My TypeScript NodeJS (>=12.0.0) app uses Playwright (^1.4.2). It runs well locally. But, it fails on Heroku:
browserType.launch: Failed to launch chromium because executable doesn't exist at /app/.cache/ms-playwright/chromium-799411/chrome-linux/chrome
Try re-installing playwright with "npm install playwright"
Note: use DEBUG=pw:api environment variable and rerun to capture Playwright logs.
at BrowserType._wrapApiCall (/app/node_modules/playwright/lib/client/channelOwner.js:78:15)
at BrowserType.launch (/app/node_modules/playwright/lib/client/browserType.js:49:21)
at Object.exports.browserTest (/app/utils.js:34:57)
at Object.<anonymous> (/app/index.js:13:9)
at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1076:30)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1097:10)
at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:941:32)
at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:782:14)
at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (internal/modules/run_main.js:72:12)
So, I SSHed into the Heroku dyno and ran npm install playwright. Got the same error.
Then I thought, how about building it into a Docker image (node:latest) and then deploying it to Heroku? Surely that won't fail. It did. Same error. This image ran perfectly locally.
Following solutions online, I also tried installing several Heroku buildpacks, and using the Chromium and Firefox Playwright flavours specifically. I then tried a thousand and one other things I've forgotten (edit: including mxschmitt heroku-playwright-example).
Anyone come across this issue before?
alterjun and MaxSchmitt point to github.com/mxschmitt/heroku-playwright-buildpack, and it says the buildpacks are important. I tried it previously but must have done something wrong but now it's working.