Running Playwright dotnet tests on Azure DevOps

Question

I'm trying to execute Playwright dotnet tests with Nunit framework on Azure DevOps. I'm unable to execute testcases as and when I try to install playwright as a part of pipeline, there is an error thrown and build gets failed with the following message

Couldn't find project using Playwright. Ensure a project or a solution exists in D:\a\1\s, or provide another path using -p. Below is my azure pipeline steps, Can someone please help me where exactly the issue is and I have tried both Windows and latest Ubuntu agents

# ASP.NET Core (.NET Framework)
# Build and test ASP.NET Core projects targeting the full .NET Framework.
# Add steps that publish symbols, save build artifacts, and more:
# https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/devops/pipelines/languages/dotnet-core

trigger:
- master

pool:
  vmImage: 'windows-latest'

variables:
  solution: '**/*.sln'
  buildPlatform: 'Any CPU'
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'

steps:
- task: UseDotNet@2
  displayName: 'Install .NET'
  inputs:
    packageType: 'sdk'
    version: '6.0.x'
    installationPath: $(Agent.ToolsDirectory)/dotnet
    includePreviewVersions: true

- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  inputs:
    command: 'build'
    projects: '**/*.csproj'

- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  inputs:
    command: 'custom'
    custom: 'new'
    arguments: 'tool-manifest'
- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  displayName: 'Installing Playwright Cli'
  inputs:
    command: 'custom'
    custom: 'tool'
    arguments: 'install Microsoft.Playwright.CLI'

- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  displayName: 'Building tests project'
  inputs:
    command: 'build'
    projects: '**/*Tests*.csproj'

- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  displayName: Run Playwright Install
  inputs:
    command: custom
    custom: 'tool '
    arguments: run playwright install

- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  displayName: 'Run tests'
  inputs:
    command: 'test'
    projects: '**/*Tests*.csproj'
    testRunTitle: 'new pipeline'

Answer 1

With Visual Studio projects you can add post-build-events, which will run on you dev machine and in the Azure Pipeline during a build (tested with VSBuild@1)

Example using the VS UI: (you will need to adjust paths for ubuntu)

echo $(TargetDir).playwright\node\win32_x64\playwright.cmd install
$(TargetDir).playwright\node\win32_x64\playwright.cmd install
echo Done

or adding directly to a .csproj

  <Target Name="PostBuild" AfterTargets="PostBuildEvent">
    <Exec Command="echo $(TargetDir).playwright\node\win32_x64\playwright.cmd install;$(TargetDir).playwright\node\win32_x64\playwright.cmd install;echo Done" />
  </Target>