Using cy.server() and cy.route() not working in before hooks

[pawelgalazka]

Current behavior:

I'm getting error in Cypress app console: CypressError: cy.route() cannot be invoked before starting the cy.server() when I use cy.server() in top before hook and then cy.route() in children contexts before hooks.

If I remove top cy.server() and move it to before hook before each cy.route() call then I get fail for second describe context with error: CypressError: The XHR server is unavailable or missing. This should never happen and likely is a bug. Open an issue if you see this message.

Desired behavior:

I should be able to use cy.route() and cy.server() within before hooks.

Test code:

describe('test', () => {
  before(() => {
    cy.server()
  })

  describe('case with http 500', () => {
    before(() => {
      // cy.server()
      cy.route({
        method: 'GET',
        url: '/api?*',
        status: 500,
        response: {}
      })
      cy.visit('http://app.dev/')
    })

    it('test n1', () => {

    })

    it('test nr 2', () => {

    })
  })

  describe('case with http 408', () => {
    before(() => {
      // cy.server()
      cy.route({
        method: 'GET',
        url: '/api?*',
        status: 408,
        response: {}
      })
      cy.visit('http://app.dev')
    })

    it('test nr 3', () => {

    })

    it('test nr 4', () => {

    })
  })
})

• Cypress Version: 0.19.2

[jennifer-shehane]

Can confirm this is a bug in 0.19.4.

First Use Case

Second Use Case

[jennifer-shehane]

The second use case has been fixed in the upcoming 0.20.0 version.

The first use case still fails in the upcoming 0.20.0 version.

Minimum code to reproduce

describe('test', () => {
  before(() => {
    cy.server()
  })

  describe('describe n1', () => {
    before(() => {
      cy.route('fake')
    })

    it('test n1', () => {})
  })

  describe('describe n2', () => {
    before(() => {
      cy.route('fake')
    })

    it('test nr 2', () => {})
  })
})

[brian-mann]

I looked at this, and this is not a bug, this is the correct and intended behavior of mocha hooks.

Code in a before hook only runs once and once only. When it reaches the 2nd test: test nr 2 the server has been reset and needs to be reinvoked.

Replace the notion of cy.server with anything else in the before hook - whether its another cypress command, or other javascript code. It only makes sense to run once and will not affect nor have anything to do with the execution of test nr 2.

You just need to move the before hook to beforeEach since you intend it to run before each test and not just before the first test.

[brian-mann]

To clarify I only ran @jennifer-shehane's minimal code example in our upcoming 0.20.0. I suppose something about 0.19.4 could be different, but I'm closing this issue for now. Can reopen if another demonstrable example is buggy.

[brian-mann]

Fixed the situation when calling cy.route() before cy.server() where the error would not properly print to the Command Log in 0.20.0

The initial request of using cy.server() and cy.route() in before hooks is still considered not a bug as explained here: #595 (comment)