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OttoTester docs

Fixtures and test data

Fixtures sign your tests in

Section titled “Fixtures sign your tests in”

Most tests need a signed-in user. Rather than repeat the login flow in every test, OttoTester uses a fixture: a small Playwright spec that runs before your real tests. It signs in once, saves the session to a file, and every test after it starts already authenticated.

Fixtures are scoped by role. If your app has an admin, a tester, and a reviewer, you’ll have up to one fixture per role — and at most one fixture per role per variant.

Fixture vs fixture plan

Section titled “Fixture vs fixture plan”

These two are easy to mix up, so OttoTester keeps them distinct:

  • A fixture plan is a test case — the spec for a sign-in flow. The planner writes it; it has type: fixture and a role.
  • A fixture is the runtime script — the Playwright spec the generator produces from the fixture plan. It’s the thing that actually logs in.

It’s the same relationship as any test and its script: the plan is the spec, the fixture is the code.

Test data is first-class

Section titled “Test data is first-class”

Test data is whatever your tests read and write — seed users, sample records, the values a form expects.

OttoTester treats test data as its own object. You define it once on a variant, and tests reference it by name. Rotate a password or rename a record in one place, and every test that uses it follows — no hunting through scripts.

Section titled “Related”