Everything You Need To Know About Cypress Automation Tool – The Real Time Experience Of A QA Analyst

Calibraint

Author

May 27, 2021

Last updated: August 12, 2024

Table of Contents

“A good programmer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street” – Doug Linder.

Cypress Automation Tool: A Free Thinker In Test Automation

What I Discovered

End-to-end testing was and has been difficult earlier. It was the portion that the developers despised the most. But not any longer! The Cypress automation tool makes it simple to set up, write, execute, and debug tests. Interesting right?

In the world of software, there are two categories of testing —manual and automation. Test automation is the practice of running tests automatically, managing test data, and utilizing results to improve software quality and thus making the software applications bug-free. It is a foremost quality assurance measure, but its activities necessitate the commitment of the entire software production team.

We all know the big changes made by Selenium in test automation – now it’s time to move on to new tools. In this blog, we are going to discuss about the Cypress automation tool which is now considered as an alternative to Selenium for writing the tests and infrastructure. Here are some of the advantages of Cypress automation tool that I captured from my method:

Easy to read the code (and tests)
Very modular and maintainable code
It’s pretty easy to diagnose the root cause of the failure

Cypress Automation Tool

Cypress is a JavaScript-based end-to-end framework for web test automation. Cypress automation tool tests anything that runs in the context of a browser. It involves everything needed to test modern web apps, and hold up for multiple browsers.

Users can create a test file in the editor tool to automate the software application and test the outcomes in a website running live in a browser. Cypress test automation records videos and saves screenshots as it goes to ease the debugging process. Its goal is to help engineers and developers overcome the challenges that they confront when testing React vs. AngularJS based web apps. It’s a simple, effortless, and dependable way to test any browser-based application.

This fascinating determination about Cypress test automation has really surprised me. I had assumed that it works in a certain way, while the fact was that it works in a completely different pattern which was novel to me.

Cypress vs Selenium

We can for sure compare Selenium vs Cypress automation testing from many viewpoints. However, there is one key difference between the two i.e., Selenium is a library but requires a unit for assertions library to build out its capabilities. Cypress test automation provides a strong, complete framework for running automated tests but takes independence out of Selenium by enclosing the user acceptance testing to specific frameworks and languages.

This means that in Selenium you must integrate it with other tools, like a testing framework (e.g. Jasmine), reporting, registering, and a lot of other elements to create your entire solution. For masses of these integrations, you will have to write the code yourself and then feed it. Cypress, on the other hand, attempts to give you every single element that you require to start working on and relieves you to focus on the tests themselves. By default, they build a mocha framework in cypress.

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Cypress Features:

Cypress has several distinct features that make it one of the most adaptive options for Web automation. Cypress test automation comes fully baked and includes batteries. Here’s a list of features that Cypress test automation offers that no other testing framework can match:

Time Travel: Snapshots of the application can be taken when the tests are running. At each step test, developers can hover on each command to see what happened in the Test Runner panel.

Debuggability: Familiar developer tools are used to debug the test directly. The readable errors and active stack traces make fast lightning of troubleshooting/debugging.

Automatic Waiting: It instinctively waits for commands and assertions in Cypress automation testing before proceeding; there is no need to use explicit waits/sleeps in your tests.

Spies, Stubs, and Clocks: These are used to verify and manage the behavior of functions, server responses, or timers in run time which are similar to unit test cases.

Network Traffic Control: Response of the API calls can be customized and also can stub the network traffic using Cypress as per your need.

Consistent Results: Cypress tool for automation is fast, consistent and has tests that are flake-free. Cypress does not use Selenium or WebDriver to run the tests directly in the browser.

Screenshots and Videos: It takes screenshots automatically on failure, or records videos of your entire test suite when running from the CLI.

Faster Execution: By using DOM events, the Cypress tool for automation performs in-browser execution directly. It sends a click command directly to the button, with efficient test duration time, resolution changes, pass/fail and browser migration.

Cypress Installation & Setup – The Step By Step Automation Process

1.Setting up tests (Installation)

2.Writing Your First Test

3.Testing Your Application

Step 1: Enter the npm command in the terminal to open the cypress server

Step 2: Start and visit your server

(i) It should look something like http://localhost:8080.

(ii) Visit the cypress application

Step 3: Test Runner

Cypress testing tool has numerous top-of-the-line characteristics that provide various advantages, including:

Faster execution and setup
Open-source software
Cypress testing tool automatically reloads the Test Runner if any changes are done to the test.
Rich Documentation
Reliable Testing
Assertions
Visualization of the running commands and tests
Helps you find a locator
Ease to Debug when compared to other frameworks
Earlier Cypress QA automation had only supported Chrome testing. However, with recent updates, cypress also supports Firefox and edge browsers.

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Conclusion:

Cypress is a robust web test automation tool for testing modern web applications. Using powerful in-built commands, it supports the testing of all types of web elements. Nevertheless, Cypress is a free and open-source framework that is widely regarded as the most important tool of the future.

Cypress QA automation includes features like real-time reloads, automated scrolling, lightning-fast implementation, time travel, and more that aren’t found in other testing tools. All of these features make Cypress a viable end-to-end testing framework for both developers and professional quality assurance experts. As a result, Cypress is the most recent testing tool that is universally applicable and user-friendly for everyone.

After getting used to using cypress, I determined to hold weighing all these factors and I noticed that I am being more productive using it. I’m still getting trained on Cypress and finding new things about it every day. Focus on what’s important to you. I guess that most things in life are a deal…

Frequently Asked Questions On Cypress Automation Tool

What Is A Cypress Automation Tool?

Cypress is the tool of the future for testing new front-end web applications. It is a comprehensive testing framework that includes its own assertion library, mocking, and stubbing capabilities.

What Is The Cypress Automation Framework?

A JavaScript-based Node.js framework that is designed to be effortless and simple to use is known as the Cypress automation framework.

Is Cypress Better Than Selenium?

Cypress is a more developer-focused framework and is a good alternative to Selenium. Selenium is a versatile testing tool with a wide audience, whereas Cypress is a web automation testing solution with a different target market.