claude-skills-reference/engineering-team/playwright-pro/skills/migrate/selenium-mapping.md

Selenium → Playwright Mapping

Driver Setup

Selenium (JS)	Playwright
new Builder().forBrowser('chrome').build()	Handled by config — no driver setup
driver.quit()	Automatic — Playwright manages browser lifecycle
driver.manage().setTimeouts(...)	Config: timeout, expect.timeout

Navigation

Selenium	Playwright	Notes
driver.get(url)	await page.goto(url)	Use baseURL
driver.navigate().back()	await page.goBack()
driver.navigate().forward()	await page.goForward()
driver.navigate().refresh()	await page.reload()
driver.getCurrentUrl()	page.url()
driver.getTitle()	await page.title()

Element Location

Selenium	Playwright	Preferred
By.id('x')	page.locator('#x')	page.getByTestId('x')
By.css('.x')	page.locator('.x')	page.getByRole(...)
By.xpath('//div')	page.locator('xpath=//div')	Avoid — use role-based
By.name('x')	page.locator('[name=x]')	page.getByLabel(...)
By.linkText('x')	page.getByRole('link', { name: 'x' })	✅ Best practice
By.partialLinkText('x')	page.getByRole('link', { name: /x/ })	✅ Best practice
By.tagName('button')	page.getByRole('button')	✅ Best practice
By.className('x')	page.locator('.x')	page.getByRole(...)
findElement()	Returns first match	locator.first()
findElements()	page.locator(selector)	Use .count() or .all()

Actions

Selenium	Playwright
element.click()	await locator.click()
element.sendKeys('text')	await locator.fill('text')
element.sendKeys(Key.ENTER)	await locator.press('Enter')
element.clear()	await locator.clear()
element.submit()	await locator.press('Enter') or click submit button
element.getText()	await locator.textContent()
element.getAttribute('x')	await locator.getAttribute('x')
element.isDisplayed()	await locator.isVisible()
element.isEnabled()	await locator.isEnabled()
element.isSelected()	await locator.isChecked()

Waits

Selenium	Playwright	Notes
WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.visibilityOf(el))	await expect(locator).toBeVisible()	Auto-retries
WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.elementToBeClickable(el))	await locator.click()	Auto-waits for clickable
WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.presenceOf(el))	await expect(locator).toBeAttached()
WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.textToBe(el, 'x'))	await expect(locator).toHaveText('x')
Thread.sleep(3000)	❌ Never use	Use assertions instead
driver.manage().setTimeouts({ implicit: 10000 })	Not needed	Playwright auto-waits

Advanced

Selenium	Playwright
Actions(driver).moveToElement(el).perform()	await locator.hover()
Actions(driver).dragAndDrop(src, tgt).perform()	await src.dragTo(tgt)
Actions(driver).doubleClick(el).perform()	await locator.dblclick()
Actions(driver).contextClick(el).perform()	await locator.click({ button: 'right' })
driver.switchTo().frame(el)	page.frameLocator('#frame')
driver.switchTo().defaultContent()	Not needed — use page directly
driver.switchTo().alert()	page.on('dialog', d => d.accept())
driver.switchTo().window(handle)	const popup = await page.waitForEvent('popup')
driver.executeScript(js)	await page.evaluate(js)
driver.takeScreenshot()	await page.screenshot({ path: 'x.png' })

Test Structure

Selenium (Jest/Mocha)	Playwright
describe('Suite', () => { ... })	test.describe('Suite', () => { ... })
it('should...', () => { ... })	test('should...', async ({ page }) => { ... })
beforeAll(() => { ... })	test.beforeAll(async () => { ... })
beforeEach(() => { ... })	test.beforeEach(async ({ page }) => { ... })
afterEach(() => { ... })	test.afterEach(async ({ page }) => { ... })

Key Differences

1. No implicit waits — Playwright auto-waits for actionability
2. No driver management — Playwright handles browser lifecycle
3. Built-in assertions — expect(locator) with auto-retry
4. Parallel by default — tests run in parallel, must be isolated
5. Traces instead of screenshots — richer debugging artifacts