Skip to content

Drupal & DDEV Procedure

When to Use

Use this guide when running VR against a Drupal site under DDEV.

Decision

Question Answer
Clear Drupal cache between tests? Almost never — clears take 5–30 s and torpedo suite runtime
When to clear cache? Once in global.setup.ts before the whole suite (after drush updb); or when the test exercises a cache-rebuild path specifically
When to clear before re-running? After Twig/CSS changes: ddev drush cr once, then re-run — not between tests

Pattern

Storage-state authentication:

  1. auth.setup.ts logs in via /user/login and writes playwright/.auth/admin.json via context.storageState()
  2. Authenticated projects declare use: { storageState: 'playwright/.auth/admin.json' }
  3. Anonymous projects omit storageState
  4. .auth/ is gitignored — files contain session cookies

DDEV URL + self-signed certs:

// playwright.config.ts
use: {
  baseURL: process.env.DDEV_PRIMARY_URL ?? 'https://my-site.ddev.site',
  ignoreHTTPSErrors: true,
}

Run inside the DDEV web container:

ddev exec npx playwright test

Common Drupal elements to mask:

const dynamic = [
  page.locator('time[datetime]'),
  page.locator('.views-row .submitted'),
  page.locator('.user--name'),
  page.locator('.toolbar-tray .messages'),
  page.locator('[data-contextual-id]'),
];
await expect(page).toHaveScreenshot({ mask: dynamic });

Olivero/Claro peculiarities: - Admin toolbar — wait for '.toolbar-loading' to disappear or hide via stylePath - CKEditor 5 iframe — mask doesn't pierce iframes; stylePath does (iframe { visibility: hidden; }) - Big Pipe placeholders — always await page.waitForLoadState('networkidle') after goto

Directory layout:

<repo>/
├── composer.json
├── web/
└── tests/playwright/
    ├── playwright.config.ts
    ├── screenshot.css
    ├── auth.setup.ts
    ├── .auth/                         # gitignored
    ├── e2e/
    │   ├── homepage.spec.ts
    │   └── homepage.spec.ts-snapshots/ # committed baselines
    └── playwright-report/             # gitignored

Common Mistakes

  • Wrong: capturing on the host → Right: works locally, fails in CI; capture inside the Docker image always
  • Wrong: running drush cr between every test → Right: kills suite time
  • Wrong: forgetting ignoreHTTPSErrors → Right: every navigation fails on DDEV TLS
  • Wrong: committing .auth/ files → Right: leaks session cookies

See Also