Web testing is the major task in software delivery practice to meet the demand of the market. This increases the popularity of stable automation tools. Currently, there are many automation testing frameworks offering required features and Cypress is one of those. However, what exactly made Cypress so popular in less time? The answer to this is “top Cypress features”.
The top Cypress features have soon placed a firm position in the market. It has made Cypress a remarkable tool for front-end application testing. Currently, Cypress features are used by many QAs and developers across the globe. According to the State of JS 2021 survey, Cypress is the fifth most popular testing framework as indicated in the below illustration.
Further, analysis by Cypress cloud shows key performance indicators. In 2020, the total passed runs were 771 out of 960 total runs. It suggests the average run per day to be 12 which is 26% higher than the previous year.
The recent statistical reports clearly show the popularity of Cypress. It supports the fact that the majority of the QAs software engineers are turning toward Cypress. The main reason could be top Cypress features which not only ease the process of automation testing for JavaScript applications but also become the replacement for Selenium.
Despite the fact, Cypress is new in the automation testing field, and it positioned itself in the test automation framework quickly. It is evident from the fact that GitHub has a total 42.4k stars and 2.7k forks for the project. This also indicates that it is a fast-growing test automation framework. Hence, Cypress is growing and quickly adapting a framework for Web automation.
In this blog we will be looking at the 5 top Cypress features, helping in software testing and web development.
Let us get started by giving an overview of Cypress.
Covered Topics
Jump into Cypress
In simple terms, Cypress is understood as a free and open-source automation tool for testing front-end applications. It does end-to-end testing and with this, you need not segregate tests and write back-end, front-end, and database tests. In addition to this, Cypress is known for web integration and end-to-end UI test automation. Some of the known facts about Cypress are explained below:
- It is a JavaScript-based front-end testing framework developed for the modern Web.
- Making use of the DOM manipulation technique and working directly in the browser, increase Cypress’s execution speed.
- Allows running of tests inside the browser; it utilizes node server as its proxy.
- Offers excellent debugging ability.
- Provides a way for writing faster and more reliable tests.
- It allows to achieve the following test:
- Configure tests.
- Create tests.
- Execute tests.
- Identify errors (if any).
- Also supports popular browsers like Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and Chrome.
- It integrates into any CI/CD pipeline for executing end-to-end tests.
Although Cypress is excellent for automation testing, if it is not executed in an appropriate manner, failure of the test could be the outcome. Hence, to avoid these, you should be aware of some uniqueness to Cypress.
Specificness to Cypress framework
Most of the automation testing frameworks basically deal with facilitating the test process by implementing fast execution. However, Cypress is a framework that is known for its unique ability and differentiates itself from other testing frameworks. Hence, we can say that Cypress’s popularity depends on its multiple uniqueness. Some of them are these:
- Known to deliver reliable, dependable, and fast execution in comparison with other automation tools.
- Cypress automatically waits for commands and assertions.
- Capable of testing edge cases by mimicking server response.
- Cypress allows viewing of videos of entire tests through its dashboards.
The above-mentioned information on Cypress is not its limits, there are a large set of features of Cypress that made it advanced among the testing framework. Next section we will discuss the top features of Cypress and help maximize your understanding and value of this framework.
5 Top features of Cypress
Creating or setting test environments is one of the tedious tasks for developers. Mainly, QA spends plenty of time just installing a framework, and facilitating its configuration to initiate the writing of the test. The complication gets exaggerated if the QAs have limited knowledge of the top Cypress feature. The reason is that Cypress developed a new structure that combines all needed frameworks, dependencies, and libraries in just one package. Below we will explain the five top features of Cypress allowing easier understanding and making the test convenient.
Running of test in the same browser window
With the use of JavaScript browser emulation execution of tests by Jest and Mocha is done in Node terminal; thus, fails to show the true behavior of the browser. Compared with Selenium, the application is run in the browser; however, its test is executed outside the browser. This is done by sharing commands with the browser through a driver.
For the running of the tests in the same browser window as that of the application, Cypress offers test commands to run concurrently when the application is waiting to endure. This makes it the top Cypress feature. But what happens when the application is retrieving data and the button is disabled? There is no issue. Cypress retries it automatically and provides a change to the code of the application. On enabling the button, the test starts. The majority of the developers value the “built-in retries” feature of cypress that makes the test more reliable as some flaky tests are eliminated.
Another interesting aspect is an offer by the feature of Cypress on running tests in the browsers is that developers have direct access to browser API from the test.
Now, you can also change the browser in the test runner window. It automatically detects the accessible browser on the Operating System and it is easy to switch the browser from the drop-down menu as shown in the below image.
Availability of Component Testing
Component testing is one of the top Cypress features which make the execution of testing quick. In component testing, such test objects without being integrated with other components like programs and modules are tested autonomously as a component. In other words, analyzing the behavior of the program is tested by not focusing on the facts of the underlying code.
Cypress offers component testing which allows the developers to test the code or component of an application in a real browser. In addition to this, test the component’s style and appearance. ChromeDevTools is used to debug the test with instant fixation. It not only eases the work of the developers but also ensures the reliability of the test. Thus, make Cypress a priority for the developers for executing end to end testing and component testing.
Cypress’s User Interface helps in the execution of the component testing, having interactive tests, and giving a good experience. It also provides a setup wizard and with this, you can effortlessly set up your project for component testing.
Debugging ability
Debugging ability of Cypress is the main attraction for the developers for using it. One of the tedious tasks in software testing is to efficiently debug the error or bug found in the application. Although other automation frameworks have debugging ability, what makes cypress different from others is its running in the browsers and use of DevTools. We all know that test running using Cypress is done in the browser, and developers utilize DevTools for monitoring the message of the application, determining the information on the element locators, and much more. Such a crucial part of Cypress leads to providing stable test code and quick solutions for flaky tests and defects. Thus, making it the top Cypress feature.
In the below image, you can see how selection on the test command in the command log prints gives debugging information in the DevTools.
Cloud testing with Cypress
Including cloud platform coverage and scalability, cloud testing is one of the options. Among the top features of Cypress, cloud testing ability not only extends the testing coverage but also increases the velocity of the execution of the test. This is based on the fact that Cypress is an open platform that allows the cloud vendors like perfecto for above mentioned extension and speed for the Cypress test.
The working of Cypress is through recently developed SDK which comprises, executes, and uploads the Cypress tests in the cloud across the platform as detailed in JSON configuration file by the software developers. The major advantage of such integration is that it scales and maximizes parallel testing across a different number of browsers. Further, it also allows the team to maintain the latest and beta version of each browser in the manner of being released to the market.
LambdaTest offers a cloud grid which helps you to perform Cypress testing at scale. LambdaTest’s real device cloud gives you access to 3000+ browsers and real devices for end to end testing, functional testing, and cross browser testing. You can easily perform automated cross browser testing on the different online browsers of over 40+ browsers and OS by integrating LambdaTest with Cypress.
Visual testing
Another top Cypress feature is the ability to conduct visual testing across browsers which makes it the most interesting automation framework for developers. In the time of digitization, one of the most crucial features in web application testing is the visual appearance of the application across different platforms, resolutions, screen sizes, and technologies. Here, Cypress’s ability to perform visual tests allowed it to accomplish the above-mentioned requirement. It does from the screenshots and others, along with getting integrated with tools like Happo.io, Percy.io, and others for visual testing at scale.
With the in-built eyes technologies within the tool’s SDK, it is easy to capture diverse screenshots of the web application DOM and conduct a comparison with other different virtual platforms for recognizing functional and visual defects in the application.
Conclusion
In the present blog, we have read about the top Cypress feature. It is crucial to understand that the team of Cypress is actively working on releasing new features with innovative abilities. Currently, Cypress is integrated with various features like auto-waits, dashboard services, and time travel. But it is beyond being such a visual User Interface change. The top features of Cypress are lined with the ability to make changes to internal APIs and caused to support upcoming long-waited features like WebKit supports.