Cypress- A visually Aiding Automated Test Framework 

Wouldn’t it be great to have a visual aid while running tests for your projects? Well, Cypress is one such feature-rich test runner that can create test reports and save videos and screenshots while running tests. But companies currently working on or planning to switch to Cypress must know the profound capabilities of the framework such as:

• It can run tests in the same browser window as the application itself.
• It can test the network control and confirm whether the application is responding to periodic network requests.
• It has advanced debugging abilities.
• The same installation and run commands can work on most CI systems.
• As an open-source open platform, Cypress can extend test coverage and velocity of test execution.
• It can visually test the feel of the app across different platforms.
• Cypress can be extended using plug-ins. 

On that note, we hope to give you a basic understanding of Cypress and the scope it offers for your projects through this article.

What is Cypress?

Cypress is a test automation framework that is by far the fastest-growing cross-browser frontend developer-friendly one. It has a strong support community and a company that is capable of providing additional operational services. This rest framework is effectively mending the gaps in cross-browser testing space.

What is the Cypress framework?

A JavaScript-based end-to-end testing framework built on Mocha, Cypress runs on browsers making asynchronous testing seamless and convenient. Cypress utilizes BDD and TDD assertions library alongside a browser to couple with any JavaScript testing framework. Cypress has the following features developed particularly for this framework namely:

Automatic waiting: You need not declare any implicit or explicit waits as Cypress waits for the elements to become visible, complete the animation, load the DON, finish the XHR and AJAX calls, among others.

Real-time reloads: Cypress has the intelligent feature of tester running the tests again after saving a test file. Since the tester saves the files, it immediately and automatically triggers the run next to the browser. Hence you can forget about the manual triggering of the run.

Features of Cypress Framework

1. Cypress can execute the test command automatically and is assertive when it comes to executing the next commands waiting to be run.
2. Debugging is made easy by capturing screenshots during test cases.
3. It provides interactive test execution with Test Runner and logs helps in more efficient test debugging.
4. The architectural framework is different from other test frameworks and facilitates more reliable and swifter test execution for the users. 

How to install Cypress Framework?

You can download, install, and configure the Cypress framework in your system using the npm package manager as given below:

npm install cypress –save-dev

What are the components of the Cypress Framework?

The Cypress framework has the following components involved while executing test cases:

Spec File: It contains the It(){} blocks from where the test execution starts. A single Spec file will have one describe {} block in which it{} blocks are included.

Page Object File: Thai file lists out the business logic of the tests. Here the actual Cypress commands interact with the real application.

Page Selector File: It contains the actual locators of the UI elements in the real application.

Constants File: It contains the constants held throughout the test files.

Cypress Framework Workflow

1. Open the application for which the test case is to be written.
2. Find the locators or selectors appropriate for a particular flow of the test to be run, and integrate those with the Page Selector file.
3.  In the Cypress syntax, the user should add the test steps in command forms under methods in the Page Object file.
4. In the actual Spec file, invoke the page object method. 
5. If the user is executing the Cypress tests as part of the project structure, then the ng tool can be used for running the tests and the steps will be as follows:
   1. Execute the test suite using the ng e2e command.
   2. If the user wants to execute a specific test, run e2e projectName –spec= Spec File Path.

What are the Advantages of the Cypress Framework?

• Execution of steps is quick, easy to set up
• Time taken for writing tests is much less compared to other frameworks. 
• Cypress is easily integrable with various CI tools for execution with command-line options. 
• If the test fails, the user can refer to the screenshots it captures at different stages of test runs, thereby facilitating easy debugging.
• Once changes are made to the test, Cypress automatically reloads Test Runner.

Bottom line: Reasons to say YES to Cypress

Cypress is easy to use for developers and QAs who are knowledgeable in JavaScript or TypeScript. As the tests run inside the browser, it possesses the added advantage of higher speed and debugging capabilities. While tests are run, Cypress uses a node server as its proxy so that there is no gap in communicating the tasks to be performed on each other’s behalf ( for example, mocking network requests from tests and more).

Cypress supports front-line browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and even Microsoft Edge browsers. It has a framework-agonistic test runner and hence can work with popular web development frameworks like Vue.JS, React, Angular, Elm and can test any site easily. Cypress easily fits into the CI/CD pipeline for running the end-to-end tests as part of the development cycle through pull requests and other triggered events thereby easing the developers’ and testers’ efforts.

Cypress is a shrewd test runner that is feature-rich and is capable of creating test reports, saving videos and screenshots during the test runs. If there is a requirement of running tests at scale, storing, and displaying test results and integrations with source code providers, it can be permitted by companies like Cypress.io (the administrative team of open-source Cypress test runner), Perfecto, AWS Amplify, and Browserstack. 

Want to maximize the value this framework offers? Apart from the above-mentioned capabilities of Cypress, there are many more advanced abilities that Cypress can offer. In the coming sections, we believe you will have a better understanding of how the power of this framework can be leveraged.