[Feature] A special locator to visually locate an element

Let us know what functionality you’d like to see in Playwright and what is your use case. A special locator to visually locate an element.

In taiko, browser automation library by thoughtwork, you could locate element visually like the following: click(checkbox(near("Username")))

Taiko calls it proximity locator Refer: https://docs.taiko.dev/#smart-selectors

This locator will reduce the flakiness of the script and the maintenance cost because the locator doesn’t rely on html structure that may be changed from time to time. Even we can assign data-testid attribute but this is very useful in some cases as well.

Do you think others might benefit from this as well? Yes, it is.

[jfgreffier]

Please check the first version of Playwright relative selector ! It allows you to select an element by its relative position to another one https://www.npmjs.com/package/playwright-relative-selector

It’s in early phase. My goal at the moment is to get feedback on it, so don’t hesitate to drop an issue here

@roughsoft I created an issue to discuss specifically of the syntax https://github.com/jfgreffier/playwright-relative-selector/issues/1

[ghost]

@pavelfeldman @mxschmitt @aslushnikov @yury-s @JoelEinbinder @arjun27 Given that ThoughtWorks will cease supporting Taiko (I’d say best-in-class regarding smart/proximity selectors) by the end of this year and that from 2021 on Taiko will be a fully community-managed open source project (see here), now would be a good time (re)contemplating about adding such smart selectors to Playwright as well (or, as an interim solution, explain in more detail how Taiko’s selector engines can be successfully registered and used in Playwright – see #3667). Sorry for making such a noise about it, it’s just that by my own experience with Taiko it makes creating and maintaining e2e tests a pure joy.