Cypress default events are simulated. That means that all events like cy.click
or cy.type
are fired from javascript. That's why this events will be untrusted (event.isTrusted
will be false
) and they can behave a little different from real native event. But for some cases it can be impossible to use native events, for example to fill a native alert or copy to clipboard.
Thanks to Chrome Devtools Protocol. Cypress is connecting to CDP for tasks like screenshots, this project is using the same connection to fire system events. It works literally like in puppeteer. And as a result unlocks such features like hovering and native focus management via Tab.
Cypress only. Really. Cypress itself can fire native events. The only limitation for real events – they work only in the chromium based browser. That means that FireFox is not supported, at least for now.
Here is a simple test that can be written with native events:
it("tests real events", () => {
cy.get("input").realClick(); // perform a native real click on the field
cy.realType("cypress real event"); // fires native system keypress events and fills the field
cy.realPress("Tab"); // native tab click switches the focus
cy.focused().realHover(); // hovers over the new focused element
cy.contains("some text in the hovered popover");
});
Install {Cypress}(https://github.com/cypress-io/cypress) for Mac, Linux, or Windows, then get started.
npm install cypress --save-dev
or
yarn add cypress --dev
Install npm package:
npm install cypress-real-events
yarn add cypress-real-events
Register new commands by adding this to your cypress/support/index.{js,ts}
file.
import "cypress-real-events/support";
If you are using typescript, also add the following to cypress/tsconfig.json
{
"compilerOptions": {
"types": ["cypress", "cypress-real-events"]
}
}
Open terminal and type:
./node_modules/.bin/cypress open
or
yarn cypress open
The idea of the commands – they should be as similar as possible to cypress default commands (like cy.type
), but starts with real
– cy.realType
.
Here is an overview of the available real event commands:
Fires native system click event.
cy.get("button").realClick();
cy.get("button").realClick(options);
Example:
cy.get("button").realClick({ position: "topLeft" }) // click on the top left corner of button
cy.get("body").realClick({ x: 100, y: 1240 }) // click by the x & y coordinates relative to the whole window
Options:
Optional
button: "none" | "left" | "right" | "middle" | "back" | "forward"Optional
pointer: "mouse" | "pen"Optional
x coordinate to click x: numberOptional
y coordinate to click y: numberOptional
position: "topLeft" | "top" | "topRight" | "left" | "center" | "right" | "bottomLeft" | "bottom" | "bottomRight"
Make sure that
x
andy
has bigger priority thanposition
.
Fires real native hover event. Yes, it can test :hover
preprocessor.
cy.get("button").hover();
cy.get("button").hover(options);
Options:
Optional
pointer: "mouse" | "pen"Optional
position: "topLeft" | "top" | "topRight" | "left" | "center" | "right" | "bottomLeft" | "bottom" | "bottomRight"
Fires native press event. Make sure that press event is global. It means that it is not attached to any field or control. In order to fill the input it is possible to do
cy.realPress("Tab"); // switch the focus for a11y testing
cy.realPress(key);
cy.realPress(key, options);
Name | Type | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|---|
key |
string | - | key to type. Should be the same as cypress's type command argument. All the keys available here. |
options |
- Optional pointer: "mouse" | "pen" |
{} |
Runs a sequence of native press events (via cy.realPress
). This can be used to simulate real typing.
Make sure that type event is global. This means that it is not attached to any field.
cy.realType("type any text"); // type any text on the page
cy.get("input").focus();
cy.realType("some text {enter}"); // type into focused field
cy.realType(text);
cy.realType(text, options);
Name | Type | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|---|
text |
string | - | text to type. Should be around the same as cypress's type command argument (https://docs.cypress.io/api/commands/type.html#Arguments) |
options |
Options | {} |
Options:
Optional
delay: undefined | numberdefault
30Optional
log: undefined | false | truedefault
trueOptional
pressDelay: undefined | numberdefault
10
One problem of the real native system events I need to mention – you will not get an error message if event wasn't produced. Similar to selenium or playwright – if a javascript event was not fired you will not get a comprehensive error message.
So probably this package should not be used as a replacement of the cypress events, at least for the writing tests experience 🐨
The project is licensed under the terms of MIT license