Considering the requirements of the modern application development industry, automation testing has become one of the most compulsory practices to maintain the quality of an application. In simple terms, a developer can only create a high-quality application quickly with the involvement of automated test cases.
Our recent statistics show that over 60% of app development companies have already transitioned to automated test cases. A few years back, Selenium was the only option to initiate automation test cases during the application testing process. However, recently many new market alternatives like Cypress and playwright have arrived. Cypress Testing is very effective for initiating end-to-end test cases.
This article will discuss all the basics of Cypress automation testing. We will also discuss some best practices that can help developers to reduce Cypress automation testing efforts.
Introduction to Cypress
Cypress is an automation testing tool that works on the node.js platform. Developers can use this test automation tool to create test cases in either TypeScript or JavaScript programming languages. One of the significant reasons that play a critical role in the popularity of Cypress automation testing tool is its simple-to-use user interface.
This means developers can spend less time learning all its features and options available within the tool. The official website of Cypress has a lot of rich documentation that helps developers to get accustomed to this new test automation tool. Various sample test programs are available on this website to understand the working process of all Cypress test features.
On the other hand, developers can integrate multiple third-party plugins and libraries with Cypress to further elevate testing efficiency. Due to its intelligent user interface, developers can perform real-time reloads while using Cypress. This tool can understand developers will run the test cases after editing and saving them.
After an automation tester successfully saves test cases, the system will provide a run button by the program; this saves a lot of time for developers. Developers can click the run button on the terminal window to initiate the testing process.
In a modern web application, almost all the elements are interdependent. This means every element requires the previous one to function properly for its successful execution. Developers must follow this during the application testing process to avoid unnecessary errors in the test report.
Cypress provides automatic wait to prevent this issue. Using automatic waits, developers can automatically queue a testing process to initiate after completing the previous test case. Automatic waits also prevent the hassle of manually implementing explicit and implicit waits in an application test file.
Introducing Cypress Automation Testing
Unlike most other alternatives available in the market, Cypress can help developers perform multiple automation testing processes with the same tool. Some popular test cases developers can automate with Cypress are functional testing, unit testing, and end-to-end test cases. Using Cypress, the developers can automate UI test cases for an application.
Cypress also has various interactive features to improve the efficiency of test cases and further elevate the testing standards. Some of the unique features available with Cypress are video recording, time travel, quick debugging, and screen capture. Cypress provides stable support for most of the popular browsers that are currently available. This means developers can use this tool to ensure the proper application functioning on browsers like Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox.
One thing that developers must understand is that even with so many advantages, automation testing cannot eliminate the need for manual test cases. This is because certain test cases are highly dependent on the knowledge and experience of a human developer. Some of the common examples of these test cases are visual testing and exploratory testing. So, one of the best practices is to maintain the most stable balance between manual and automation testing. It is also very important for the developers to document all of these test cases during the test planning phase to avoid any unintentional errors.
How to reduce the efforts of Automation Testing with Cypress
With the help of certain tips and tricks, developers can massively reduce automation testing efforts while using Cypress. These best practices can also help developers to improve the productivity of the application development process massively. So let’s quickly look at the top 5 best practices to reduce the efforts of automation testing with Cypress:
1. Read the Complete Documentation
Many developers wrongly believe that Cypress is similar to other test automation frameworks, so they don’t need to follow Cypress-specific guidelines. It is a wrong concept because although the core function may be similar, the features and functions are highly different from other competitors available in the market. So, it is one of the essential practices to understand all the documentation present on the official website. There is also a search feature that can help the developers find the specific documentation they’re looking for. There are various sample test cases and videos to improve the understanding further.
2. Record the Successful and Failed Test Cases
The test recording available in Cypress is one of the essential features that can be highly beneficial if properly used. Developers must maintain a proper record of all the test cases, both failed and successful ones. It will help them track all the processes happening in the application and its present stage.
One of the best practices is to store the failed test cases longer than the successful ones because successful test data is only useful for documentation purposes. However, the failed test data can help in vital debugging processes.
3. Initiate the Tests on your own CI
One of the most effective practices is to initiate the test cases on your CI with the help of a project key. It is also one of the easiest processes to initiate the test cases inside a docker file. Automation testers can also create their custom docker images with all the required dependencies for the project. The custom docker image will help developers to customize various dependencies, like uploading data on the Cypress cloud. Removing some unnecessary practices is highly beneficial for improving the efficiency of the Cypress test cases. This process can also improve the speed of the debugging process.
4. Sorting the Test Cases
Many developers have the misconception that all test cases have similar priorities. However, it is a myth as different test cases test different elements of the web application that play different roles in the functioning of the code framework. So, it is essential to sort the test cases according to their priority so that you can improve the stable performance of the application.
One of the best practices regarding this concept is to perform the sorting process during the test planning phase. This habit will help the developers avoid unnecessary obstacles during the application test execution.
5. Using the Test Names
The test naming system can be highly beneficial to developers if appropriately used because naming the test cases according to the elements of a web application it is targeted for will help developers sort the testing processes properly. It will also be beneficial for maintaining a proper activity log for all the processes involved in the application testing process. Therefore, it is a particularly important process to name the test cases properly.
Role of Tools and Platforms in Cypress Testing
Cypress test automation framework is relatively new to the market compared to other alternatives. Therefore, many new developers still need to be aware of all the features available with this tool. Moreover, it is also impossible for developers to maintain thousands of real devices to test the efficiency of applications. This is because it is not only an expensive process but also a hectic one.
So, the best alternative is to use cloud platforms that help the developers to provide real device testing on hundreds of devices stored on multiple cloud servers. These platforms also allow developers to execute test cases from around the globe. Let’s improve our knowledge of cloud platforms by considering LambdaTest as a center point:
To understand the basics, LambdaTest is a cloud platform for performing web application cross-browser testing on secure grids. Cross-browser testing is one of the compulsory modern application standards to ensure that you provide optimal end-user satisfaction. Cross-browser compatibility test cases help to ensure the application retains its highest performance when the user changes the operating system or the browser version.
LambdaTest improves the efficiency of cross-browser test cases by almost 15 times with the help of parallel test execution. Parallel test execution is a process of initiating multiple test instances side-by-side. Developers can execute the Cypress automated test cases on more than 10+ different browsers simultaneously. To learn more, check out the LambdaTest tutorial on Cypress.
Lastly, LambdaTest can generate highly dependable test results by combining multiple reports from emulators, simulators, and hundreds of different devices.
Wrap Up!
So, we can conclude that Cypress testing is one of the modern standards of the application development process. Using Cypress, developers can ensure the proper functioning of all web application elements through multiple test cases. However, it is worth noting that the initial expenses of introducing automation testing are pretty high.
Therefore, it is essential for developers to properly plan all the test cases before beginning the transition. It is also crucial for companies to analyze whether their business perspectives can sustain the return on investment to justify the introduction of automated test cases.
Lastly, developers need to choose the correct tool for utilizing the full potential of automated test cases. Companies can conduct frequent seminars on modern automation testing trends.
