Migrate automated testing from NightwatchJS to Playwright with CucumberJS

Problem/Motivation

Current challenges with NightwatchJS:

• Requires Selenium Server and WebDriver setup
• Slower test execution
• Flaky tests due to async timing issues
• Higher CI complexity (Java, ChromeDriver, Xvfb, etc.)
• Limited modern browser automation capabilities

Proposed resolution

Replace NightwatchJS with Playwright while keeping CucumberJS for TDD.

Key changes:

• Remove Selenium/WebDriver dependency
• Use Playwright for browser automation
• Keep CucumberJS step definitions and feature files
• Introduce a shared test configuration using Cucumber World
• Update CI pipeline to use Playwright (npx playwright install --with-deps)

Remaining tasks

• ✅ File an issue
• ➖ Addition/Change/Update/Fix
• ➖ Merge request, Patch, or Commit
• ➖ Testing to ensure no regression
• ➖ Automated unit testing coverage
• ➖ Automated functional testing coverage
• ➖ UX/UI designer responsibilities
• ➖ Readability
• ➖ Accessibility
• ➖ Performance
• ➖ Security
• ➖ Documentation
• ➖ Code review by maintainers
• ➖ Full testing and approval
• ➖ Credit contributors
• ➖ Review with the product owner
• ➖ Release notes snippet
• ❌ Release

User interface changes

• N/A

API changes

• N/A

Data model changes

• N/A

Release notes snippet

• N/A