Cypress Visual Regression
Module for adding visual regression testing to Cypress.
Getting Started
Install:
$ npm install cypress-visual-regression
Add the following config to your cypress.json file:
{
"screenshotsFolder": "./cypress/snapshots/actual",
"trashAssetsBeforeRuns": true
}
Add the plugin to cypress/plugins/index.js:
const getCompareSnapshotsPlugin = require('cypress-visual-regression/dist/plugin');
module.exports = (on, config) => {
getCompareSnapshotsPlugin(on, config);
};
Add the command to cypress/support/commands.js:
const compareSnapshotCommand = require('cypress-visual-regression/dist/command');
compareSnapshotCommand();
Make sure you import commands.js in cypress/support/index.js:
import './commands'
TypeScript
If you're using TypeScript, use files with a .ts
extension, as follows:
cypress/plugins/index.ts
import type Cypress from 'cypress';
import getCompareSnapshotsPlugin from 'cypress-visual-regression/dist/plugin';
export default function configurePlugins(
on: Cypress.PluginEvents,
config: Cypress.PluginConfigOptions,
) {
getCompareSnapshotsPlugin(on, config);
}
cypress/support/commands.ts
import compareSnapshotCommand from 'cypress-visual-regression/dist/command';
compareSnapshotCommand();
cypress/tsconfig.json
{
"compilerOptions": {
"types": [
"cypress",
"cypress-visual-regression"
]
}
}
For more info on how to use TypeScript with Cypress, please refer to this document.
Options
failSilently
is enabled by default. Add the following config to your cypress.json file to see the errors:
{
"env": {
"failSilently": false
}
}
You can also pass default arguments to compareSnapshotCommand()
:
const compareSnapshotCommand = require('cypress-visual-regression/dist/command');
compareSnapshotCommand({
capture: 'fullPage'
});
These will be used by default when no parameters are passed to the compareSnapshot
command.
Configure snapshot paths
You can control where snapshots should be located by setting two environment variables:
Variable | Description |
---|
SNAPSHOT_BASE_DIRECTORY | Directory of the base snapshots |
SNAPSHOT_DIFF_DIRECTORY | Directory for the snapshot diff |
The actual
directory always points to the configured screenshot directory.
Configure snapshot generation
You can control if diff images are generated for successful tests by setting the following environment variable:
Variable | Description |
---|
ALWAYS_GENERATE_DIFF | Boolean, defaults to true |
To Use
Add cy.compareSnapshot('home');
in your tests specs whenever you want to test for visual regressions, making sure to replace home
with a relevant name. You can also add an optional error threshold: Value can range from 0.00 (no difference) to 1.00 (every pixel is different). So, if you enter an error threshold of 0.51, the test would fail only if > 51% of pixels are different.
More examples:
Threshold | Fails when |
---|
.25 | > 25% |
.30 | > 30% |
.50 | > 50% |
.75 | > 75% |
Sample:
it('should display the login page correctly', () => {
cy.visit('/03.html');
cy.get('H1').contains('Login');
cy.compareSnapshot('login', 0.0);
cy.compareSnapshot('login', 0.1);
});
You can target a single HTML element as well:
cy.get('#my-header').compareSnapshot('just-header')
You can pass arguments as an object to cy.compareSnapshot()
, rather than just an error threshold, as well:
it('should display the login page correctly', () => {
cy.visit('/03.html');
cy.compareSnapshot('login', {
capture: 'fullPage',
errorThreshold: 0.1
});
});
Looking for more examples? Review docker/cypress/integration/main.spec.js.
Take the base images:
$ ./node_modules/.bin/cypress run --env type=base --config screenshotsFolder=cypress/snapshots/base,testFiles=\"**/*regression-tests.js\"
$ ./node_modules/.bin/cypress run \
--env type=base \
--config screenshotsFolder=cypress/snapshots/base,testFiles=\"**/*regression-tests.js\"
Find regressions:
$ ./node_modules/.bin/cypress run --env type=actual
Example
Tips & Tricks
Ignore some elements
Following function creates a command that allows you to hide elements of the page based on their className:
function beforeCompareSnapshotCommand(
ignoredElementsQuerySelector: string,
appContentQuerySelector: string = "body"
) {
Cypress.Commands.overwrite("compareSnapshot", (originalFn, ...args) => {
return cy
.get(appContentQuerySelector)
.then($app => {
return new Cypress.Promise((resolve, reject) => {
setTimeout(() => {
$app.find(ignoredElementsQuerySelector).css("visibility", "hidden");
resolve();
}, 300);
});
})
.then(() => {
return originalFn(...args);
});
});
}
module.exports = beforeCompareSnapshotCommand;
You may then use this function like below:
const compareSnapshotCommand = require("cypress-visual-regression/dist/command");
const beforeCompareSnapshotCommand = require("./commands/beforeCompareSnapshots");
compareSnapshotCommand({
errorThreshold: 0.1
});
beforeCompareSnapshotCommand(
".chromatic-ignore,[data-chromatic='ignore']",
"._app-content"
);
In this example, we ignore the elements that are also ignored by 3rd party tool Chromatic.