Load Testing with Cypress

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to reuse existing Cypress tests to quickly set up and run a browser-based load test using the automation as code approach.

Get Step SaaS for free to follow this tutorial

Illustration for Load Testing with Cypress

Note: This tutorial uses a code-driven approach. If you prefer to do the same using the Step UI, you can follow the tutorial Load Testing with Cypress using the Step UI.

Prerequisites

Access to a Step cluster: Get started quickly by setting up a free SaaS cluster in the Step Portal, or, if preferred, follow the Installation page to configure your own on-premise cluster.
Install the Step CLI on your local machine as described on the Download page of Step

Test scenario

For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll simulate 10 parallel users visiting our demo online store. The typical visit that we’ll simulate consists of the following actions: navigate to the online store, search for a product, add it to the shopping cart, and complete the order.

For this simulation we have an existing Cypress test: Cypress sample project

Checkout the sample

Clone the sample project from GitHub:

  git clone https://github.com/exense/step-samples

Navigate to the sample directory:

  cd step-samples/automation-packages/load-testing-cypress/

The main file of the project is automation-package.yaml. It describes our test scenario as YAML:

  schemaVersion: 1.0.0
name: "OpenCart Test Plans"
plans:
  - name: "Load Testing OpenCart"
    agents: auto_detect
    root:
      testScenario:
        children:
          # Declare a thread group with 10 concurrent users
          - threadGroup:
              users: 10
              # Perform 100 iterations per user
              iterations: 100
              children:
                - callKeyword:
                    # Each iteration executes the Cypress test defined as Keyword
                    keyword: "OpenCart - Typical visit"
keywords:
  # Declare a Keyword referencing the Cypress test
  - Cypress:
      # An arbitrary name for our Keyword
      name: OpenCart - Typical visit
      # Relative path to the Cypress test
      cypressProject: cypress-test/
      # The name of the Spec file to be executed (found in the cypress/e2e subdirectory)
      spec: "opencart.cy.js"

Execute locally

Optionally, you can run the Cypress test locally:

  cd cypress-test
npm install
npx cypress run --headed --config video=false
# Navigate back to the base directory
cd ..

Execute in Step

Before executing your plan in Step, you’ll need the URL of your Step instance and an API key. For instructions on generating an API key, refer to Generate an API Key.

In the sample directory (load-testing-cypress), run the following command to upload the content of the automation package (current folder) to Step and trigger the execution of the load test:

  step ap execute --stepUrl=https://<Hostname of your Step cluster> --projectName=Common --token=<Your API key>

Refer to the official documentation of the Step CLI for more details.

The execute command outputs a direct link to the execution report in Step:

  Execute automation package with parameters: {}
The automation package source is ...\step-samples\automation-packages\load-testing-cypress
Preparing AP archive: ...\Temp\stepcli97053271864881569\load-testing-cypress.stz
Execution(s) started in Step:
- 'Load Testing OpenCart' (https://<Host name of your Step cluster>/#/executions/66fd1171fda0775568ae802f)
  Waiting for execution(s) to complete...
Execution 'Load Testing OpenCart' (https://<Host name of your Step cluster>/#/executions/66fd1171fda0775568ae802f) succeeded. Result status was PASSED

Analyze the result

Open the execution report in Step by clicking the direct link printed by the execute command above.

In the Performance tab, you can explore detailed performance metrics:

Performance view of the execution report

There you’ll find all metrics relative to the transactions of your Cypress scripts:

The execution time of our custom command “Opencart_PlaceOrder”
The series related to the different Cypress commands called within our custom command (e.g. “visit”, “contains”)
The total execution time of our Keyword: “Place an order in Opencart”

Note: The total execution time contains the time spent in the script plus the time spent starting the Cypress runner. This is useful for diagnosis purposes. For application performance measurements, use the custom command measurements.

Review the transaction statistics

At the bottom of the Performance view, you’ll find an aggregation of performance metrics for the selected time frame:

Performance summary of the execution report

Do more

In case you are just getting started with Step, this tutorial is one of our basic use cases of using Cypress script in Step.

Step lets you reuse automation artifacts across the whole DevOps cycle, and load testing is just one aspect of it. For more use case of performance tests, synthetic monitoring, and robotics can be found on our tutorials page and resource library.

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