Interface IBrowserType

Namespace

Microsoft.Playwright

Assembly

Microsoft.Playwright.dll

BrowserType provides methods to launch a specific browser instance or connect to an existing one. The following is a typical example of using Playwright to drive automation:

using Microsoft.Playwright;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
class BrowserTypeExamples
{
public static async Task Run()
{
using var playwright = await Playwright.CreateAsync();
var chromium = playwright.Chromium;
var browser = await chromium.LaunchAsync();
var page = await browser.NewPageAsync();
await page.GotoAsync("https://www.bing.com");
// other actions
await browser.CloseAsync();
}
}

public interface IBrowserType

Properties

ExecutablePath

A path where Playwright expects to find a bundled browser executable.

string ExecutablePath { get; }

Property Value

string

Name

Returns browser name. For example: 'chromium', 'webkit' or 'firefox'.

string Name { get; }

Property Value

string

Methods

ConnectAsync(string, BrowserTypeConnectOptions?)

This method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance. When connecting to another browser launched via BrowserType.launchServer in Node.js, the major and minor version needs to match the client version (1.2.3 → is compatible with 1.2.x).

Task<IBrowser> ConnectAsync(string wsEndpoint, BrowserTypeConnectOptions? options = null)

Parameters

wsEndpoint string

A browser websocket endpoint to connect to.

options BrowserTypeConnectOptions

Call options

Returns

Task<IBrowser>

ConnectOverCDPAsync(string, BrowserTypeConnectOverCDPOptions?)

This method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance using the Chrome DevTools Protocol.

The default browser context is accessible via Contexts.

**Usage**

var browser = await playwright.Chromium.ConnectOverCDPAsync("http://localhost:9222");
var defaultContext = browser.Contexts[0];
var page = defaultContext.Pages[0];

Task<IBrowser> ConnectOverCDPAsync(string endpointURL, BrowserTypeConnectOverCDPOptions? options = null)

Parameters

endpointURL string

A CDP websocket endpoint or http url to connect to. For example http://localhost:9222/ or ws://127.0.0.1:9222/devtools/browser/387adf4c-243f-4051-a181-46798f4a46f4.

options BrowserTypeConnectOverCDPOptions

Call options

Returns

Task<IBrowser>

Remarks

Connecting over the Chrome DevTools Protocol is only supported for Chromium-based browsers.

LaunchAsync(BrowserTypeLaunchOptions?)

Returns the browser instance.

**Usage**

You can use ignoreDefaultArgs to filter out --mute-audio from default arguments:

var browser = await playwright.Chromium.LaunchAsync(new() {
    IgnoreDefaultArgs = new[] { "--mute-audio" }
});

> **Chromium-only** Playwright can also be used to control the Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browsers, but it works best with the version of Chromium it is bundled with. There is no guarantee it will work with any other version. Use executablePath option with extreme caution.

>

> If Google Chrome (rather than Chromium) is preferred, a Chrome Canary or Dev Channel build is suggested.

>

> Stock browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are suitable for tests that require proprietary media codecs for video playback. See this article for other differences between Chromium and Chrome. This article describes some differences for Linux users.

Task<IBrowser> LaunchAsync(BrowserTypeLaunchOptions? options = null)

Parameters

options BrowserTypeLaunchOptions

Call options

Returns

Task<IBrowser>

LaunchPersistentContextAsync(string, BrowserTypeLaunchPersistentContextOptions?)

Returns the persistent browser context instance.

Launches browser that uses persistent storage located at userDataDir and returns the only context. Closing this context will automatically close the browser.

Task<IBrowserContext> LaunchPersistentContextAsync(string userDataDir, BrowserTypeLaunchPersistentContextOptions? options = null)

Parameters

userDataDir string

Path to a User Data Directory, which stores browser session data like cookies and local storage. More details for Chromium and Firefox. Note that Chromium's user data directory is the parent directory of the "Profile Path" seen at chrome://version. Pass an empty string to use a temporary directory instead.

options BrowserTypeLaunchPersistentContextOptions

Call options

Returns

Task<IBrowserContext>