@cypress/puppeteer [beta]

Utilize Puppeteer's browser API within Cypress with a single command.

This plugin is in public beta, so we'd love to get your feedback to improve it. Please leave any feedback you have in this discussion.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Compatibility
• Usage
• API
• Examples
• Contributing
• Changelog

Installation

npm

npm install --save-dev @cypress/puppeteer

yarn

yarn add --dev @cypress/puppeteer

With TypeScript

Add the following in tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "types": ["cypress", "@cypress/puppeteer/support"]
  }
}

Compatibility

@cypress/puppeteer requires Cypress version 13.6.0 or greater.

Only Chromium-based browsers (e.g. Chrome, Chromium, Electron) are supported.

Usage

@cypress/puppeteer is set up in your Cypress config and support file, then executed in your spec. See API and Examples below for more details.

While the cy.puppeteer() command is executed in the browser, the majority of the Puppeteer execution is run in the Node process via your Cypress config. You pass a string message name to cy.puppeteer() that indicates which message handler to execute in the Cypress config. This is similar to how cy.task() operates.

In your Cypress config (e.g. cypress.config.ts):

import { setup } from '@cypress/puppeteer'

export default defineConfig({
  e2e: {
    setupNodeEvents (on) {
      setup({
        on,
        onMessage: {
          async myMessageHander (browser) {
            // Utilize the Puppeteer browser instance and the Puppeteer API to interact with and automate the browser
          },
        },
      })
    },
  },
}

In your support file (e.g. cypress/support/e2e.ts):

import '@cypress/puppeteer/support'

In your spec (e.g. spec.cy.ts):

  it('switches to and tests a new tab', () => {
    cy.visit('/')
    cy.get('button').click() // opens a new tab

    cy
    .puppeteer('myMessageHander')
    .should('equal', 'You said: Hello from Page 1')
  })

API

Cypress Config - setup

This sets up @cypress/puppeteer message handlers that run Puppeteer browser automation.

setup(options)

Options

• on required: The on event registration function provided by setupNodeEvents
• onMessage required: An object with string keys and function values (see more details below)
• puppeteer optional: The puppeteer library imported from puppeteer-core, overriding the default version of puppeteer-core used by this plugin

onMessage

The keys provided in this are used to invoke their corresponding functions by calling cy.puppeteer(key) in your Cypress test.

The functions should contain Puppeteer code for automating the browser. The code is executed within Node.js and not within the browser, so Cypress commands and DOM APIs cannot be utilized.

The functions receive the following arguments:

browser

A puppeteer browser instance connected to the Cypress-launched browser.

...args

The rest of the arguments are any de-serialized arguments passed to the cy.puppeteer() command from your Cypress test.

Cypress Config - retry

This is a utility function provided to aid in retrying actions that may initially fail.

retry(functionToRetry[, options])

functionToRetry

required

A function that will run and retry if an error is thrown. If an error is not thrown, retry will return the value returned by this function.

The function will continue to run at the default or configured interval until the default or configured timeout, at which point retry will throw an error and cease retrying this function.

Options

optional

• timeout optional: The total time in milliseconds during which to attempt retrying the function. Default: 4000ms
• delayBetweenTries optional: The time to wait between retries. Default: 200ms

Cypress Spec - cy.puppeteer()

cy.puppeteer(messageName[, ...args])

messageName

required

A string matching one of the keys passed to the onMessage option of setup in your Cypress config.

...args

optional

Values that will be passed to the message handler. These values must be JSON-serializable.

Example:

// spec
cy.puppeteer('testNewTab', 'value 1', 42, [true, false])

// Cypress config
setup({
  on,
  onMessage: {
    testNewTab (browser, stringArg, numberArg, arrayOfBooleans) {
      // stringArg === 'value 1'
      // numberArg === 42
      // arrayOfBooleans[0] === true / arrayOfBooleans[1] === false
    }
  }
})

Examples

These examples can be found and run in the Cypress tests of this package with this project's cypress.config.ts.

While these examples use tabs, they could just as easily apply to windows. Tabs and windows are essentially the same things as far as Puppeteer is concerned and encapsulated by instances of the Page class.

Switching to a new tab

This example demonstrates the following:

• Switching to a tab opened by an action in the Cypress test
• Getting the page instance via Puppeteer utilizing the retry function
• Getting page references and content via puppeteer
• Passing that content back to be asserted on in Cypress

spec.cy.ts

it('switches to a new tab', () => {
  cy.visit('/cypress/fixtures/page-1.html')
  cy.get('input').type('Hello from Page 1')
  cy.get('button').click() // Triggers a new tab to open

  cy
  .puppeteer('switchToTabAndGetContent')
  .should('equal', 'You said: Hello from Page 1')
})

cypress.config.ts

import { defineConfig } from 'cypress'
import type { Browser as PuppeteerBrowser, Page } from 'puppeteer-core'

import { setup, retry } from '@cypress/puppeteer'

export default defineConfig({
  e2e: {
    setupNodeEvents (on) {
      setup({
        on,
        onMessage: {
          async switchToTabAndGetContent (browser: PuppeteerBrowser) {
            // In this message handler, we utilize the Puppeteer API to interact with the browser and the new tab that our Cypress tests has opened

            // Utilize the retry since the page may not have opened and loaded by the time this runs
            const page = await retry<Promise<Page>>(async () => {
              // The browser will (eventually) have 2 tabs open: the Cypress tab and the newly opened tab
              // In Puppeteer, tabs and windows are called pages
              const pages = await browser.pages()
              // Try to find the page we want to interact with
              const page = pages.find((page) => page.url().includes('page-2.html'))

              // If we can't find the page, it probably hasn't loaded yet, so throw an error to signal that this function should retry
              if (!page) throw new Error('Could not find page')

              // Otherwise, return the page instance and it will be returned by the `retry` function itself
              return page
            })

            // Cypress will maintain focus on the Cypress tab within the browser. It's generally a good idea to bring the page to the front to interact with it.
            await page.bringToFront()

            const paragraph = (await page.waitForSelector('p'))!
            const paragraphText = await page.evaluate((el) => el.textContent, paragraph)

            // Clean up any references before finishing up
            paragraph.dispose()

            await page.close()

            // Return the paragraph text and it will be the value yielded by the `cy.puppeteer()` invocation in the spec
            return paragraphText
          },
        },
      })
    },
  },
})

Creating a new tab

This example demonstrates the following:

• Passing a non-default version of puppeteer to @cypress/puppeteer
• Passing arguments from cy.puppeteer() to the message handler
• Creating a new tab and visiting a page via Puppeteer
• Getting page references and content via puppeteer
• Passing that content back to be asserted on in Cypress

spec.cy.ts

it('creates a new tab', () => {
  cy.visit('/cypress/fixtures/page-3.html')
  // We get a dynamic value from the page and pass it through to the puppeteer
  // message handler
  cy.get('#message').invoke('text').then((message) => {
    cy.puppeteer('createTabAndGetContent', message)
    .should('equal', 'I approve this message: Cypress and Puppeteer make a great combo')
  })
})

cypress.config.ts

import { defineConfig } from 'cypress'
import puppeteer, { Browser as PuppeteerBrowser, Page } from 'puppeteer-core'

import { setup, retry } from '@cypress/puppeteer'

export default defineConfig({
  e2e: {
    setupNodeEvents (on) {
      setup({
        on,
        // Pass in your own version of puppeteer to be used instead of the default one
        puppeteer,
        onMessage: {
          async createTabAndGetContent (browser: PuppeteerBrowser, text: string) {
            // In this message handler, we utilize the Puppeteer API to interact with the browser, creating a new tab and getting its content

            // This will create a new tab within the Cypress-launched browser
            const page = await browser.newPage()

            // Text comes from the test invocation of `cy.puppeteer()`
            await page.goto(`http://localhost:8000/cypress/fixtures/page-4.html?text=${text}`)

            const paragraph = (await page.waitForSelector('p'))!
            const paragraphText = await page.evaluate((el) => el.textContent, paragraph)

            // Clean up any references before finishing up
            paragraph.dispose()

            await page.close()

            // Return the paragraph text and it will be the value yielded by the `cy.puppeteer()` invocation in the spec
            return paragraphText
          },
        },
      })
    },
  },
})

Troubleshooting

Error: Cannot communicate with the Cypress Chrome extension. Ensure the extension is enabled when using the Puppeteer plugin.

If you receive this error in your command log, the Puppeteer plugin was unable to communicate with the Cypress extension. This extension is necessary in order to re-activate the main Cypress tab after a Puppeteer command, when running in open mode.

• Ensure this extension is enabled in the instance of Chrome that Cypress launches by visiting chrome://extensions/
• Ensure the Cypress extension is allowed by your company's security policy by its extension id, caljajdfkjjjdehjdoimjkkakekklcck

Contributing

Build the TypeScript files:

yarn build

Watch the TypeScript files and rebuild on file change:

yarn watch

Open Cypress tests:

yarn cypress:open

Run Cypress tests once:

yarn cypress:run

Run all unit tests once:

yarn test

Run unit tests in watch mode:

yarn test-watch

Changelog