Enhancing Cypress Tests with .env File Environment Variables

Environment variables are essential in software development for managing configurations and secrets without hardcoding them into the source code. This guide will explore leveraging environment variables in your Cypress end-to-end tests using a .env file.

Why Use Environment Variables?

Using environment variables helps you:

• Manage configurations for different environments (development, staging, production).
• Keep sensitive information like API keys and passwords out of your codebase.
• Simplify the process of updating configurations without changing your code.

Setting Up Cypress with dotenv

Cypress does not natively support reading from a .env file. However, we can achieve this by using the dotenv package.

Step 1: Install dotenv

First, you need to install the dotenv package. Run the following command in your Cypress project directory:

npm install dotenv        

Step 2: Create a .env File

Create a .env file in the root of your project directory. This file will hold your environment variables. Here's an example:

CYPRESS_BASE_URL=https://example.com 
CYPRESS_API_KEY=your_api_key        

Step 3: Load .env Variables in cypress.config.js

You need to modify the cypress.config.js file to load the environment variables from the .env file. Here's how you can do it:

const dotenv = require('dotenv');

// Load environment variables from .env file
dotenv.config();

module.exports = {
  e2e: {
    setupNodeEvents(on, config) {
      // You can modify the config here if needed
      config.env.BASE_URL = process.env.CYPRESS_BASE_URL;
      config.env.API_KEY = process.env.CYPRESS_API_KEY;
      return config;
    },
    // Other Cypress configurations...
  }
};        

Step 4: Use Environment Variables in Tests

Now that you’ve set up the environment variables, you can use them in your Cypress tests. For example:

describe('My Test Suite', () => {
  it('should visit the base URL', () => {
    cy.visit(Cypress.env('BASE_URL'));
  });
});        

Best Practices

1. Do Not Commit .env Files: Make sure to add your .env file to .gitignore to avoid committing sensitive information to your version control system.
2. Use Environment Variables for Sensitive Data: Always use environment variables for sensitive data like API keys, tokens, and passwords.
3. Document Environment Variables: Maintain documentation or an example .env file (.env.example) to help other developers understand which variables are needed.

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