Many of us have experienced the frustration of flaky tests: those unpredictable failures that erode confidence in our test automation suites, particularly in modern, dynamic web applications. cy.wait() commands aren’t the answer, since they often lead to slow and brittle tests.
Read my latest MoT article, “Writing custom Cypress plug-ins that solve common software testing problems”, which walks through the journey of tackling this exact problem by creating a custom Cypress plug-in for intelligent, state-aware waiting. It’s part case study and part technical tutorial, packed with valuable insights.
I share not just why they built a plug-in, but also provide a full, step-by-step guide on how to build your own, updated for modern Cypress (v14+). If you’ve ever thought about extending Cypress beyond its basic commands, give this article a read!
What you’ll learn:
- Why custom plug-ins are a powerful solution for flaky tests, moving beyond simple commands.
- The eight key lessons learned from building a real-world plug-in, covering everything from scoping to automated maintenance.
- The modern structure for a distributable Cypress plug-in (Node.js versus browser-side code).
- How to create, register, and use a plug-in in your own projects.
- Two practical examples you can build today: a plug-in to read external JSON data and another to clean folders before a test run.
- Best practices for making your plug-in successful, documented, and easy for the community to adopt.
After reading, share your thoughts:
- Have you ever built a custom Cypress command or plug-in? What was your experience?
- What’s a repetitive or frustrating testing problem you face that a plug-in could potentially solve?
- Do you have any other tips or lessons learned from extending your test automation tools?