Life Cycle Hooks in Cypress

Overview

• Lifecycle hooks in Cypress help reduce code redundancy and promote code reuse in each spec file.
• There are four main lifecycle hooks in Cypress: before, beforeEach, afterEach, and after.

Lifecycle Hooks

• before:
  • Executed once per spec file.
• beforeEach:
  • Executed before every test case.
• afterEach:
  • Executed after every test case.
• after:
  • Executed once per spec file.

Implementing Lifecycle Hooks

1. Create a spec file, e.g., life_cycle_hooks.cy.js.
2. Use describe to define a test suite.
3. Implement hooks within the test suite:
   • before:

     before(() => {
       cy.log('This lifecycle hook will be executed once before all tests in the spec file');
     });
     

   • beforeEach:

     beforeEach(() => {
       cy.log('This lifecycle hook will be executed before each test case');
     });
     

   • afterEach:

     afterEach(() => {
       cy.log('This lifecycle hook will be executed after each test case');
     });
     

   • after:

     after(() => {
       cy.log('This lifecycle hook will be executed once after all tests in the spec file');
     });
     

Example Scenario

Test Cases

• Test Case 1:

  it('Test Case 1', () => {
    cy.visit('/');
    cy.get('input[name=username]').type('admin');
    cy.get('input[name=password]').type('password');
    cy.get('form').submit();
  });
  

• Test Case 2:

  it('Test Case 2', () => {
    cy.visit('/');
    cy.get('input[name=username]').type('admin');
    cy.get('input[name=password]').type('password');
    cy.get('form').submit();
  });
  

Execution Flow

• Before Hook: Executed once before all tests.
• Before Each Hook: Executed twice (once before each test case).
• Test Cases: Executed sequentially.
• After Each Hook: Executed twice (once after each test case).
• After Hook: Executed once after all tests.

Conclusion

• Use before to run code once before all tests in a spec file.
• Use beforeEach to run code before each test case.
• Use afterEach to run code after each test case.
• Use after to run code once after all tests in a spec file.
• These hooks help organize setup and teardown code, ensuring efficient tests with minimal redundancy.