_chunk​

def start_chunk(name: nil, title: nil)

Start a new trace chunk. If you'd like to record multiple traces on the same BrowserContext, use Tracing#start once, and then create multiple trace chunks with Tracing#start_chunk and Tracing#stop_chunk.

Usage

context.tracing.start(screenshots: true, snapshots: true)
page = context.new_page
page.goto("https://playwright.dev")

context.tracing.start_chunk
page.get_by_text("Get Started").click
# Everything between start_chunk and stop_chunk will be recorded in the trace.
context.tracing.stop_chunk(path: "trace1.zip")

context.tracing.start_chunk
page.goto("http://example.com")
# Save a second trace file with different actions.
context.tracing.stop_chunk(path: "trace2.zip")

group​

def group(name, location: nil)

NOTE: Use test.step instead when available.

Creates a new group within the trace, assigning any subsequent API calls to this group, until Tracing#group_end is called. Groups can be nested and will be visible in the trace viewer.

Usage

# All actions between group and group_end
# will be shown in the trace viewer as a group.
context.tracing.group("Open Playwright.dev > API")

page = context.new_page
page.goto("https://playwright.dev/")
page.get_by_role("link", name: "API").click

context.tracing.group_end

group_end​

def group_end

Closes the last group created by Tracing#group.

stop​

def stop(path: nil)

Stop tracing.

stop_chunk​

def stop_chunk(path: nil)

Stop the trace chunk. See Tracing#start_chunk for more details about multiple trace chunks.