OrchardCore Feature Testing

This skill guides you through testing OrchardCore CMS features using browser automation with playwright-cli.

Prerequisites

• OrchardCore repository (working directory)
• .NET SDK 10.0+ installed
• playwright-cli skill available, with a browser engine installed. On macOS (or any machine without Chrome) use webkit:

  playwright-cli --browser webkit install
  

  Then pass --browser webkit on the first open of a session. See references/playwright-cli.md.

The examples below show PowerShell and bash. The repo targets macOS/.NET 10; bash works everywhere. Use whichever matches your shell.

Core Workflow

Testing an OrchardCore feature follows these steps:

1. Build the application
2. Run the application server (background)
3. Setup a test site (AutoSetup is the recommended unattended path)
4. Test the feature via browser
5. Verify results and clean up

TL;DR (fastest reliable path)

# 1. build
dotnet build src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web -c Debug -f net10.0

# 2. fresh state + pick a port
rm -rf src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/App_Data
PORT=$(( (RANDOM % 1000) + 5000 )); echo -n $PORT > .orchardcore-port

# 3. run with AutoSetup (provisions Default tenant on first request, no wizard)
cd src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__AutoSetupPath= \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__ShellName=Default \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__SiteName=TestSite \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__SiteTimeZone=America/Los_Angeles \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__AdminUsername=admin \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__AdminEmail=admin@test.com \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__AdminPassword=Password1! \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__DatabaseProvider=Sqlite \
OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__RecipeName=Blog \
dotnet run -f net10.0 --no-build --urls "http://localhost:$PORT" > autosetup-console.log 2>&1 &
cd ../..

# 4. trigger + confirm
curl -s -o /dev/null "http://localhost:$PORT/"
grep -m1 "successfully provisioned" src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/autosetup-console.log

Then log in (see Step 4 — the login password field needs the native-setter workaround). Full AutoSetup details and gotchas: references/autosetup.md.

Step 1: Build

dotnet build src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/OrchardCore.Cms.Web.csproj -c Debug -f net10.0

Step 2: Run Application (Background)

Since multiple agents may run OrchardCore from different worktrees simultaneously, use a random port and run in background.

Get or Create Session Port

# Check for existing port file, or generate random port (5000-5999)
$portFile = ".orchardcore-port"
if (Test-Path $portFile) {
    $port = Get-Content $portFile
} else {
    $port = Get-Random -Minimum 5000 -Maximum 6000
    $port | Out-File $portFile -NoNewline
}
Write-Host "Using port: $port"

Start Application in Background

# Start OrchardCore in background process
$proc = Start-Process dotnet `
    -ArgumentList "run","-f","net10.0","--no-build","--urls","http://localhost:$port" `
    -WorkingDirectory "src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web" `
    -PassThru -NoNewWindow

# Save PID for later cleanup
$proc.Id | Out-File ".orchardcore-pid" -NoNewline
Write-Host "Started OrchardCore (PID: $($proc.Id)) on http://localhost:$port"

Wait for Application Ready

# Poll until app responds (max 60 seconds)
$port = Get-Content ".orchardcore-port"
$timeout = 60; $elapsed = 0
while ($elapsed -lt $timeout) {
    try {
        $response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "http://localhost:$port" -UseBasicParsing -TimeoutSec 2
        Write-Host "Application ready at http://localhost:$port"
        break
    } catch {
        Start-Sleep -Seconds 2
        $elapsed += 2
    }
}

Stop Application

# Stop the background process
if (Test-Path ".orchardcore-pid") {
    $pid = Get-Content ".orchardcore-pid"
    Stop-Process -Id $pid -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    Remove-Item ".orchardcore-pid" -Force
    Write-Host "Stopped OrchardCore (PID: $pid)"
}

# bash: find the process actually listening on the port and kill it.
# (Backgrounding dotnet via a subshell makes $! unreliable, so resolve by port.)
PORT=$(cat .orchardcore-port)
PID=$(lsof -ti tcp:$PORT -sTCP:LISTEN | head -1)
[ -n "$PID" ] && kill "$PID" && echo "Stopped OrchardCore (PID: $PID)"
rm -f .orchardcore-pid

Step 3: Setup Test Site

A fresh App_Data is uninitialized, so the site must be provisioned. There are two paths.

Option A — AutoSetup (recommended, unattended)

Provision the Default tenant from configuration on first request — no browser, no wizard. OrchardCore.Cms.Web already wires AutoSetup in (Program.cs → .AddSetupFeatures("OrchardCore.AutoSetup")); you just supply env vars when starting the app (see the TL;DR above, or run them inline with dotnet run from Step 2).

Key rules (full details in references/autosetup.md):

• Prefix is OrchardCore__OrchardCore_AutoSetup__Tenants__0__<Option> — __ is the separator, the single _ in OrchardCore_AutoSetup is literal.
• No quotes around values in bash inline-env form (quotes become part of the value and corrupt the admin password/email).
• SiteTimeZone is required (e.g. America/Los_Angeles).

Confirm success with the log line:

The AutoSetup successfully provisioned the site 'TestSite'.

grep -m1 "successfully provisioned" src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/autosetup-console.log

Option B — Interactive setup wizard (browser)

Start the app without AutoSetup env vars, then drive the wizard with playwright-cli. The plain inputs (Site Name, User Name, Email) fill normally, but the password and confirmation fields cannot be filled with fill/type — use the native-setter eval workaround. Full step-by-step: references/setup-wizard.md. Quick shape:

PORT=$(cat .orchardcore-port)
playwright-cli --browser webkit open "http://localhost:$PORT/"
playwright-cli snapshot
# fill <sitename>, <username>, <email>; pick Blog from the recipe dropdown
# set passwords via native setter (see below / setup-wizard.md), then click Finish Setup

Reset for fresh setup:

rm -rf src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/App_Data

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/App_Data

Step 4: Test Features

Important: Replace 5000 with the actual port from .orchardcore-port file.

Login to Admin

The username fills normally, but the login password field (input[name="LoginForm.Password"]) cannot be filled with fill/type — use the native-setter eval (same limitation as the setup wizard; see references/playwright-cli.md).

PORT=$(cat .orchardcore-port)
playwright-cli --browser webkit open "http://localhost:$PORT/Login"
playwright-cli snapshot                       # get the username/login-button refs

# username: plain fill works
playwright-cli fill <username-ref> "admin"

# password: fill is a no-op here — set it via the native setter + events
playwright-cli eval '((p)=>{var s=Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(window.HTMLInputElement.prototype,"value").set; s.call(p,"Password1!"); p.dispatchEvent(new Event("input",{bubbles:true})); p.dispatchEvent(new Event("change",{bubbles:true})); return p.value.length})(document.querySelector("input[name=\"LoginForm.Password\"]"))'

# submit, then confirm /Admin loads (does NOT redirect back to /Login)
playwright-cli click <login-button-ref>
playwright-cli open "http://localhost:$PORT/Admin"
playwright-cli eval 'window.location.pathname'   # -> "/Admin" when authenticated

The eval prints a benign result is not a function message (it returns a number); the value is still set — verify with playwright-cli eval 'document.querySelector("input[name=\"LoginForm.Password\"]").value'.

Common Test Scenarios

Test Media Library:

playwright-cli open http://localhost:$port/Admin/Media
playwright-cli snapshot

Test Content Creation:

playwright-cli open http://localhost:$port/Admin/Contents/ContentItems
playwright-cli snapshot
# Click New, select content type, fill fields, publish

Enable a Feature:

playwright-cli open http://localhost:$port/Admin/Features
playwright-cli snapshot
# Search for feature, click Enable

See references/common-features.md for detailed workflows.

Step 5: Verify Results

After each action:

# Check page state
playwright-cli snapshot

# Check for JavaScript errors
playwright-cli console error

# Verify page title
playwright-cli eval "document.title"

Debugging with Log Files

Console output is not visible when running in background. Use log files instead:

# View last 50 lines of today's log
Get-Content "src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/App_Data/logs/orchard-log-$(Get-Date -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd').log" -Tail 50

# Search for errors
Select-String -Path "src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/App_Data/logs/orchard-log-$(Get-Date -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd').log" -Pattern "ERROR|Exception" -Context 2,5

See references/debugging.md for more debugging techniques.

Quick Reference

Task	URL Path
Admin Dashboard	/Admin
Features	/Admin/Features
Content Items	/Admin/Contents/ContentItems
Media Library	/Admin/Media
Users	/Admin/Users/Index
Themes	/Admin/Themes

Session Files

File	Purpose
.orchardcore-port	Persisted port number for session
.orchardcore-pid	Process ID for cleanup

Default Credentials

• Username: admin
• Email: admin@test.com
• Password: Password1!

References

• references/autosetup.md - Unattended AutoSetup (env-var recipe, gotchas, troubleshooting)
• references/playwright-cli.md - playwright-cli specifics: browser install, eval constraint, the password-field workaround
• references/setup-wizard.md - Interactive browser setup wizard (with password workaround)
• references/admin-navigation.md - Admin URLs and UI patterns
• references/common-features.md - Feature-specific testing guides
• references/debugging.md - Log files and troubleshooting
• AGENTS.md (repo root) - Build and development instructions