Playwright test in typescript in visual studio code fails without reason when run in debug mode

Question

I've relatively new to typescript and playwright but not so much to coding so I'd say I have a fair idea of what Im attempting to achieve and can't see a logical reason why it doesn't work so I'm hoping someone might be able to aid me...

I have a spec.ts file with a test in, as usual, and this in turn calls a method from a .ts file which has been written to call multiple other methods from a second .ts file.

I've set it up like this because one file has all the individual API calls in, whereas the second file calls a selection of these in specific order so that my tests can just focus on getting a case to the state I want before I then complete the actual test I want, enabling me to write the tests with less lines, I split it between two ts files to help compartmentalise what was held where for my own sanity.

The issue I have is, if I call the individual API call methods directly from my test they work fine, but the moment I put the collection into a method in a second ts file and attempt to call it via that it errors, and if I try and step through it to debug when I get to the first post and attempt to run it it just exits right back to the test level with a failure.

So the individual API call .ts file has an entry looking like this: -

import dotenv from 'dotenv';
import {APIRequestContext, expect, request} from '@playwright/test';

module.exports = {
    authorisation: async function ( request: any ){
        dotenv.config();
        
        const response = await request.post(`myURL`, {
                    
            data: {     
                stuffs
            }
            });
    
        const token = JSON.parse(await response.text());
        return token.access_token;
    }
}

If I call that from a test that looks like this it works fine,

import { test, expect, request, APIRequestContext } from '@playwright/test';

const API_Calls = require("./common/API_Calls");

test('Do the thing', async ({ page, request }) => {    
  var authtoken = await API_Calls.authorisation(request);
  ...draw the rest of the owl...
});

But If I create a "collection" .ts file designed to make all the calls in turn like this

import {expect, request} from '@playwright/test';
const API_Calls = require("./API_Calls");

module.exports = {

    doAllTheThingsForMe: async function (ADetailsJson: string, BDetailsJson: string, request: any){

        const authtoken = await API_Calls.authorisation(request); <--this is where it dies
        ...do the rest of the owls...
}

And then write a test like this to run it

test('Do that long test', async ({page}) => {
  var finalResponse = Group_API_Calls.doAllTheThingsForMe("AString","BString");
  const responseCode = finalResponse.status();


  ...owls all the way down...
});

It will literally just drop out at the point I've marked as I try to step over it in debug mode. The error reads: -

 1) My Testies API.spec.ts:49:5 › Do that long test
 ─────────────────────────────

    TypeError: finalResponse.status is not a function

      50 |   var finalResponse = Group_API_Calls._doAllTheThingsForMe("AString","BString");
      51 |
    > 52 |   const responseCode = finalResponse.status();
         |                                      ^
      53 |
      54 | });
      55 |

If I put all the individual calls into a test and run them that way that will also work, but I was hoping I wouldn't need to write 20 lines of code to run a bunch of the same API tests every single time I want to test something 90% of the way down the track...

I've omitted all the other methods/code that's not being reached as I figured its not applicable but if there's anything people think might be worth looking at let me know and I can update.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Answer 1

The actual problem is that you do not await at the var finalResponse = Group_API_Calls.doAllTheThingsForMe("AString","BString");.

Since doAllTheThingsForMe is async it will return a promise. And if you want to use the actual returned value, you need to await it first.

so

var finalResponse = await Group_API_Calls.doAllTheThingsForMe("AString","BString");`