How do I bring a Playwright page or element to the front during a test run?

General Discussions
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1

I’m running end-to-end tests with Playwright and need certain windows or elements to be in the foreground before interacting with them. Some actions fail if the page is in the background or covered by other windows. How can I programmatically ensure the page or specific element is brought to the front during runtime so my interactions like clicks or typing work reliably?

2

I’ve worked with Playwright quite a bit, and if you’re trying to bring the whole page to the front, it’s simple: Playwright provides a built-in method called bringToFront to focus the browser page. Right before interacting with any elements, use:

await page.bringToFront();  
await page.click('#myButton');

This makes sure your page is the active tab and ready to receive events, which is especially helpful when dealing with multiple tabs or windows. It’s straightforward, but highly effective!

3

Building on @sam.aarun 's point, if your issue is more about an element being hidden or covered rather than the entire page, you can ensure that the element is in focus. Here’s how I handle that:

const input = await page.$('#myInput');
await input.focus();
await input.type('Hello Playwright');

This guarantees the element is focused and ready for interaction, even if the page itself isn’t in the foreground. I’ve found this handy when dealing with pop-ups or overlays that don’t fully block the element, but typing doesn’t work because the focus isn’t right.

4

Sometimes the issue isn’t about the page being in the background, it’s the element being off-screen. To make sure it’s in view, I always use scrollIntoViewIfNeeded() along with bringToFront playwright to ensure that both the element and page are properly brought to the front. Here’s the combo:

const button = await page.$('#submitButton');
await button.scrollIntoViewIfNeeded();
await button.click();

This ensures the element is visible and ready for interaction. Combining this with bringToFront playwright usually solves most of the common interaction issues in my tests.