Selenium to Playwright Migration Part 2: Setup and Configuration

This is part of the Selenium to Playwright Migration Series. Follow the complete 7-part tutorial to migrate your test suite from Selenium Java to Playwright TypeScript.

🎭 Want to master this with real projects? Join the Playwright Automation Mastery course at The Testing Academy.

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Convert your build tools, test configuration, environment handling, and CI pipelines from Selenium/Maven/TestNG to Playwright/npm/TypeScript. Playwright replaces ~10 separate Java dependencies with a single package.

Dependency Mapping: pom.xml to package.json

Selenium Dependency	Playwright Equivalent	Notes
selenium-java	@playwright/test	Core framework
testng	Built-in test runner	No extra package needed
allure-testng	Built-in reporters	HTML, JSON, JUnit built-in
assertj-core	Built-in expect()	Web-first assertions with auto-retry
log4j-core	Built-in console / Trace Viewer	Trace viewer replaces most logging
poi + poi-ooxml	JSON files + TypeScript types	No Excel needed for test data
WebDriverManager	npx playwright install	Bundled browser management
REST Assured	Built-in APIRequestContext	API testing included

Configuration: testng.xml to playwright.config.ts

Before (TestNG XML)

<suite name="VWO Suite" parallel="methods" thread-count="2">
  <listeners>
    <listener class-name="...RetryListener"/>
    <listener class-name="...ScreenshotListener"/>
  </listeners>
  <test name="VWO Login Tests">
    <classes>
      <class name="...TestVWOLogin">
        <methods>
          <include name="testPositiveLogin"/>
          <include name="testNegativeLogin"/>
        </methods>
      </class>
    </classes>
  </test>
</suite>

After (playwright.config.ts)

import { defineConfig, devices } from '@playwright/test';
import * as dotenv from 'dotenv';
dotenv.config();

export default defineConfig({
  testDir: './src/tests',
  fullyParallel: true,
  workers: process.env.CI ? 2 : 3,
  retries: process.env.CI ? 2 : 0,
  timeout: 60_000,
  expect: { timeout: 10_000 },
  reporter: [
    ['html', { open: 'never' }],
    ['json', { outputFile: 'test-results/results.json' }],
    ['list'],
  ],
  use: {
    baseURL: process.env.BASE_URL,
    trace: 'on-first-retry',
    video: 'retain-on-failure',
    screenshot: 'only-on-failure',
  },
  projects: [
    { name: 'chromium', use: { ...devices['Desktop Chrome'] } },
    { name: 'firefox', use: { ...devices['Desktop Firefox'] } },
    { name: 'webkit', use: { ...devices['Desktop Safari'] } },
  ],
});

What replaced what: parallel="methods" thread-count="2" became fullyParallel: true, workers: 3. Listeners (RetryListener, ScreenshotListener) became retries, screenshot, video, trace config options.

Environment: data.properties to .env

Before (Java Properties)

// data.properties
vwoURL=https://app.vwo.com
username=user@test.com
password=Test@4321

// PropertiesReader.java
public class PropertiesReader {
  static Properties prop = new Properties();
  static {
    FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("src/main/resources/data.properties");
    prop.load(fis);
  }
  public static String readKey(String key) {
    return prop.getProperty(key);
  }
}

After (.env + TypeScript config)

// .env
BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000
API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000/api
TEST_USERNAME=testuser@example.com
TEST_PASSWORD=SecurePass123

// src/config/index.ts
import * as dotenv from 'dotenv';
dotenv.config();

export const AppConfig = {
  baseUrl: process.env.BASE_URL || 'http://localhost:3000',
  apiBaseUrl: process.env.API_BASE_URL || '',
  testUser: {
    email: process.env.TEST_USERNAME || '',
    password: process.env.TEST_PASSWORD || '',
  },
  timeouts: { api: 30_000, default: 30_000 },
} as const;

CI/CD: Maven to GitHub Actions

name: Playwright Tests
on:
  push:
    branches: [main, develop]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main, develop]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 30
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        shard: [1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npx playwright install --with-deps
      - run: npx playwright test --shard=${{ matrix.shard }}
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        if: always()
        with:
          name: playwright-report-${{ strategy.job-index }}
          path: playwright-report/
          retention-days: 30

4-shard parallelization: Playwright splits tests across 4 CI runners automatically. No Selenium Grid needed.

Next: Part 3: The Master Cheat Sheet — every Selenium Java pattern mapped to Playwright TypeScript across 16 categories.