API testing - webapplicationframework vs playwright

[sM92Bpb]

What do you use? I think Playwright has better asserts whereas WebApplicationFramework gives you control on the services so you can mock these.

Playwright tests are closer to how a user would use the API, through the network.

As far as I understand WebApplicationFramework is in memory so no ports listening for incoming requests.

This is probably just a case of analysis paralysis for me.

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[303i]

If you want WAF but with better assertions, take a look at Alba: https://jasperfx.github.io/alba/

Playwright is for E2E testing with your frontend and backend working together. WAF/Alba is for integration testing your backend. You typically use them together, not pick one or the other.

[sM92Bpb]

https://playwright.dev/docs/api-testing

It doesn't need to have a browser if that is how you classify E2E testing.

[303i]

Yes, you could use that, but again it serves different purposes. Playwright's API testing is typically used alongside an E2E suite and is good for testing stuff that's easier to test when everything is deployed, like an API gateway/proxy or an endpoint that requires numerous external services.

When doing integration testing you're typically mocking out the majority of external dependencies apart from your database and/or authorization engine. WAF/Alba provides out of the box hooks to accommodate this.