---

sidebar_position: 10

BrowserType

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:

chromium = playwright.chromium
chromium.launch do |browser|
  page = browser.new_page
  page.goto('https://example.com/')

  # other actions

end

connect_over_cdp

def connect_over_cdp(
      endpointURL,
      headers: nil,
      slowMo: nil,
      timeout: nil,
      &block)

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

The default browser context is accessible via Browser#contexts.

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

executable_path

def executable_path

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

launch

def launch(
      args: nil,
      channel: nil,
      chromiumSandbox: nil,
      devtools: nil,
      downloadsPath: nil,
      env: nil,
      executablePath: nil,
      firefoxUserPrefs: nil,
      handleSIGHUP: nil,
      handleSIGINT: nil,
      handleSIGTERM: nil,
      headless: nil,
      ignoreDefaultArgs: nil,
      proxy: nil,
      slowMo: nil,
      timeout: nil,
      tracesDir: nil,
      &block)

Returns the browser instance.

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

browser = playwright.chromium.launch( # or "firefox" or "webkit".
  ignoreDefaultArgs: ["--mute-audio"]
)

browser.close

> 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.

launch_persistent_context

def launch_persistent_context(
      userDataDir,
      acceptDownloads: nil,
      args: nil,
      baseURL: nil,
      bypassCSP: nil,
      channel: nil,
      chromiumSandbox: nil,
      colorScheme: nil,
      deviceScaleFactor: nil,
      devtools: nil,
      downloadsPath: nil,
      env: nil,
      executablePath: nil,
      extraHTTPHeaders: nil,
      forcedColors: nil,
      geolocation: nil,
      handleSIGHUP: nil,
      handleSIGINT: nil,
      handleSIGTERM: nil,
      hasTouch: nil,
      headless: nil,
      httpCredentials: nil,
      ignoreDefaultArgs: nil,
      ignoreHTTPSErrors: nil,
      isMobile: nil,
      javaScriptEnabled: nil,
      locale: nil,
      noViewport: nil,
      offline: nil,
      permissions: nil,
      proxy: nil,
      record_har_omit_content: nil,
      record_har_path: nil,
      record_video_dir: nil,
      record_video_size: nil,
      reducedMotion: nil,
      screen: nil,
      slowMo: nil,
      strictSelectors: nil,
      timeout: nil,
      timezoneId: nil,
      tracesDir: nil,
      userAgent: nil,
      viewport: nil,
      &block)

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.

name

def name

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