Once upon a time, if you wanted a truly modern web frontend experience for your Python web app, you would have limited options in how to pull it off. A lot of people would reach for heavy frontend tools and frameworks such as React, Vue, or one of their many, many competitors. And those tools generally have their own recommendations around testing.

Things are shifting a bit - tools like HTMX and AlpineJS are taking Python web dev by storm and simplifying the creation of modern frontends. A Python web app can now take on the full responsibility of producing a modern frontend. So it would be good to have a Pythonic way to test those frontends.

This is where Playwright comes in. It promises to enable reliable end-to-end testing for modern web apps. And it has Python bindings. swoon

In this talk, I'll give you a little tour of HTMX and AlpineJS in the context of a Python web app, and I'll show you what Playwright brings to the table.