Cypress is not the same as selenium. It’s similar to contrasting apples with oranges. Because most QA engineers don’t have access to the code base and would rather create E2E automation tests, Selenium was developed to meet their demands. The brittleness and difficulty of developing E2E automation tests, on the other hand, was a source of frustration for developers, who prefer to write tests quickly. Cypress was developed with front-end developers in mind, encouraging them to build tests other than unit tests. JavaScript is used by front-end developers, hence Cypress is limited to JavaScript testing. However, QA engineers also use programming languages other than JavaScript, including Java or C#.
Some will argue that it is merely an additional testing tool with the same functionality. But it’s a well-known fact that testing is challenging. Writing E2E exams is more difficult. Because it is more difficult to use Selenium to test asynchronous apps, some developers conclude that it is not the best technology for their needs.
Nevertheless, based on feedback from other developers, it appears that some QA engineers working on JavaScript applications are still hesitant to move to Cypress because it lacks several functionality Selenium offers and has some documented permanent and temporary drawbacks.
Although I believe Selenium is here to stay, Cypress is gaining rapid traction because to the rising popularity of JavaScript and the growing transfer in test automation responsibilities to developers with the aid of QA professionals.
Is a shift in order?
- Cypress is simple to install and set up; you may start using it in five minutes or less. It’s crucial to remember that everything works as long as NPM and node are installed. This command is all that is required.
npm install cypress
After installing Cypress, you may use the following command to accomplish two tasks. To get you started, it will first build a scaffolding structure with suggested files. Second, the Cypress UI test runner will launch as a result.
npx cypress open
Cross-browser functional testing is also now feasible with Cypress 4.0. To enable cross-browser testing, no additional drivers need to be installed, unlike with Selenium. To execute a test file, simply select it from the dropdown list if your machine has the browser installed.
- Introduces support for Firefox and Edge: And that’s basically it! Now that Cypress has made the installation and setup process so simple, you can concentrate on creating your tests.
- Cypress UI Test Runner: A unique feature of Cypress is its built-in UI Test Runner, which lets you observe how your tests perform interactively on each action. You may view details from the UI test runner, including the number of tests that passed or failed and the amount of time it took to complete them. Additionally, it shows a sneak peek into your application’s behavior while testing. The UI test runner’s capacity to traverse through time is another useful capability. This implies that Cypress can time travel to various snapshots so you can examine your application’s behavior, making it simple to debug the state of your application whenever you click on an action. Direct access to Chrome DevTools is also available to you and Cypress will print additional useful logs that you and your team might find useful and Cypress will print further helpful logs that your team and you may find helpful.
- Clear error messages: Unlike other tools that show you a lengthy stack trace issue, Cypress’s error messages are quite straightforward and easy to understand. When you spend less time attempting to determine why your test failed, productivity should rise even more as a result.
- Awesome plugins: A number of plugins available for Cypress can improve the way you create tests. We also utilize it for various kinds of testing, as was previously mentioned. Want to improve the accessibility of your website? Cypress-axe is one tool you can use to identify some accessibility issues early on. Does your team prefer to write the tests using the Gherkin BDD syntax? A cypress-cucumber-preprocessor is one option. Do you want to test your website and its components visually? To handle cross-browser visual validation testing, you can either utilize cypress-image-snapshot or, for greater benefit, connect it with Applitools.
- Encourages Developers to write more tests: A lot of companies are moving to a model where developers are encouraged to test their code more and write automated tests. This is where Cypress promotes a culture where quality is everyone’s responsibility and working in silos where a separate QA team writes the tests on a different repository is discouraged. Cypress understands the different pain points for developers, and they have created a tool that can fit in everyone’s toolbox. Most of the time, QA engineers struggle with striking a balance between manual and test automation. Sharing the responsibility of writing automated tests with developers gives you more time to focus on other important activities, such as exploratory testing.
