Web Scraping With Playwright Guide (2025 Updated)

Learn how to scrape with Playwright in this step-by-step guide. I’ll share some helpful hints and best practices I’ve picked up along the way and include examples to make things even clearer. By the end of this guide, you’ll be well-equipped to use Playwright to gather the data you need with minimal effort. Let’s dive in and get started!

What is Playwright?

Playwright is a powerful tool for testing and automating web browser interactions. You can write code to open a browser and use all its features, including navigating to URLs, entering text, clicking buttons, and extracting text. One of Playwright’s best features is its ability to work with multiple pages simultaneously without delays.

Playwright supports popular browsers like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge (Chromium), Firefox, and Safari (WebKit). Its cross-browser capabilities allow the same code to run efficiently on different browsers. Playwright also supports various programming languages, including Node.js, Python, Java, and .NET, making it versatile for developers.

The documentation for Playwright is thorough, offering detailed guides from getting started to in-depth class and method explanations.

How to Practice Responsible Web Scraping?

Web scraping is a valuable tool, but it needs to be done ethically and responsibly. Here are some tips to follow:

1. Follow Robots.txt and Terms of Service: Always check the website’s robots.txt file and terms of service before you start scraping. Some websites may forbid scraping or limit the frequency of requests.
2. Avoid Overloading Websites: Sending too many requests at once can slow down the website and affect other users. Use throttling and rate limiting to ensure you don’t harm the website’s performance. In general, I suggest using one of the best residential proxies for web scraping.
3. Respect Privacy: Never scrape sensitive information like login details, bank account information, or other private data. This is not only unethical but also illegal.
4. Use Reputable Tools: Choose reliable scraping tools like ScrapingAnt and Playwright. Avoid using tools that could harm the website or scrape data unethically.

By following these guidelines and using Playwright for web scraping, you can ensure that your data extraction process is ethical and responsible.

Playwright Web Scraping Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Install Playwright

First, install Playwright using Node.js:

npm install playwright

Ensure Node.js is installed on your system.

Step 2: Launch a Browser

Launch a browser (Chromium, Firefox, or WebKit) with Playwright. For example, to launch Chromium:

const { chromium } = require('playwright');
(async () => {
const browser = await chromium.launch();
const context = await browser.newContext();
const page = await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://www.example.com');
await browser.close();
})();

Best Practice: Use a headless browser for efficiency:

const browser = await chromium.launch({ headless: true });

Step 3: Navigate to a Website

Use the goto method to navigate to the target website:

await page.goto('https://www.example.com');

Best Practice: Set a user agent to avoid detection:

const context = await browser.newContext({
userAgent: 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.110 Safari/537.36'
});

Step 4: Extract Data

Extract data using various methods like page.$(), page.$$(), and page.evaluate(). For example, to extract the page title:

const pageTitle = await page.title(); console.log(pageTitle);

To extract text from an element:

const elementText = await page.$eval('h1', el => el.textContent); console.log(elementText);

Best Practice: Use selectors for precise data extraction.

Step 5: Handle Navigation and User Input

Interact with web elements, such as clicking buttons or filling out forms:

await page.type('#username', 'myusername'); await page.type('#password', 'mypassword'); await page.click('#mybutton');

Best Practice: Wait for elements to load using waitForSelector:

await page.waitForSelector('#myelement');

Step 6: Clean Up and Exit

After scraping, clean up by closing the browser:

await browser.close();

Playwright’s Data Extraction Capabilities

Playwright offers various methods for data extraction:

Extract Single Element Text: Using page.$eval():

const headingText = await page.$eval('h1', element => element.textContent); console.log(headingText);

Extract Multiple Elements Text: Using page.$$eval():

const linkUrls = await page.$$eval('a', elements => elements.map(element => element.href)); console.log(linkUrls);

Extract Text Using JavaScript: Using page.evaluate():

const headingTexts = await page.evaluate(() => {
const elements = document.querySelectorAll('h1');
return Array.from(elements).map(element => element.textContent);
});
console.log(headingTexts);

Screenshot Extraction: Using page.screenshot():

await page.screenshot({ path: 'screenshot.png' });

PDF Extraction: Using page.pdf():

await page.pdf({ path: 'page.pdf' });

Final Words

Playwright’s ability to handle multiple browser contexts and its support for multiple programming languages make it versatile and user-friendly. Whether I need to scrape data for a project, test web applications, or automate repetitive tasks, Playwright provides the functionality required to do the job efficiently.

I also appreciate the community support and detailed documentation available, which makes troubleshooting and learning new features easier.

In short, Playwright is an invaluable tool for anyone needing reliable and efficient browser automation. By leveraging its capabilities, you can save time, reduce manual work, and focus on more critical aspects of your projects.

Got any questions or suggestions? Let me know in the comments!