The modern application development industry has significantly benefited from the introduction of automation testing practices. With these frameworks, the developers can conduct various testing processes involved in the application development process. Due to the introduction of test automation, the developers can improve the efficiency of the testing process and the quality of the overall application development process. For example, we can consider the modern apps which act as a one-stop solution and need to access different web elements simultaneously. To ensure that the end users get the best performance, testers must verify the individual and combined performance of all these elements. During the early years of test automation, Selenium had a monopoly in the market. However, many new alternatives like Cypress and the Playwright have arrived in this segment.
End-to-end testing is an essential part of the application development process. This article will define the advantages of using Cypress for executing end-to-end testing on modern applications. We’ll also briefly examine other platforms and tools to assist the developers during this process.
Understanding the Process of End-to-End Testing
Currently, the applications go through a frequent updating process that aims to improve the application’s functioning and keep it updated according to modern standards. With these updates, the companies can also ensure that the application provides the best security to the end users. However, from a developer’s point of view, the application updating process can be pretty complex. This is because, during this process, the developers have to verify the stable performance of all the new additions and ensure that these additions maintain the performance of the old elements. During the early years of application development, manual test cases were used for this process. However, with the advancement of technology, developers can efficiently conduct end-to-end testing with the help of automated test cases.
Since we are on test automation, having a basic idea about test automation for the new developers will be an excellent gesture. This is the process of initiating and executing the test cases without the involvement of human developers. This is because, during automation testing, the system will use a test file to perform all the human-based operations. For instance, the test file will consist of multiple parameters and test data that can help the system interact with the application like a normal user. Based on this interaction, the developers can analyze whether the application is ready to be released to the open market. Automation test cases are not only straightforward to use but also reusable. This means developers can reuse the test cases in future app development projects. However, there is a massive drawback to initiating test automation.
This is because while using automation testing, the developers must invest a lot of money in the initial setup process. During this process, all these expenses will be mostly used to integrate different libraries, plugins, and dependencies crucial for properly implementing automation testing. So we recommend the application companies properly analyze their business ventures, returns on investment, and future capital to decide whether they are ready to make the transition.
Analyzing the Basics of Cypress
Cypress is a modern test automation framework that helps developers verify their applications’ proper functioning. This is an open-source framework which means the testers won’t have to bear any expenses for using all the features of Cypress. This is a massive advantage from the perspective of small startup companies and individual developers who still do not have enough revenue to invest in the business. In simple terms, we can also define Cypress as a front-end testing tool designed for modern web applications. It provides native support for all the popular operating systems like Windows, Linux, and even the Mac OS. The developers must remember that while the Cypress test automation tool is a standalone software, the Cypress cloud is a web-based application.
One of the significant factors that played a critical role in the popularity of Cypress is its simple and easy-to-use interface. Moreover, while using Cypress, the developers do not have to go through a complicated setup process. This is because Cypress has native support for all the automation testing tools and plugins. So the developers do not have to rely on third-party additions to their system. Moreover, the official website of Cypress provides rich documentation to simplify the setup process. There are also multiple sample test cases on the official website to explain the basic functioning of all the features available with Cypress.
Advantages of Using Cypress for End-to-End Testing
While working with Cypress, the developers must have a solid understanding of all the advantages that Cypress provides while executing end-to-end testing. This critical knowledge will help the developers realize the full potential of the Cypress-based automation test bench. So based on our analysis and research, the significant advantages of using Cypress for executing end-to-end testing are as follows:
● While executing end-to-end testing with Cypress, the developers can capture screenshots during the test execution phase. This acts as an activity log that keeps track of all the errors and bugs detected in the application. This, in turn, helps the automation testers to simplify the debugging process that will follow soon after massively. This process also helps app development companies to massively reduce the development phase while working on complex web-based applications.
● Cypress provides native support for all popular web browsers. This means that while working with popular browsers like Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox, the developers do not have to go through the process of downloading individual browser drivers. This process helps to speed up the application development and testing phase critically and simplifies the overall setup process.
● Cypress helps the developers implement automatic waits while executing end-to-end testing. Automatic waits are a critical feature that allows for analyzing the proper functioning of specific applications dependent on each other. In this phase, the testing process will automatically pause until the completion of the previous one. It helps the developers to avoid frequent errors like false positives and negatives. While working with Cypress, the developers can also use the automatic reload feature.
● Cypress helps application developers to combine functional test cases with API-based test cases. Moreover, while working with Cypress, the developers can merge all these test cases with end-to-end testing. This is one of the major advantages of Cypress that gives it an edge over all its competitors. This process provides the developers the power to control all the behavior and server responses of the individual elements in the web application. This is yet another process that helps to improve the accuracy of the overall test results massively.
● Cypress provides native support for the JavaScript programming language. This means that while working with Cypress, the developers can natively create automation test cases with this well-known programming language. JavaScript is one of the most widely used languages in the current market; the developers do not have to go through an unnecessary learning process while adopting this new test automation framework. This is an essential feature that helps to make Cypress compelling for all the developers starting to transition to automated testing practices. Other than providing native support for JavaScript, Cypress also helps developers to write automation test cases in multiple different programming languages.
Integration of Tools and Platforms in Cypress-Based Automation Testing
Tools play a crucial role in simplifying complex testing practices like automation testing. Moreover, with the help of tools and platforms, new developers can quickly get accustomed to these practices. These platforms and tools also provide access to multiple additional features that simplify and improve application development. For reference, we can consider the example of cloud-based platforms that eliminates the hassle and headache of having a physical mobile device lab to verify modern applications’ performance. With these platforms, developers can achieve similar test results while testing the performance on real devices through the Internet. We can improve our knowledge of cloud-based platforms by shifting our focus towards LambdaTest as an example:
Cross-Browser testing has become the mandatory industry standard to ensure you provide the best experience to your end users. For the basic introduction, we can define LambdaTest as a secure cloud-based cross-browser testing platform that helps developers verify the proper functioning of modern web apps. This is because, with this advanced testing process, the developers can guarantee a stable performance of web applications irrespective of random user shifts in the device version, operating system, or the complete system specification. This platform also has various modern features like parallel test execution to improve the efficiency of test cases. With parallel test execution, the developers can conduct multiple test instances simultaneously. Besides importing the automation test cases from Cypress, the developers can also import the test files from other popular frameworks like Playwright and Selenium.
While working with Cypress, the developers can execute the test cases on more than fifty unique browser versions at the same time. LambdaTest also helps the developers combine the test results from thousands of simulation software with hundreds of real devices. This plays a critical role in improving the accuracy of the test cases system with LambdaTest; the developers can also verify the proper execution of internally hosted web apps.
Conclusion
The primary motive of this article was to justify that Cypress is one of the top conductors for executing automated end-to-end testing on modern applications. The app development industry is slowly moving to a stage where it will be utterly dependent on automation testing practices. So, developers and app companies need to start adopting this change. In this segment, we would mention that the developers and testers should try their best to keep themselves updated with all the modern automation testing innovations and additions. App companies can also try to spread the required awareness and knowledge through multiple seminars and discussions. Lastly, choosing the correct tool or platform that can complement your development practices and needs is essential.
