lecture 3 of 160 completed

Custom command design patterns

Parent, child and dual commands, overwriting built-ins, and the judgement call about when a plain function is better.

What you'll learn

The difference between parent, child and dual commands
When overwriting a built-in is justified
When a plain function beats a custom command

Picture a suite with 63 custom commands, where nobody can say what most of them do. Several do the same thing under different names. Two overwrite built-in Cypress commands, which makes the ordinary Cypress documentation wrong for that project.

Custom commands are the easiest abstraction to add and the easiest to get wrong, because nothing stops you. Senior work is knowing the three shapes and choosing deliberately.

Parent commands start a chain.

members only

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