Download file with Playwright

Question

How to download a file with Playwright?

I'm aware of this question How to catch a download with playwright? but that example code does not work. Using the latest released Playwright, there is no 'pageTarget' function on the browser instance:

const client = await browser.pageTarget(page).createCDPSession();

Answer 1

All the downloaded files belonging to the browser context are deleted when the browser context is closed. All downloaded files are deleted when the browser closes.

Download event is emitted once the download starts. Download path becomes available once download completes:

const [ download ] = await Promise.all([
  page.waitForEvent('download'), // wait for download to start
  page.click('a')
]);
// wait for download to complete
const path = await download.path();
...

https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/blob/master/docs/api.md#class-download

Answer 2

Playwright is going to support downloads in a cross-browser compatible way soon, you can track this feature request.

For now the above Chromium-specific snippet could be fixed by changing the line to:

const client = await context.newCDPSession(page);

which uses the new method for creating CDP sessions.