Implementation:Microsoft Playwright PageDispatcher

Knowledge Sources	Microsoft_Playwright
Domains	RPC Protocol, Page Automation
Last Updated	2026-02-12 00:00 GMT

Overview

Concrete tool for exposing Page operations over the RPC protocol provided by the Playwright library.

Description

The `PageDispatcher` class bridges the server-side `Page` object to the client via the RPC dispatcher system. It implements the `channels.PageChannel` interface, handling all page-level operations including navigation, evaluation, element interaction, screenshots, PDF generation, network route interception, WebSocket interception, binding calls, init scripts, code coverage, locator handlers, and file chooser management. The class manages event subscriptions (console, dialog, download, request, response, worker, etc.), request interception patterns with URL matchers, and `PageAgent` dispatchers for additional agent-based interactions. It also includes `WorkerDispatcher` and `BindingCallDispatcher` as companion classes for workers and binding calls respectively.

Usage

Use this dispatcher when the Playwright server needs to expose page capabilities to remote clients. It is created automatically for each page within a `BrowserContextDispatcher`.

Code Reference

Source Location

• Repository: Microsoft_Playwright
• File: packages/playwright-core/src/server/dispatchers/pageDispatcher.ts

Signature

export class PageDispatcher extends Dispatcher<Page, channels.PageChannel, BrowserContextDispatcher> implements channels.PageChannel {
  _type_EventTarget: true;
  _type_Page: true;
  private _page: Page;
  _subscriptions: Set<channels.PageUpdateSubscriptionParams['event']>;

  constructor(parentScope: BrowserContextDispatcher, page: Page);
  async goto(params: channels.PageGotoParams): Promise<channels.PageGotoResult>;
  async screenshot(params: channels.PageScreenshotParams): Promise<channels.PageScreenshotResult>;
  async evaluate(params: channels.PageEvaluateParams): Promise<channels.PageEvaluateResult>;
  async close(params: channels.PageCloseParams): Promise<void>;
}

export class WorkerDispatcher extends Dispatcher<Worker, channels.WorkerChannel, PageDispatcher | BrowserContextDispatcher> {
  constructor(scope: PageDispatcher | BrowserContextDispatcher, worker: Worker);
}

export class BindingCallDispatcher extends Dispatcher<SdkObject, channels.BindingCallChannel, PageDispatcher | BrowserContextDispatcher> {
  constructor(scope: PageDispatcher | BrowserContextDispatcher, name: string, needsHandle: boolean, source: { context: BrowserContext, page: Page, frame: Frame }, args: any[]);
}

Import

import { PageDispatcher, WorkerDispatcher, BindingCallDispatcher } from '../server/dispatchers/pageDispatcher';

I/O Contract

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
parentScope	BrowserContextDispatcher	Yes	Parent context dispatcher
page	Page	Yes	Server-side Page object to expose
params	various channel params	Yes	Method-specific parameters from the client

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
FrameDispatcher	FrameDispatcher	Dispatchers for page frames
screenshots	Buffer	Screenshot data in requested format
evaluation results	any	Results from JavaScript evaluation
events	channel events	Console, dialog, download, worker, navigation events

Usage Examples

// Created automatically when a page is opened in a context
const pageDispatcher = new PageDispatcher(contextDispatcher, serverPage);

// Client method calls are dispatched to the server
const gotoResult = await pageDispatcher.goto({ url: 'https://example.com', waitUntil: 'load' });
const screenshotResult = await pageDispatcher.screenshot({ type: 'png' });
const evalResult = await pageDispatcher.evaluate({ expression: 'document.title' });

Related Pages

• Environment:Microsoft_Playwright_Node_Runtime_Environment