BrowserType.connect websocket endpoint not working

[Zanis7]

Connecting to existing chrome not working. BrowserType.launch() works fine

Sample code to reproduce the issue:

package com.test;

import com.microsoft.playwright.*;

public class GoogleSearch {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		try (Playwright playwright = Playwright.create()) {
			BrowserType browserType = playwright.chromium();
			Browser browser = browserType
					.connect("ws://127.0.0.1:9002/devtools/browser/1109fd4e-b326-4b8d-bed6-61a76d7bd11c");
			Page page = browser.newPage();
			page.navigate("http://google.com");
			System.out.println(page.title());
		}
	}
}

getting the following exception

Exception in thread "main" com.microsoft.playwright.PlaywrightException: Playwright connection closed
	at com.microsoft.playwright.impl.WebSocketTransport.checkIfClosed(WebSocketTransport.java:116)
	at com.microsoft.playwright.impl.WebSocketTransport.poll(WebSocketTransport.java:84)
	at com.microsoft.playwright.impl.Connection.processOneMessage(Connection.java:183)
	at com.microsoft.playwright.impl.Connection.waitForObjectWithKnownName(Connection.java:162)
	at com.microsoft.playwright.impl.BrowserTypeImpl.connectImpl(BrowserTypeImpl.java:66)
	at com.microsoft.playwright.impl.BrowserTypeImpl.lambda$connect$1(BrowserTypeImpl.java:55)
	at com.microsoft.playwright.impl.LoggingSupport.withLogging(LoggingSupport.java:47)
	at com.microsoft.playwright.impl.BrowserTypeImpl.connect(BrowserTypeImpl.java:55)
	at com.microsoft.playwright.BrowserType.connect(BrowserType.java:559)
	at com.test.GoogleSearch.main(GoogleSearch.java:9)

Also "Playwright.create()" always take time

[Zanis7]

Found the reason for connection issue. It is because I used the chrome devtools websocket endpoint instead of playwright websocket server endpoint . In node js, there is an api to start the server and get the websocket endpoint , is there any available in java.

From the docs

const { chromium } = require('playwright');  // Or 'webkit' or 'firefox'.

(async () => {
  const browserServer = await chromium.launchServer();
  const wsEndpoint = browserServer.wsEndpoint();
  // Use web socket endpoint later to establish a connection.
  const browser = await chromium.connect({ wsEndpoint });
  // Close browser instance.
  await browserServer.close();
})();

My use case is to run chrome in container and connect using websocket endpoint

[yury-s]

There's connectOverCDP if you need to connect to chromium browser via devtools websocket (the api is only available in 1.11.0-SNAPSHOT at the moment).

As for connect you need to start the server separately, you can use npx playwright run-server webkit to start the server from command line. There's no launchServer api in java.

[hlr1983]

There's connectOverCDP if you need to connect to chromium browser via devtools websocket (the api is only available in 1.11.0-SNAPSHOT at the moment).

As for connect you need to start the server separately, you can use npx playwright run-server webkit to start the server from command line. There's no launchServer api in java.

Is there a plan for a launchServer api in java or a BrowserServer class in java?

Thanks.

[yury-s]

No, we were not planning to add launchServer and BrowserServer to java. We assume that is should be sufficient to have it in node.js and allow to launch it from command line with npx playwright run-server chromium (not released yet). There is also an alternative approach to remote connection that we are considering: microsoft/playwright#4687

[manishmnit01]

@Zanis7 @yury-s I have the same requirement where I need to create a browser instance in the container and connect using web socket endpoint from the client side. How do we achieve this without having the launch server API in the playwright java library?