Meet Your New Cypress Testing Best Friend

As someone who has spent the last 15+ years immersed in test automation across over 3000+ browsers and devices, I‘ve seen firsthand the evolution of user interface (UI) testing. From the early days of fuzzy matching to the revolution sparked by Cypress – there has been fantastic progression.

However, even with Cypress‘s reliable async commands and stellar developer experience, I found myself still chained to cumbersome selector logic. The inherent fragility also meant tests broke unexpectedly in response to perfectly reasonable UI changes.

It became clear a fundamental shift was needed in how we query the DOM. One that realigned testing to focus less on internals and more on the user perspective.

This leads us to Cypress Testing Library – which beautifully integrates the Testing Library ethos into Cypress. By guiding testers to switch from asking "How is this implemented?" to "How is this used?", it enables tests that better model real user behavior.

In this actionable guide, I‘ll share my hands-on experience getting up and running with Cypress Testing Library. You‘ll walk away knowing:

How Cypress Testing Library enhances test quality and reliability
Step-by-step installation and setup
Core APIs for simplified selecting in tests
Strategies for writing robust UI tests that stand the test of time
Tips for migrating legacy Cypress selects

Let‘s get started, my friend!

Why Testing Library Matters

We find ourselves in an era dominated by web apps that evolve at a breakneck pace. The ability to release often depends on having a sturdy test safety harness that provides confidence.

However, we‘ve also seen how traditional UI testing practices lead to fragile tests:

Brittle Selectors – Depending on attributes like IDs, classes, tags that tend to change across releases
Overreliance on Internals – Testing implementation details vs what users actually see and care about
Poor User Modeling – Interacting in ways no real user would to cover edge cases

This drives endless test maintenance costs and bottlenecks teams from delivering value.

The core premise of Testing Library is to shift left and fix testing by fundamentally changing how we test UIs. Some of its guiding principles include:

Short feedback loops with focused tests targeting user journeys
Prioritizing visible elements users interact with
Tests that implicitly drive quality and accessibility

By internalizing this mindset of testing UIs the way users experience them, we can write reliable tests that survive UI changes.

Cypress Testing Library binds these practices into Cypress – helping guide testers without compromising the Cypress DX. Let‘s see it in action!

Installing Cypress Testing Library

To add the Cypress Testing Library (CTL) module, run:

npm install --save-dev @testing-library/cypress

This installs it as a Dev Dependency we can import.

Within cypress/support/commands.js, include:

import ‘@testing-library/cypress/add-commands‘;

This command chains all the CTL helper methods to Cypress.

Optionally, we can also customize the default test ID attribute checked by commands:

// cypress/support/index.js
import { configure } from ‘@testing-library/cypress‘;

configure({ testIdAttribute: ‘my-custom-test-id‘ });

And we‘re all set! Now Cypress is augmented with a battery of simplified element selection commands.

Let me walk you through how each one reduces test complexity by mirroring user behavior.

Core APIs for Simplified Selecting

The Cypress Testing Library APIs cover the common ways users discover and interact with page elements. Let‘s explore some key ones:

findByPlaceholderText

To find an input by its placeholder text:

<input type="text" placeholder="Email">

cy.findByPlaceholderText(‘Email‘);

No need to chain .get() and .contains(), just directly query by text!

findAllByPlaceholderText

We can get multiple matches via regex:

cy.findAllByPlaceholderText(/^Email$/);

This returns all elements with placeholder values starting with "Email".

findByLabelText

Select an input by its associated label:

<label for="username">Username</label>
<input id="username">

cy.findByLabelText(‘Username‘);

Much simpler than coupling IDs!

findAllByLabelText

Grabbing multiple labeled elements:

cy.findAllByLabelText(/^Username$/);

This gets inputs tied to labels starting with "Username".

…

And similar patterns for commands like:

findByText
findAllByText
findByDisplayValue
findByAltText
findByTitle
findByRole
findByTestId

Each API targets a common way users discover page content – via text, labels, placeholders, roles, etc.

The uniform querying system makes writing reliable selectors painless. But there‘s more we need to do to prevent fragile tests…

Writing Reliable UI Tests

While Cypress Testing Library removes much of the selector burden, there are still best practices we must apply:

Prioritize Visible Text

Anchor on text users actually see rather than attributes prone to change:

cy.findByText(‘Submit‘); // Yes
cy.get(‘#submitButton‘); // Avoid

Use Exact Matches

Find elements based on precise text vs loose partial matches:

cy.findByText(‘Submit‘); // Yes 
cy.contains(‘Submit‘); // Avoid

Utilize Roles & Test IDs

Rely on stable roles and test IDs when no text is shown:

// Yes
cy.findByRole(‘dialog‘); 

// Avoid 
cy.get(‘.modal‘);

This focuses tests on elements users interact with and shifts reliance to more stable attributes.

Some other tips:

Isolate searches under specific parents
Set custom timeouts as needed
Handle stale references and flakiness
Integrate with CI/CD pipelines

By guiding tests to act more like users, and applying resilience best practices, we benefit from sketches that better stand the test of time.

Now let‘s look at migrating existing tests…

Migrating Existing Tests

For large test suites, incrementally porting legacy Cypress selectors to Testing Library can smooth the transition:

Swap simple chained queries like .contains()
Shift suite by suite, file by file
Reuse patterns from other Testing Libraries
Lean on the migration checklist

Gradually transitioning tests minimizes risk while still allowing teams to reap maintainability benefits.

The Verdict on Cypress Testing Library

While Cypress greatly advanced UI testing from first-gen tools, there still remained room for improvement – particularly when it comes to long-term test resilience.

By integrating the Testing Library mindset into Cypress, queries now focus on how functionality is used from the user perspective vs implementation internals.

Cypress Testing Library balances improved ergonomics while retaining Cypress‘s renowned performance. The API shifts not only how we write tests, but also how we think about testing – enabling users to build their dream apps with confidence.

I highly recommend test automation teams adopt Cypress Testing Library based on my many years of hands-on experience. Backed by cloud testing platforms like BrowserStack to run Cypress on thousands of real devices, you‘re equipped to ship quality user experiences at speed.

I‘m excited to see you take Cypress testing to the next level using Testing Library! For more resources, check out the repos linked below.

Now go test with simplicity and delight – your users will thank you!