REDCap Cypress Developer Toolkit

This repository includes scripts to download all the necessary components for a developer to begin developing automated feature tests on their developer machine with the REDCap Cypress Test Framework.

Windows Tutorial Video

macOS Tutorial Video

Overview

• Software Prerequisites
• Create SSH Key
• Developer Toolkit Installation Instructions
• Configure Cypress REDCap version
• Start REDCap Test Environment
• Configure & Start Cypress
• Contribute to Feature Tests
• Update Repositories
• Rebuild Docker Containers

Software Prerequisites:

A developer needs the following software on their machine before installing this Developer Toolkit.

• Git (version control)

  • for Windows
  • for macOS options (choose one)
    • Homebrew: brew install git
    • MacPorts: sudo port install git
    • Xcode - shipped as a binary package
  • for Linux

• Docker Desktop - available for Windows, macOS, Linux

• Node.js - available for Windows, macOS, Linux

• Visual Studio Code - optional. Recommended IDE.

SSH Key in GitHub Account

You will need to place your public key on GitHub for this process to work correctly.

To generate a key on your local machine, most of time the command is:

ssh-keygen

Please consult GitHub's SSH documentation for more information: GitHub SSH Key Instructions

Specifically, you will need to

• Generate a new SSH Key
• Add the SSH Key to your GitHub Account

Developer Toolkit Installation Instructions:

1. Clone this repository to your machine. ¹

   git clone git@github.com:aldefouw/redcap_cypress_docker.git
   

2. Download Repositories

   Execute download_repos.sh to download the repositories. ²

   cd redcap_cypress_docker
   ./download_repos.sh
   

   This script also configures base settings for Cypress.

3. Download REDCap

   Execute download_redcap.sh to download specific version of REDCap you need. ²

   ./download_redcap.sh
   

   Follow onscreen prompts. This step requires credentials for REDCap Community site.

Configure Cypress REDCap Version

If you want to test against a new version of REDCap that you've downloaded, first Download REDCap.

Then change the following variable in redcap_cypress/cypress.env.json to the specific version of REDCap you want to test:

    "redcap_version": "13.1.37"

Start REDCap Test Environment:

Start your REDCap Docker containers (PHP/Apache, MySQL, Mailhog). ³

cd redcap_docker
docker compose up

Configure & Start Cypress:

1. Install Cypress & dependencies for REDCap Cypress Test Framework.

cd redcap_cypress
npm install

2. Open Cypress.

npx cypress open

Contribute to Feature Tests:

1. Create your own fork of redcap_rsvc that is based upon https://github.com/aldefouw/redcap_rsvc

2. Configure the cloned redcap_rsvc repository as needed to match your own Fork.

cd redcap_cypress/redcap_rsvc
git remote rename origin upstream
git remote add origin <your_fork_url_here>

Having your own fork enables you to issue pull requests to aldefouw/redcap_rsvc after you complete a feature.

Update Repositories:

Execute ./update_repos.sh from this repository.

./update_repos.sh

This will resync your Developer Toolkit to the latest versions.

Caution: Only do this if you understand what the implications of updating submodules are.

Additional Information

Rebuild Docker Containers

If changes are made to the Docker images, you will need to rebuild your containers before spooling them up.

docker compose build

Issues and Resolutions:

Footnotes

1. Git Clone Fail: If the message says you do not have permissions or mentions a public key, you might need to setup a SSH key with Github. ↩

2. Shell Script not Running: If you are on Windows and you see no outputs, you will need to run in a Bash shell. Because you have Git, you might have Git Bash installed. At the top of your VS Code terminal, on the right, Click on the down-arrow next to the plus sign and select Git Bash. ↩ ↩²

3. Docker Running: If you see an error message about Docker not running or an "error during connect", you will need to start Docker Desktop. On Windows, you can search for Docker Desktop in the Start Menu. On macOS, you can find it in your Applications folder. On Linux, you can start the Docker service with sudo systemctl start docker. If you get a message of "no configuration file provided: not found", you might not be in the redcap_docker directory. ↩