playwright-go

To use playwright-go, first add the package to your Go module:

go get -u github.com/mxschmitt/playwright-go

Next, you must install the Playwright driver and the required browsers. Important: Replace 0.xxxx.x with the exact version used in your go.mod file, as each minor version requires a specific driver version.

Option 1: Using the CLI (Recommended)

You can use the playwright command to install the driver and browsers. Use the --with-deps flag to automatically install necessary OS dependencies.

go run github.com/mxschmitt/playwright-go/cmd/playwright@v0.xxxx.x install --with-deps
# Or, if you have the playwright command installed:
playwright install --with-deps

Option 2: Programmatic Installation

You can trigger the installation directly from your Go code. Note that if your OS lacks the required browser dependencies, you will still need to install them manually using elevated privileges.

This example demonstrates how to initialize Playwright, launch a Chromium browser, navigate to a page, and extract text content from specific elements using locators.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"github.com/mxschmitt/playwright-go"
)

func main() {
	pw, err := playwright.Run()
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("could not start playwright: %v", err)
	}
	browser, err := pw.Chromium.Launch()
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("could not launch browser: %v", err)
	}
	page, err := browser.NewPage()
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("could not create page: %v", err)
	}
	if _, err = page.Goto("https://news.ycombinator.com"); err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("could not goto: %v", err)
	}
	entries, err := page.Locator(".athing").All()
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("could not get entries: %v", err)
	}
	for i, entry := range entries {
		title, err := entry.Locator("td.title > span > a").TextContent()
		if err != nil {
			log.Fatalf("could not get text content: %v", err)
		}
		fmt.Printf("%d: %s\n", i+1, title)
	}
	if err = browser.Close(); err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("could not close browser: %v", err)
	}
	if err = pw.Stop(); err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("could not stop Playwright: %v", err)
	}
}

To create a custom CLI entrypoint that manages the Playwright driver lifecycle, you can use playwright.NewDriver with RunOptions. The process involves:

1. Starting the driver using playwright.NewDriver.
2. Downloading the necessary driver binaries via driver.DownloadDriver().
3. Executing commands passed through CLI arguments using driver.Command(os.Args[1:]...).

This pattern allows you to wrap the Playwright driver and expose its command-line interface directly through your own Go application.

package main

import (
	"log"
	"os"

	"github.com/mxschmitt/playwright-go"
)

func main() {
	driver, err := playwright.NewDriver(&playwright.RunOptions{})
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("could not start driver: %v", err)
	}
	if err = driver.DownloadDriver(); err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("could not download driver: %v", err)
	}
	cmd := driver.Command(os.Args[1:]...)
	cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
	cmd.Stderr = os.Stderr
	if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("could not run driver: %v", err)
	}
	os.Exit(cmd.ProcessState.ExitCode())
}

The Page object allows you to register callbacks for various lifecycle and network events using On* methods:

• OnClose(fn func(Page)): Triggered when the page is closed.
• OnConsole(fn func(ConsoleMessage)): Triggered when a console message is emitted.
• OnCrash(fn func(Page)): Triggered when the page crashes.
• OnDialog(fn func(Dialog)): Triggered when a dialog (alert, confirm, etc.) appears.
• OnDOMContentLoaded(fn func(Page)): Triggered when the DOM is fully loaded.
• OnDownload(fn func(Download)): Triggered when a download starts.
• OnFileChooser(fn func(FileChooser)): Triggered when a file chooser is opened.
• OnFrameAttached(fn func(Frame)): Triggered when a frame is attached.
• OnFrameDetached(fn func(Frame)): Triggered when a frame is detached.
• OnFrameNavigated(fn func(Frame)): Triggered when a frame navigates.
• OnLoad(fn func(Page)): Triggered when the page has loaded.
• OnPageError(fn func(error)): Triggered when a page error occurs.
• OnPopup(fn func(Page)): Triggered when a popup is created.
• OnRequest(fn func(Request)): Triggered when a request is made.
• OnRequestFailed(fn func(Request)): Triggered when a request fails.
• OnRequestFinished(fn func(Request)): Triggered when a request finishes.
• OnResponse(fn func(Response)): Triggered when a response is received.
• OnWebSocket(fn func(WebSocket)): Triggered when a WebSocket is created.
• OnWorker(fn func(Worker)): Triggered when a worker is created.