playwright-network-cache

Speed up Playwright tests by caching network requests on the filesystem.

✨ Features

• Automatically cache network requests during test execution
• Save responses to the filesystem in a clear, organized structure
• Modify cached responses dynamically during runtime
• Reuse cached data across multiple test runs
• View response bodies in a pretty formatted JSON
• No need for manual mocks management
• No mess with the HAR format — see motivation

Example of cache structure:

.network-cache
└── example.com
    └── api-cats
        └── GET
            ├── headers.json
            └── body.json

Index

• Installation
• Basic usage
• Examples
  • Cache request for all tests
  • Modify cached response
  • Disable cache
  • Force cache update
  • Additional match by HTTP status
  • Additional match by request fields
  • Separation of cache files
  • Change base dir
  • Split cache files by request query / body
  • Multi-step cache in complex scenarios
• API
  • Constructor
  • Methods
  • Options
• Debug
• Motivation
• Alternatives
• Changelog
  • 0.2.0
• Feedback
• License

Installation

Install from npm:

npm i -D playwright-network-cache

Basic usage

1. Setup cacheRoute fixture

Extend Playwright's test instance with cacheRoute fixture:

// fixtures.ts
import { test as base } from '@playwright/test';
import { CacheRoute } from 'playwright-network-cache';

type Fixtures = {
  cacheRoute: CacheRoute;
};

export const test = base.extend<Fixtures>({
  cacheRoute: async ({ page }, use) => {
    await use(new CacheRoute(page, { /* cache options */ }));
  },
});

2. Use cacheRoute inside test

For example, to cache a GET request to https://example.com/api/cats:

// test.ts
test('test', async ({ page, cacheRoute }) => {
  await cacheRoute.GET('https://example.com/api/cats*');
  // ... perform usual test actions
});

On the first run this test will store the response on the filesystem:

.network-cache
└── example.com
    └── api-cats
        └── GET
            ├── headers.json
            └── body.json

All subsequent test runs will re-use cached response and execute much faster. To invalidate that cache, delete files or provide special options.

Default template for cache path is:

{baseDir}/{hostname}/{pathname}/{httpMethod}/{extraDir}/{httpStatus}

You can call cacheRoute.GET|POST|PUT|PATCH|DELETE|ALL to cache routes with respective HTTP method.

To catch requests to own APIs, you can omit hostname in url pattern:

test('test', async ({ page, cacheRoute }) => {
  await cacheRoute.GET('/api/cats*');
  // ...
});

See more examples below or check API.

Examples

Cache request for all tests

You can share cached response across all tests. For that, define cacheRoute as an auto fixture and setup cached routes. For example, to share cached response of GET /api/cats:

export const test = base.extend<{ cacheRoute: CacheRoute }>({
  cacheRoute: [async ({ page }, use) => {
    const cacheRoute = new CacheRoute(page);
    await cacheRoute.GET('/api/cats');
    await use(cacheRoute);
  }, { auto: true }]
});

Modify cached response

You can modify the cached response by setting the modify option to a custom function. In this function, you retrieve the response data, make your changes, and then call route.fulfill with the updated data.

test('test', async ({ page, cacheRoute }) => {
  await cacheRoute.GET('/api/cats', {
    modify: async (route, response) => {
      const json = await response.json();
      json[0].name = 'Kitty-1';
      await route.fulfill({ json });
    }
  });
  // ...
});

For modifying JSON responses, there is a helper option modifyJSON:

test('test', async ({ page, cacheRoute }) => {
  await cacheRoute.GET('/api/cats', {
    modifyJSON: (json) => {
      json[0].name = 'Kitty';
    },
  });
  // ...
});

modifyJSON can modify response json in-place (like above) or return some result, which will overwrite the original data.

Disable cache

To disable cache in a single test, set cacheRoute.options.noCache to true:

test('test', async ({ page, cacheRoute }) => {
  cacheRoute.options.noCache = true;
  await cacheRoute.GET('/api/cats'); // <- this will not cache the request
  // ...
});

To disable cache in all tests, set the noCache option to true in the fixture:

export const test = base.extend<{ cacheRoute: CacheRoute }>({
  cacheRoute: async ({ page }, use, testInfo) => {
    await use(new CacheRoute(page, {
      noCache: true
    }));
  }
});

Note: When cache is disabled, modify functions still run

Force cache update

To force updating cache files for a single test, set cacheRoute.options.forceUpdate to true:

test('test', async ({ page, cacheRoute }) => {
  cacheRoute.options.forceUpdate = true;
  await cacheRoute.GET('/api/cats');
  // ...
});

To force updating cache files for all tests, set the forceUpdate option to true in the fixture:

export const test = base.extend<{ cacheRoute: CacheRoute }>({
  cacheRoute: async ({ page }, use, testInfo) => {
    await use(new CacheRoute(page, {
      forceUpdate: true
    }));
  }
});

Additional match by HTTP status

By default, only responses with 2xx status are considered valid and stored in cache. To test error responses, provide additional httpStatus option to cache route:

test('test', async ({ page, cacheRoute }) => {
  await cacheRoute.GET('/api/cats', { 
    httpStatus: 500 
  });
  // ...
});

Now error response will be cached in the following structure:

.network-cache
└── example.com
    └── api-cats
        └── GET
            └── 500
                ├── headers.json
                └── body.json

Additional match by request fields

By default, requests are matched by:

HTTP method + URL pattern + (optionally) HTTP status 

If you need to match by other request fields, provide custom function to match option. Example of matching GET requests with query param /api/cats?foo=bar:

test('test', async ({ page, cacheRoute }) => {
  await cacheRoute.GET('/api/cats*', { 
    match: req => new URL(req.url()).searchParams.get('foo') === 'bar'
  });
  // ...
});

Notice * in /api/cats* to match query params

Separation of cache files

You may want to store cache files separately for a particular test. For that, you can utilize cacheRoute.options.extraDir - an array of extra directories to be inserted into the cache path. You can freely transform that array during the test.

test('test', async ({ page, cacheRoute }) => {
  cacheRoute.options.extraDir.push('custom-test');
  await cacheRoute.GET('/api/cats');
  // ...
});

Generated cache structure:

.network-cache
└── example.com
    └── api-cats
        └── GET
            └── custom-test       # <- extra directory
                ├── headers.json
                └── body.json

To store cache files in a separate directory for all tests, you can set extraDir option in a fixture setup:

export const test = base.extend<{ cacheRoute: CacheRoute }>({
  cacheRoute: async ({ page }, use, testInfo) => {
    await use(new CacheRoute(page, {
      extraDir: testInfo.title  // <- use testInfo.title as a unique extraDir
    }));
  }
});

After running two tests with titles custom test 1 and custom test 2, the generated structure is:

.network-cache
└── example.com
    └── api-cats
        └── GET
            ├── custom-test-1
            │   ├── headers.json
            │   └── body.json
            └── custom-test-2
                ├── headers.json
                └── body.json           

Change base dir

By default, cache files are stored in .network-cache base directory. To change this location, use baseDir option:

export const test = base.extend<{ cacheRoute: CacheRoute }>({
  cacheRoute: async ({ page }, use, testInfo) => {
    await use(new CacheRoute(page, {
      baseDir: `test/.network-cache`
    }));
  }
});

Moreover, you can set separate baseDir for each Playwright project or each test:

export const test = base.extend<{ cacheRoute: CacheRoute }>({
  cacheRoute: async ({ page }, use, testInfo) => {
    await use(new CacheRoute(page, {
      baseDir: `test/.network-cache/${testInfo.project.name}`
    }));
  }
});

Example of generated structure

.network-cache
├── project-one
│   └── example.com
│       └── api-cats
│           └── GET
│               ├── headers.json
│               └── body.json
└── project-two
    └── example.com
        └── api-cats
            └── GET
                ├── headers.json
                └── body.json

In that example, you get more isolation, but less cache re-use. It's a trade-off, as always 🤷‍♂️

Split cache files by request query / body

To split cache by request query params, you can set extraDir option in cache route:

test('test', async ({ page, cacheRoute }) => {
  await cacheRoute.GET('/api/cats*', {
    extraDir: req => new URL(req.url()).searchParams.toString()
  });
  // ...
});

Notice * in /api/cats* to match query params

Given the following requests:

GET /api/cats?foo=1
GET /api/cats?foo=2

Cache structure will be:

.network-cache
└── example.com
    └── api-cats
        └── GET
            ├── foo=1
            │   ├── headers.json
            │   └── body.json
            └── foo=2
                ├── headers.json
                └── body.json

Note: extraDir from request route with be appended to cacheRoute.options.extraDir.

Splitting cache files by request body:

test('test', async ({ page, cacheRoute }) => {
  await cacheRoute.GET('/api/cats', {
    extraDir: req => req.postDataJSON().email
  });
  // ...
});

Having the following requests:

POST -d '{"email":"[email protected]"}' /api/cats
POST -d '{"email":"[email protected]"}' /api/cats

Cache structure will be:

.network-cache
└── example.com
    └── api-cats
        └── POST
            ├── [email protected]
            │   ├── headers.json
            │   └── body.json
            └── [email protected]
                ├── headers.json
                └── body.json

Multi-step cache in complex scenarios

For complex scenarios, you may want to have different cache for the same API call during the test. Example: testing scenario of adding a new todo item into the todo list.

With caching in mind, the plan for such test can be the following:

1. Set cache for GET request to return original todo items
2. Load the page
3. Set cache for POST request to create new todo item
4. Set cache for GET request to return updated todo items
5. Enter todo text and click "Add" button
6. Assert todo list is updated

The implementation utilizes extraDir option to dynamically change cache path in the test:

test('adding todo', async ({ page, cacheRoute }) => {
  // set cache for GET request to load todo items
  await cacheRoute.GET('/api/todo');

  // ...load page

  // CHECKPOINT: change cache dir, all subsequent requests will be stored separately
  cacheRoute.options.extraDir.push('after-add');
  // set cache for POST request to create a todo item
  await cacheRoute.POST('/api/todo');
  
  // ...add todo item
  // ...reload page
  // ...assert todo list is updated
});

Generated cache structure:

.network-cache
└── example.com
    └── api-todo
        ├── GET
        │   ├── headers.json
        │   ├── body.json
        │   └── after-add
        │       ├── headers.json
        │       └── body.json
        └── POST
            └── after-add
                ├── headers.json
                └── body.json

You may still modify cached responses to match test expectation. But it will be mainly replacement modifications, not changing structure of the response body. Such approach fits more end-2-end nature of Playwright tests.

API

The CacheRoute class manages caching of routes for a Playwright Page or BrowserContext. It simplifies setting up HTTP method handlers for specific routes with caching options.

Constructor

const cacheRoute = new CacheRoute(page, options?)

• page: The Playwright Page or BrowserContext to manage routes.
• options: Optional configuration to control caching behavior.

Methods

These methods enable caching for specific HTTP routes:

• cacheRoute.GET(url, optionsOrFn?)
• cacheRoute.POST(url, optionsOrFn?)
• cacheRoute.PUT(url, optionsOrFn?)
• cacheRoute.PATCH(url, optionsOrFn?)
• cacheRoute.DELETE(url, optionsOrFn?)
• cacheRoute.HEAD(url, optionsOrFn?)
• cacheRoute.ALL(url, optionsOrFn?)

Params

• url: Url pattern
• optionsOrFn: Caching options or a function to modify the response

Options

You can provide options to CacheRoute constructor or modify them dynamically via cacheRoute.options. All values are optional.

baseDir

string

Base directory for cache files.

extraDir

string | string[] | ((req: Request) => string | string[])

Additional directory for cache files. Can be a string, array of strings, or a function that accepts a request and returns a string or an array of strings.

match

(req: Request) => boolean

Function to add additional matching logic for requests. Returns true to cache, or false to skip.

httpStatus

number

Cache responses with the specified HTTP status code.

ttlMinutes

number

Time to live for cached responses, in minutes.

overrides

RequestOverrides | ((req: Request) => RequestOverrides)

Object or function that provides request overrides (e.g., headers, body) when making real calls.

modify

(route: Route, response: APIResponse) => Promise<unknown>

Function to modify the response before caching. This is called for each route.

modifyJSON

(json: any) => any

Helper function to modify JSON responses before caching.

noCache

boolean

If true, disables caching and always makes requests to the server.

forceUpdate

boolean

If true, always requests from the server and updates the cached files.

buildCacheDir

(ctx: BuildCacheDirArg) => string[]

Function to build a custom cache directory, providing fine-grained control over the cache file location. Default implementation.

Debug

To debug caching, run Playwright with the following DEBUG environment variable:

DEBUG=playwright-network-cache npx playwright test

Motivation

Playwright has built-in support for HAR format to record and replay network requests. But when you need more fine-grained control of network, it becomes messy. Check out these issues where people struggle with HAR:

• #21405
• #30754
• #29190

This library intentionally does not use HAR. Instead, it generates file-based cache structure, giving you full control of what and how is cached.

Alternatives

Alternatively, you can check the following packages:

• playwright-intercept - uses Cypress-influenced API
• playwright-advanced-har - uses HAR format
• playwright-request-mocker uses HAR format, looks abandoned

Changelog

0.2.1

• handle requests after page is closed

0.2.0

• new api released (breaking)

Feedback

Feel free to share your feedback and suggestions in issues.

License

MIT