How to Speed up Your Cypress Automated Tests

The massive expansion in the web Development Industry has created an atmosphere of stress for web development companies. The rising competition in the market has several deadlines and ambitions in front of the developers.  For instance, they have to achieve a series of goals in a fixed period.

These goals are very important as they can directly affect the testing standards for a company. They also have a vital role in determining all the modern application development standards. The use of Automation Testing is one of the most modern and beneficial integrations in the industry.

Experts believe that the test automation framework has a vital role in determining the successful execution of a web application testing infrastructure. Cypress is an open-source framework that helps developers to integrate automated testing into the test bench.

This article will discuss the various ways in which the developers can speed up the Cypress UI Automation Testing processes. We will also discuss various ways in which it can improve the quality of the web application. However, let us begin the discussion with the basic knowledge of automation testing.

The Primary Knowledge About Test Automation

Automation Testing is primarily meant to reduce the stress on the testing teams of a company. This is because, during the first couple of years, all the testing processes were conducted manually one by one. It not only slowed down the delivery process but also resulted in massive errors due to human fatigue. Market studies revealed that complete manual test cases can take more than four days to finish the entire testing infrastructure. This is a long time if we compare it to the competitive status of the present web Development Industry. Automation testing aims to solve all of these issues.

By using automation testing, the developer can conduct all the test cases using predefined test cases. A major benefit of automation testing is that it allows the developers to reuse a massive portion of the script. Since a computer doesn’t feel any form of work stress, web development companies can run the test cases round the clock. It also helps the developers to focus on other vital areas of the web development projects. For instance, the developers can work on creating innovative features for upcoming updates of the web application. This is one of the multiple Areas where automation testing indirectly helps to improve the quality of the application.

One of the massive downsides of test automation is the high initial investment charges. These charges are often challenging for individual creators or small companies. However, from a business point of view, experts believe that Automation Testing justifies its prices with the long-term profits. Experts also believe that developers must integrate test automation in the right areas to utilise its full potential. The most important factor to determine is the return on investment that the test automation cases will generate. In simple terms, the higher rate of return on investment, the higher chances of making a profit for a company.  For beginners, it is a good idea to incorporate automation testing in tests like data-driven testing, unit testing and regression testing.

Cypress Test Automation

Similar to Selenium, Cypress is also a test automation framework that developers can use to verify the functionality of mobile and desktop web applications. JavaScript is a primary programming language of Cypress. This means the developers have to mostly use this language to create all the test scripts. A major advantage of Cypress is that it can function directly on real browsers. This means the developers do not have to create any driver binaries for test case initiation processes. It also ensures that the Automation Testing codes and platform codes share the same platform. This feature ensures that the developers have complete control over all the testing processes. This feature also helps the developers to customize the test cases according to the requirements of the project.

The basic working algorithm of Cypress is that it uses a special Node.JS server to communicate all the processes present in the testing loop. It helps to simplify the complexity of multiple test cases present in a web application development life cycle.   

• Features of Cypress

We can understand the influence of Cypress by analyzing some of its major features:

1. It has a very simple and easy setup process. So, it saves the hassle of dedicating multiple working hours just setting up the test bench.
2. The developers do not have to use driver binaries while they are working with the Cypress framework. This is because Cyprus executes all the testing processes from the browser itself.  This reason also justifies why Cypress generates the most accurate test results in the entire application Development Industry.
3. Cypress allows web developers to execute parallel testing on their applications.  Using parallel testing, the developers can verify the functioning of the web application on multiple combinations of devices and operating systems at the same time. This feature helps to save a lot of time in the overall testing cycle.
4. Cypress comes with the support for a dashboard that improves the test conclusion process. It allows the developers to store all the final test reports for future reference.
5. It also comes with a massive community of tech lovers. This community not only helps the new developers but also creates innovative features for this framework.
6. Cypress helps the developers to change the codes during live testing processes. This feature is highly beneficial to remove critical bugs from the final iteration of the web application.

• Ways to Increase the Speed of The Cypress Automation Tests

Let us discuss a few tips that can help the developers to speed up the Cypress automation execution processes:

• Create One Massive Test Instead of Multiple Small Tests

Cypress conducts multiple pre-tests before actually executing the test cases. So, you have to waste a lot of time in this process when you’re working with multiple test cases. Thus, the best solution to this problem is to use one big test instead of multiple small tests. 

• Use The Cypress’s Configuration to Remove Unwanted Disk I/O 

Cypress primarily focuses on the execution of test cases and does not prioritize other areas. So, you have to manually change the configuration file to ensure that it does not waste time on unnecessary disk I/O.

• Tag the Test Cases and Execute Only the Necessary Tests

Cypress has a special plugin named the Cypress-grep. With this plugin, developers can assign special tags to the tests and run them according to these tags. This feature helps to speed up the testing process as developers can execute only the accurate tests. 

• Integrate Cypress with CD/CI

The integration of CI/CD is considered to be the hardest in the industry. The developers have to take time to understand how they can integrate into this pipeline. It is highly effective, as the business starts to grow, it is more beneficial to run the tests on a remote platform than to run all of them on an individual computer.

Role of Tools in Cypress Test Automation

Tools also play a vital role in improving the efficiency of Cypress test automation cases. Tools help the new developer to get themselves accustomed to the traditions of test automation.  However, there are thousands of different tools that are available in the current market. Therefore, the developers might get confused regarding the perfect tool that can suit their requirements. There are various factors that the developers can use during the decision-making process. We can broadly classify these factors into personal categories and general categories. The personal category consists of those factors that are directly connected with the development team and the company. For instance, these factors include the requirements of the present development project, the expertise of the developers and the company budget.

On the other hand, general categories consist of certain factors that are similar for all web development companies. For instance, these factors can consist of the support for multiple programming languages, the trustworthiness of the tool and synchronization with the modern testing standards. Verifying the trustworthiness of a tool is considered to be one of the most important processes during the tool’s selection process. This is because a sketchy third-party tool can massively affect the testing capabilities of your web application development environment. The developers can easily complete this process by checking for user reviews on multiple online forums. These forums are filled with daily life experiences of testers who were currently using that tool. We can better elaborate this concept with the help of LambdaTest as an example:

LambdaTest is a platform to verify the cross-browser compatibility of both mobile and desktop web applications. Cross-browser testing is the process of ensuring the uniform performance of a web application irrespective of the device or browser version. The developers can integrate Cypress automation tests with LambdaTest to improve the potential of the testing environment. It not only helps to perform the Cypress test cases on a cloud-based environment but also improves the scalability of the testing environment. LambdaTest also allows the developers to perform parallel testing with Cypress of their web applications. Using this feature, the developers can initiate multiple test instances simultaneously. LambdaTest generates highly accurate test results by combining the test reports from not only emulators and virtual machines but also real devices. Lastly, it also helps to verify the proper functioning of all local web pages.

Conclusion

So, we can easily conclude that Cypress automated tests help companies to deliver high-quality web applications in a short period. With the advancement of technology and competition in the market, all web development companies must have a proper test automation framework. The developers can also use other methods to improve the quality of the application. For instance, they can integrate modern technologies like artificial intelligence and cloud-based services in their main test environment. The companies also have a major role in this process. For instance, they can conduct regular training sessions to improve knowledge about test automation.  This is because only an experienced and skillful developer can utilise the full potential of a test automation framework. As a developer, you should also remember that test automation plays a vital role in improving your portfolio.

Experts believe that automation testing will capture the entire web development industry in the coming years. So, the companies must integrate it into the test bench if they want to maintain their market stand and expand the business.