Mastering software development is like an ongoing journey to perfection, where even the tiniest mistake can lead to big problems. In this journey, automated testing emerges as the unsung hero, ensuring software quality and reliability.

Among the various tools for automated testing, Cypress has emerged as a powerful and effective solution for testing web applications. This tool challenges the traditional approach to testing, offering a fresh and dynamic perspective. It empowers developers and testers to build complex applications, giving them the flexibility to adapt and improve, ultimately leading to better products for users.

In this article, you can discover a little more about Cypress. And, if you want to deepen your knowledge about this tool, we have a surprise at the end of the article.

What is Cypress? 

Imagine you’re building a web application, and you want to make sure it works correctly. That is, you want to ensure that your users don’t encounter bugs or problems when visiting the application. That’s where Cypress comes in.

Cypress lets you create automated tests for your web applications. These tests are like a set of instructions that tell Cypress to visit your web application, click buttons, fill out forms, and check if everything is working as expected. Cypress can also monitor what’s happening on the web application and report any issues it encounters.

In a simplified way, Cypress is an open-source tool that helps developers and testers write and execute automated tests in their web applications, guaranteeing they work smoothly and without errors. What makes this tool unique is its ability to perform tests quickly and efficiently, providing real-time feedback while the application is being tested.

How Cypress can speed up automated testing?

• Real-time reloading: Cypress reloads your web application in real-time as it tests, so you can see the results immediately. This speeds up the debugging process.

• Faster test execution: Cypress runs tests directly in the browser (Firefox and Chrome-family browsers), which can be faster than other testing tools that use WebDriver. It can perform actions like clicking and typing quickly.

• Automatic Waiting: Cypress intelligently waits for elements to appear before interacting with them. This eliminates the need for explicit waiting commands, making tests more efficient.

• Interactive debugging: You can pause a test at any point and interact with the browser to inspect elements, making debugging easy and faster.

• Time-travel debugging: Cypress records all test actions, and you can replay or rewind them, which helps pinpoint issues quickly.

• Built-in test runner: Cypress provides an easy-to-use test runner with built-in features for parallel test execution and reporting, streamlining the testing process.

Who uses Cypress?

Cypress users are typically developers or QA engineers building web applications using modern JavaScript frameworks.

This tool allows writing all types of tests:

• End-to-End (E2E) Tests: These tests simulate the entire user journey by interacting with a web application in the same way a real user would. The E2E tests often cover multiple components and verify the application’s functionality from start to finish.

• Component Tests: Focus on testing individual components or isolated pieces of functionality within an application. These tests aim to verify that a specific component behaves correctly in isolation.

• Integration Tests: Assess the collaboration between different components or modules of an application. These tests verify that the integrated components work together as expected.

• Unit Tests: Focus on testing the smaller units of code, typically individual functions or methods, in isolation from the rest of the application. The goal is to verify that each unit of code performs as expected.

According to the information available on this tool’s website, Cypress can test anything that runs in a browser.

Would you like to learn more about Cypress?

Are you intrigued by the possibilities that Cypress has to offer and want to learn more? We have great news for you! 

We are organizing a free online talk about Cypress on December 4th. Our speaker, Petros Plakogiannis (QA Expert), will demonstrate how adopting Cypress for automated testing can put your software development on the fast track to success.

Register here for this free online talk.