Guide for Writing E2E Test

Where should the new test go? 

Inside e2e/cypress/integration is where all of the tests live. Cypress is configured to look for and run tests that match the pattern of *_spec.js, so if you are creating a new test make sure to name it something like my_new_test_spec.js to ensure that it gets picked up.

Inside the integration directory, there are subdirectories that roughly break up the tests by functional areas. If you see something that looks like it describes the functional area of your test, it should probably live inside that subdirectory. From there, look to see if there is already a *_spec.js file that may be similar to what you are testing, it can be very likely that you can add additional tests to a pre-existing file.

Writing Specs 

1. See which-query-to-use when selecting an element base on order of priority.

   • Use camelCase when assigning data-testid or element ID. Watch out for potential breaking changes in the snapshot of the unit testing. Run make test to see if all are passing, and run npm run updatesnapshot or npm run test -- -u if necessary to update snapshot testing.

2. Add custom commands to /e2e/cypress/support. See Cypress documentation for more details about custom commands [link].

   • For ease of use, in-code documentation and discoverability, custom commands should have type definition added. See declaration file for reference on how to include.

3. Organize /e2e/cypress/integration with a subfolder to group similar tests.

4. Each test should have a corresponding test case in Zephyr. Therefore, the describe block should correspond to folder name in Zephyr (e.g. “Incoming webhook”), and it block should contain Zephyr test case number as Test Key and test title (e.g. “MM-T623 Lock to this channel on webhook configuration works”). In the spec file, it should be written as:

   describe('Incoming webhook', () => {
       it('MM-T623 Lock to this channel on webhook configuration works', () => {
           // Test steps and assertion here
       }
   }
   

   For those writing E2E from Help Wanted tickets with Area/E2E Tests label, the Test Key is available in the GitHub issue itself.

   Test Key is used for mapping test cases per Release Testing specification. It will be used to measure coverage between manual and automated tests.

   In case the Test Key is not available, feel free to prompt the QA team who will either search for an existing Zephyr entry or if it’s a new one, it will be created for you.

5. Add check if a certain test requires server license.

   describe('Test description', () => {
      before(() => {
          // If the test requires a certain licensed feature
          cy.apiRequireLicenseForFeature('GuestAccounts');
   
          // If server has license in general
          cy.apiRequireLicense();
      }
   }
   

6. Run the test in isolation using a convenient custom command of cy.apiInitSetup(). This command creates a new team, channel, and user which can only be used by the spec file itself.

7. Refer to this pull request as a guide on how to write and submit an end-to-end testing PR.

Adding Test Metadata on Spec Files 

Test metadata is used to identify each spec file ahead of time before it is forwarded for Cypress run. Currently, supported test metadata are the following:

1. “Stage” - Indicates environment for testing, e.g. @prod, @smoke, @pull_request. “Stage” metadata is owned and controlled by QA team who carefully analyze stability of test and promote/demote into a certain stage. This is not required when submitting a spec file and it should be removed when adding new or modifying an existing spec file.
2. “Group” - Indicates test group or category, which is primarily based on functional areas and existing release testing groups, e.g. @account_settings for Account Settings, @messaging for Messaging, etc. This is required when submitting a spec file.
3. “Skip” - Is a way to skip a spec file depending on capability of test environment. This is required when submitting a spec file if a test has certain limitation or requirement. Capabilities could be as follows:
   • Per platform, e.g. @darwin for Mac, @linux for Linux flavor like Ubuntu, @win32 for Windows, etc.
   • Per browser, e.g. @electron, @chrome, @firefox, @edge
   • Per headless or headed, e.g. @headless or @headed

A spec file can have zero or more metadata separated by space.

// Stage: @prod @smoke
// Group: @enterprise @saml
// Skip:  @headless @electron @firefox