kgabryje opened a new issue, #24948: URL: https://github.com/apache/superset/issues/24948
### Motivation Currently, Superset uses Selenium for rendering charts in reports and in thumbnails. However, this approach has proven to be problematic when dealing with [deck.gl](http://deck.gl/) charts. The current Selenium-based approach fails to handle these charts properly, resulting in blank visualizations in the reports. To address this issue and provide a more reliable solution for rendering [deck.gl](http://deck.gl/) charts, we propose integrating [Playwright](https://github.com/microsoft/playwright) as an alternative to Selenium. ### Proposed Change The proposed change involves introducing Playwright for rendering charts in Superset reports. Playwright is an open-source library for automating web browsers, similar to Selenium but with better support for modern browser features and improved performance. By using Playwright, we aim to provide a more stable and accurate chart rendering experience in Superset reports, especially for [deck.gl](http://deck.gl/) charts. We wrote a POC that proved that the underlying problem, which is inability to render WebGL images (which deck.gl charts are based on), does not occur when running reports with Playwright. The screenshots below present the contents of email reports of dashboard containing deck.gl charts when using Selenium (before) and Playwright (after). Before (Selenium): <img width="918" alt="image" src="https://github.com/apache/superset/assets/15073128/21dfcaed-ef1f-4462-9d67-2b28c7cc8618";> After (Playwright):  Since configuring Playwright requires installing additional dependencies, in order to prevent breaking changes in existing deployments we propose to put the new flow behind a feature flag `PLAYWRIGHT_REPORTS_AND_THUMBNAILS` while supporting Selenium at the same time. Users who do not enable the new feature flag will be unaffected by the proposed changes. ### New or Changed Public Interfaces There will be no changes to existing public interfaces in Superset as part of this feature addition. ### New dependencies The proposed feature will require the addition of the Playwright library as a new Python dependency. Playwright is actively maintained, with Apache 2.0 license. ### Migration Plan and Compatibility The migration to Playwright as the alternative to Selenium will not require any database migrations or updates to stored URLs. Existing reports using [deck.gl](http://deck.gl/) charts should continue to work as expected. In order to avoid introducing a potential breaking change in existing deployments, Playwright will only be used if `PLAYWRIGHT_REPORTS_AND_THUMBNAILS` is enabled. Otherwise, the reports will be run by Selenium. ### Rejected Alternatives 1. Continue using Selenium with geckodriver (Firefox): This approach was rejected due to the limitations of geckodriver, which can't render WebGL visualizations in headless mode. 2. Continue using Selenium, change the driver to Chrome: This approach was rejected due to problems with taking fullpage screenshots. -- This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service. To respond to the message, please log on to GitHub and use the URL above to go to the specific comment. To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at: [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
