Cypress Plugin Data Snapshot

Integrates the awesome Jest snapshot testing to Cypress.

Jest vs. Cypress Plugin Data Snapshot

Cypress Plugin Data Snapshot uses Jest v28 internally. Here is a comparison with Jest features:

Jest feature	Implemented ?	Details
expect(actual).toMatchSnapshot()	✅	Api is cy.toMatchSnapshot(actual)
property matchers like expect.any(Date)	✅	All Jest property matchers are implemented. Api is slightly different: dataSnapshotExpect("any", Date)
Inline snapshots	❌	I'm not even sure it's doable
hint: .toMatchSnapshot("my snapshot")	✅	Same api
Jest snapshot update	✅	The update snapshot command is written in the console.

Setup

1. install

npm i -D cypress-data-snapshot

or

yarn add -D cypress-data-snapshot

2. Add plugin commands to cypress/support/index.js

import "cypress-data-snapshot"

2. Add plugin to cypress/plugins/index.js

const cypressDataSnapshot = require("cypress-data-snapshot/plugin")

module.exports = (on, config) => {
  cypressDataSnapshot(on, config)

  // This plugin adds `*.snap` to ignored files config, you need to return config for it to take effect
  return config
}

Api

Main command:

cy.toMatchSnapshot(actual, propertyMatchers?, hint?)

To temporarily update a snapshot (do not commit):

cy.updateSnapshot(actual, propertyMatchers?, hint?)

Usage

Snapshot data

it("Test is passing", () => {
  cy.toMatchSnapshot({ test: true })
})

Snapshot file is generated, like Jest, in <testFolder>/__snatpshots__/<testFileName>.js.snap:

exports[`Test is passing 1`] = `
Object {
  "test": true,
}
`;

When a snapshot difference occurs, the test fails. You get an actual/expected comparison in the Cypress interactive interface, and the exact Jest intelligent diff in the cypress run console. You also get an update command in both.

Updating the snapshot

The update command you recieve is a cypress run command, with the incriminated spec, and the SNAPSHOT_UPDATE=all environment variable. It updates all the snapshots of the spec. If you run this command, it will update the snapshot.

There is a powerful and more precise alternative workflow, but a bit more hacky. Rename the toMatchSnapshot command you want to update into updateSnapshot. Then save, let the test be re-run, the snapshot will be updated. Then change back updateSnapshot into toMatchSnapshot.

Using property matchers

Do you have varying data like dates, ids, etc...? Use the adapted Jest property matchers:

import { dataSnapshotExpect } from "cypress-data-snapshot"

it("Snapshot with property matchers", () => {
  const data = {
    test: true,
    date: new Date(),
    message: "success!"
  }
  cy.toMatchSnapshot(data, {
    date: dataSnapshotExpect("any", Date),
    message: dataSnapshotExpect("not.stringMatching", /error/),
  })
})

Generated snapshot:

exports[`Snapshot with property matchers 1`] = `
Object {
  "date": Any<Date>,
  "message": StringNotMatching /error/,
  "test": true,
}
`;

Adding a hint

You can add a hint, which is a specific name to the snapshot. Particularly useful when you have several snapshots in the same test.

it("Test with hint", () => {
  cy.toMatchSnapshot({ test: true }, "I'm the hint")
})

Generated snapshot:

exports[`Data snapshot snapshot testing Test with hint: I'm the hint 1`] = `
Object {
  "test": true,
}
`;

Snapshot network requests

This plugin can be used for a variety of use case, the most common probably being snapshots of network requests.

it("Snapshot request body", () => {
  cy.intercept("POST", "/api").as("clientRequest")
    .wait("@clientRequest").then(({ request }) => {
    cy.toMatchSnapshot(request)
  })
})

More examples

See our own test examples .

Thanks & thoughts

Thanks to @alexbeletsky for his inspirating article about using Jest standalone!