Playback file is not created when the command cy.reload() is used in the test

[alaney]

Describe the bug
I have a spec where I reload the page using cy.reload(). The test is expecting the page to be in the same state after a page reload. When I run the spec, no playback file is created. If I simply remove the reload command, the playback file is successfully created. The command log shows that there is "one pending request" when I use the reload command. I only have one matcher and it works just fine without the reload.

To Reproduce
I have tried to reproduce this using another site like Google but I was unsuccessful. I'm wondering if you know of any reason that this may happen? Here's an idea of what my test looks like:

describe('Playback', () => {
  beforeEach(() => {
    cy.playback('GET', '/some/json/request*');
  });

  it('should record after page reload', () => {
    cy.visit('/my/page');
    cy.get('.button').click();
    cy.get('h1').should('have.text', 'Endpoint Information');
    cy.reload();
    cy.get('h1').should('have.text', 'Endpoint Information');
  });
});

Expected behavior
The matcher should have recorded the requests and a playback file should be created.

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Cypress Version: 13.6.0
• Browser: Chrome
• Browser Version: 120

[DigTheDoug]

Hi @alaney, thanks for the report. I can reproduce what you're seeing as well, something with the cy.reload() in that test is causing an issue. My initial thought was that it had to do with the default hybrid mode getting mixed up with having both a record and playback possibility in the same test, but setting it explicitly to record mode shows the same issue.

We'll take a look, thanks!

[tvsbrent]

Sorry it took so long to look at this issue. This is looking to be an interesting challenge, let me explain what I believe is going on:

• The page is loaded by the browser. (Cypress in this case.)
• The app code makes requests to a certain API endpoint.
• The Cypress playback plugin intercepts that request and waits for it to complete.
• A reload is triggered in Cypress, but that request has not completed, so it is cancelled by the browser.
  • This is where the problem enters, as the plugin is not notified of cancelled requests.
• The page begins to load again, and the plugin is notified of the new request and waits for that new request to complete.
• In this case, that request does complete and it is marked as such.
• Unfortunately, the plugin is never notified about the cancelled requests, so waits for them to complete, which will never happen.

I'm going to look deeper in Cypress to see if it is possible to be notified of cancelled requests. Until then, you may want to add code to the test to ensure it is "stable" (meaning the inflight requests the plugin is waiting on are complete) prior to triggering the reload.

[alaney]

Thanks for the feedback. I can work with that 🙂

[malibagci]

Hi @DigTheDoug,

Any news about this issue?

[DigTheDoug]

Hey sorry @malibagci no updates on this issue. It's a bit more of a complex one and we haven't had time to look at it. PRs always welcome if you or anyone else has any ideas or thoughts though. @tvsbrent 's comment above covers the gist of it, specifically the last bullet point:

Unfortunately, the plugin is never notified about the cancelled requests, so waits for them to complete, which will never happen

If you know of a way to hook into knowing when a reload is triggered in Cypress or when there are cancelled requests that might be where the library could interrupt to save the snapshot.