End-to-end testing is made more accessible by using Cypress, a framework that is based on JavaScript. It is based on Mocha and runs entirely in the browser, allowing for asynchronous testing. Cypress can help you develop unit test and integration as well as end-to-end tests, according to the Cypress documentation.
The characteristics of Cypress are as follows:
- Cypress captures pictures of your tests as they run, allowing you to travel across time.
- Debugging is made simpler by readable failures and stack traces.
- Waits for orders and assertions automatically before proceeding.
- Video and screenshots: When using the CLI Cross browser to run your test suite, you may see screenshots or videos of the whole test suite. Run tests locally using Firefox and Chrome browsers (including Electron and Edge).
- Clocks, spies, and stubs: Check and regulate the behavior of server replies, functions and timers.
- Controls, simulates, and tests edge situations without affecting the server by using network traffic control.
Tools That Cyprus Utilises:
Cypress primarily employs three major libraries: Mocha for BDD testing, Sinon for stubbing and mocking, and Chai for assertions. As a result, Cypress depends on these well-known open-source testing libraries to guarantee that your experience with Cypress is consistent and familiar. If you’ve ever dabbled with JS testing, you’re presumably already acquainted with these libraries. Other than these, Cypress makes use of chai-jquery, jquery, sinon-chai, and a few others that may be found in the Cypress documentation.
Difference between Cypress and Selenium
One of the most noteworthy distinctions between Selenium and Cypress.io (You can learn more about Cypress at LambdaTest) is that the former runs in a process separate from the device or browser that we are testing it on. Cypress runs in the same browser as the device under test and in the same run cycle. There is really no network latency since Cypress performs the overwhelming majority of its actions inside the browser.
Commands drive and execute your program as quickly as it can render. Assertions are used to inform Cypress what the expected state of the app is while dealing with current JavaScript frameworks with sophisticated UIs. Before going forward, Cypress will wait for the app to achieve this status. You’ll never have to deal with manual delays or retries again.
Cypress will never give you stale items that have been disconnected from the DOM since it waits for them to exist. This is the essential point to remember. Cypress has solved the major challenge with Selenium by implementing in the very same run loop as the device. Waiting for the elements of the DOM to develop and appear is also handled by Cypress.
5 Reasons Why Cypress.io Will Provide You With Better Tests
So, we have talked a lot about Cypress. Let us take a look and see what makes it so unique and why everyone likes it so much.
- Contemporary Tool
First and foremost, Cypress is a more general automation tool than other automation solutions. It is developed in Javascript and uses Node.js to run in the browser. It is based on Chai and Mocha. This means it may be used to test nearly any website, not only those built in Javascript. As a result, if you wish to test apps created in, such as the newest Angular, React Vue, Elm, and so on, it is the perfect alternative. Because the test code in Cypress is performed inside the browser, any language that a website is written in may be turned to JavaScript.
Cypress, unlike the other testing frameworks, does not execute outside of the browser, executing network operations remotely. Instead, it employs the same run cycle as your program. It reads and alters web traffic while acting on the network layer of browser-based tests using the built-in Node.js server. You can test almost anything that works in a web browser using Cypress. You may also use a mobile web view to perform Cypress tests. The only restriction is that you may only test on Chrome. This might be an issue if you want to test your apps on a variety of browsers, but it can be handled by utilizing extra tools, device farms, and browsers and so on.
- Documentation
This is a crucial aspect for every library. Good documentation may assist users with a variety of issues and shorten the learning curve. These are only a few of the library’s most significant benefits. In general, Cypress can enhance the following aspects from a business standpoint:
- time spent on test maintenance – with the help of simple test recording and debugging
- time to write the test — owing to thorough documentation and minimal downtime
- because of the similar technological stack, the opportunity to share the duty of generating tests with front-end programmers
- Implementation And Debugging
Cypress is a highly accessible tool for expert QA engineers, and it makes it easy for JS programmers to start automated testing. Cypress’ Domain Specific Language is not entirely JavaScript, but it is clear and intelligible, comparable to the DSLs used by other testing tools. You may also utilize JavaScript to develop your own functions and methods, which you can then share and use throughout the whole framework.
Debugging is also reasonably simple with Cypress. Cypress offers direct access to the entire item inside your program, which simplifies error investigation. While the tests are running in the browser, you may use Chrome DevTools to debug your application. That’s not all. When a test fails or an error appears, Cypress provides a clear and understandable error message, as well as advice for how to improve the implementation. You have the ability to take screenshots after every test failure or at any point throughout a test run, allowing you to go back in time to the condition in which instructions were executed. This makes debugging very simple and quick.
- Setup And Execution
In Selenium it might be challenging to identify the correct libraries or dependencies for a particular project. However, it is a lot easier with Cypress. You are nearly there if you’ve used JavaScript before. Because it is built on Node.js, all you have to do to install Cypress is to run npm install cypress. For a typical installation, all of the dependencies are already present. You won’t need any extra libraries, servers, testing engines, drivers, or wrappers, and you won’t have to configure anything. Of course, you are free to use whatever libraries and dependencies you choose.
Cypress automated tests are quick to run. You don’t need to implement any extra waits, either implicit or explicit, since it waits for the DOM to load automatically. Cypress tracks everything that occurs in your app in real time, including when the page loads and when components transmit events. As a result, Cypress may wait not just for items to appear or animations to finish, but also for various requests to be sent or returned. The bulk of Cypress’ operations are executed inside the browser, therefore there is no issue of network latency. As a result, tests run as quickly as the program can render. To manage testing of dynamic and complicated contemporary websites, Cypress use test assertions to determine the intended state of the app and then waits for it to achieve that state before proceeding. When compared to other testing tools in the market like Selenium, this is a significant difference. There will be no more waiting or sleeping in your code. Lastly, with Cypress, you don’t have to restart your tests after each file save since it runs in your browser automatically. This may save a huge amount of time in some instances.
- Combination Of API Checking And Functional Testing
Cypress allows you to create a variety of tests, including integration tests, end-to-end tests, and also unit tests. The actual strength of this structure comes from combining them. You have the same control and power to check the performance of functions and server replies in Cypress as you have in unit testing. One of the main advantages of using Cypress for end-to-end testing is the ability to submit and inspect backend requests. As a result, you won’t need to use any additional libraries for API testing since you’ll be able to offer queries on the fly while testing your frontend app. So, for example, before you test the frontend application, you can use Cypress to take shortcuts and build a method to immediately log in with a request. That’s not all, however. Using unit testing as an example, you may use mocks and stubs to simulate backend functionality in Cypress, as well as directly manipulate DOM elements (e.g. by modifying their properties) to replicate application state in your tests. These competences remarkably reduce the time it takes to execute a specification and keep test logic focused on the true objective of the test cases.
All of these characteristics make Cypress a testing framework that is accessible not just to expert QA engineers, but also to developers who are just getting started with end-to-end testing. Of course, Cypress has its limitations, such as the fact that it only runs in the Chrome browser, but this is a deal breaker in most circumstances. With platforms like LambdaTest you can execute and analyse Cypress test scripts online. With their expertise you can deploy quality builds faster with 40+ browser versions on cloud. Overall, Cypress is a contemporary testing tool that is easy to use and is at the very least worth trying.
