Learn about Alias in cypress

Tutorial​​ 21​​ ​​ Alias​​ in cypress ​​​​ 

What you will Learn :

  • Use of Alias​​ in cypress

  • Alias syntax

  • Practical Examples

Use of Alias in cypress

Cypress has some limitations in using​​ traditional way of using​​ variables.​​ 

Let us go to

https://docs.cypress.io/guides/core-concepts/variables-and-aliases.html#Return-Values​​ 

Notice the comment below that says “this won’t work that way you think it does”. So basically,​​ below represents the traditional way of using variables.​​ We have a variable ‘button’ that is supposed to store the return value of cy.get(‘button’).​​ Afterwards, button.click() is supposed to click the button. This does not work in cypress unlike selenium.​​ 

Notice​​ below, it says you cannot work with the return values of any cypress command​​ 

So, in the above case, we cannot store the return value of cy.get command in a variable​​ and hence we cannot click a button.​​ So,​​ the question arises, how​​ do we handle this situation?​​ To resolve this, we use Alias.

Alias syntax

Go to​​ https://docs.cypress.io/api/commands/as.html#Syntax​​ 

Notice the syntax below​​ .as(aliasName)

Also notice above the correct and incorrect usages.​​ Let us see some practical examples now to understand this.

Practical Examples

Go to​​ https://www.way2automation.com/angularjs-protractor/banking/#/manager/addCust​​ 

Inspect ‘First Name’ text field. This element has​​ xPath:​​ 
//input[@placeholder='First Name']

So, in the below script, the first ‘it’ block launches the website and waits for 3 seconds.​​ In the second ‘it’ block, we are locating the ‘First Name’ text field element​​ (line#10)

Next, let us assign the whole locator to​​ a​​ variable/alias​​ ‘userName’​​ (line#10). So ‘userName’​​ variable or alias is now holding the​​ return value of​​ cy.xpath("//input[@placeholder='First Name']").as('userName')​​ command.​​ 

Next,​​ to access the alias, we prefix​​ @​​ before the alias name​​ @userName, see line#11

Next, we will use the ‘type()’ method to type in something inside the text field

Our script looks as below

Save the script

Launch test runner

Run alias.spec.js

Notice below that​​ cust1​​ gets typed in the ‘First Name’ field.

Similarly, using alias, let us​​ add another ‘it’ block to type dummy text in ‘Last Name’ field

Save script, notice below that​​ custLastName​​ is typed in the ‘Last Name’ field

Similarly, add another ‘it’ block for post code

Save script, see below, 123456 is entered

Similarly, this time we will click the ‘Add Customer’ button, inspect it

So add another ‘it’ block

Save, see below that ‘Add Customer’ button is clicked (shown by orangle rectangle on right hand side)

So this is how we use alias in cypress.

Thank you​​ for reading!

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