APIRequestContext: API Calls Without a Browser

Modeling APIRequestContext's role as pure HTTP setup, decoupled from any UI, and the decision rule for choosing it.

// A simplified stand-in for Playwright's real request.newContext() -- models the SHAPE
// of API-only requests, not real network calls.
class FakeApiRequestContext {
  constructor() { this.records = []; }
  post(path, options) {
    this.records.push({ method: "POST", path, body: options.data });
    return { status: 201, body: { id: this.records.length, ...options.data } };
  }
}

function shouldTestAtApiLevel(scenario) {
  const apiLevelReasons = ["invalid-payload-rejection", "duplicate-conflict-status", "response-shape"];
  return apiLevelReasons.includes(scenario);
}

const api = new FakeApiRequestContext();
const enrollment = api.post("/api/enrollments", { data: { learnerId: 1, courseId: 10 } });
console.log(enrollment); // { status: 201, body: { id: 1, learnerId: 1, courseId: 10 } } -- test setup, no browser involved

console.log(shouldTestAtApiLevel("invalid-payload-rejection")); // true -- backend behavior, no UI-rendering component
console.log(shouldTestAtApiLevel("enrolled-badge-renders"));    // false -- this is genuinely a UI concern

Call api.post twice and confirm each call gets a distinct, incrementing id in its response body.

Write seedEnrollment(apiClient, learnerId, courseId) that calls apiClient.post('/api/enrollments', { data: { learnerId, courseId } }) and returns just the created enrollment's id from the response. Then write shouldTestAtApiLevel(scenario) returning true for 'invalid-payload-rejection', 'duplicate-conflict-status', or 'response-shape'; false otherwise.

Checks: seedEnrollment correctly extracts the created id · recognizes backend validation as API-level testing · recognizes a UI-rendering concern as NOT API-level testing

Write seedMultipleEnrollments(apiClient, pairs) where pairs is an array of [learnerId, courseId] tuples. Call apiClient.post once per pair, and return an array of all the created ids, IN ORDER. This models efficiently seeding several pieces of test state via API calls before a UI test runs.

Checks: seeds multiple enrollments in order and returns their ids · handles an empty pairs list