Get the window object of the page that is currently active.

Syntax

cy.window()
cy.window(options)

Usage

Correct Usage

cy.window()

Arguments

options (Object)

Pass in an options object to change the default behavior of cy.window().

Option	Default	Description
log	true	Displays the command in the Command log
timeout	defaultCommandTimeout	Time to wait for cy.window() to resolve before timing out

Yields

• cy.window() yields the window object.

Examples

No Args

Yield the remote window object

cy.visit('http://localhost:8080/app')
cy.window().then((win) => {
  // win is the remote window
  // of the page at: http://localhost:8080/app
})

Check a custom property

If the application sets a custom property, like:

window.tags = {
  foo: 'bar',
}

Our test can confirm the property was properly set.

cy.window()
  .its('tags.foo')
  .should('equal', 'bar')

Note: Cypress commands are asynchronous, so you cannot check a property value before the Cypress commands ran.

it('equals bar', () => {
  let foo

  cy.window()
    .then((win) => {
      foo = win.foo
    })

  // variable "foo" is still undefined
  // because the above "then" callback
  // has not been executed yet
  expect(foo).to.equal('bar') // test fails
})

Instead, use cy.then() callback to check the value.

it('equals bar', () => {
  let foo

  cy.window()
    .then((win) => {
      foo = win.foo
    })
    .then(() => {
      // variable "foo" has been set
      expect(foo).to.equal('bar') // test passes
    })
})

Start tests when app is ready

If an application takes a while to start, it might “signal” its readiness by setting a property that Cypress can wait for.

// app.js
// only set property "appReady" if Cypress is running tests
if (window.Cypress) {
  window.appReady = true
}

Cypress Test Runner can wait for the property window.appReady to be true before every test

// spec.js
beforeEach(() => {
  cy.visit('/')
  cy.window().should('have.property', 'appReady', true)
})

When Can The Test Start?

This blog post explains how to use cy.window() to spy on the DOM prototype to detect when the application starts adding event listeners to the DOM elements. When this happens for the first time, the Test Runner knows that the application has started and the tests can begin.

See “Set flag to start tests” for more examples.

Options

Passes timeout through to .should() assertion

cy.window({ timeout: 10000 }).should('have.property', 'foo')

Notes

Cypress uses 2 different windows.

Let’s say you want to check the type of the events. You might write code like below:

it('test', (done) => {
  cy.get('#test-input').then((jQueryElement) => {
    let elemHtml = jQueryElement.get(0)

    elemHtml.addEventListener('keydown', (event) => {
      expect(event instanceof KeyboardEvent).to.be.true
      done()
    })
  })

  cy.get('#test-input').type('A')
})

It fails. But the interesting thing is that the type of event is KeyboardEvent when you console.log(event).

It’s because the Test Runner uses an iframe to load the application under test. In other words, the KeyboardEvent used in the the code above and the KeyboardEvent class from which the event variable is constructed are different KeyboardEvents.

That’s why the test should be written like this.

it('should trigger KeyboardEvent with .type inside Cypress event listener', (done) => {
  cy.window().then((win) => {
    cy.get('#test-input').then((jQueryElement) => {
      let elemHtml = jQueryElement.get(0)

      elemHtml.addEventListener('keydown', (event) => {
        expect(event instanceof win['KeyboardEvent']).to.be.true
        done()
      })
    })
  })

  cy.get('#test-input').type('A')
})

Rules

Requirements

• cy.window() requires being chained off of cy.

Assertions

• cy.window() will automatically retry until assertions you've chained all pass.

Timeouts

• cy.window() can time out waiting for assertions you've added to pass.

Command Log

Get the window

cy.window()

The commands above will display in the Command Log as:

When clicking on window within the command log, the console outputs the following:

History

Version	Changes
0.20.0	Can call .focus() and .blur() on cy.window()
0.11.6	cy.window() logs to Command Log

See also

• cy.visit()
• cy.document()
• cy.its()
• Adding custom properties to the global window with the right TypeScript type
• Set flag to start tests