Cypress seems to restart the test after cy.visit - cypress

Question

I've got the following test using cypress:
// myTest.spec.ts
console.log("the test is starting");
describe("My Test Describe", () => {
const testEmail = makeRandomEmail();
console.log("test email", testEmail);
it("should set up the profile", () => {
// setupProfile just makes some requests and returns a promise
cy.wrap(setupProfile(testEmail), {
timeout: 15000,
});
});
it("should test the thing", () => {
// makeAppUrl just returns a string
cy.visit(makeAppURL());
/* test stuff happens here which relies on the generated testEmail */
});
});
This works fine when I run against my dev env (which has no port in the url since it's on 443).
However, I'm running into a weird scenario where, when I run the tests against my local server (on port 3000), the following happens:
it logs "the test is starting" and "test email generatedTestEmail" in the browser console
it runs the setupProfile fine and that test passes.
Then, it reloads the entire test seemingly and relogs what's in (1) (with a new generated email), but (2) is still shown as passing.
It tries to run my it("should test the thing") block which fails because now I have a new user test email.
When I switch out only my host to point at my dev env instead of local, it works fine and doesn't reload as described in (3).
Has anyone run into something like this before? Could it be related to the fact that I have the port in the URL?

Answer 1

The issue was with the baseUrl configuration. This was pointed to the dev env, and the script to run against local did not override this config as described here: https://docs.cypress.io/guides/references/configuration#Command-Line

Answer 2

This solution works for me:
You need to put real baseUrl in configuration file. See example below.
Common problems
baseUrl is not set
Make sure you do not accidentally place the baseUrl or another top-level config variable into the env block. The following configuration is incorrect and WILL NOT WORK:
//DOES NOT WORK
{
"env": {
"baseUrl": "http://localhost:3030",
"FOO": "bar"
}
}
Solution: place the baseUrl property at the top level, outside the env object.
//THE CORRECT WAY
{
"baseUrl": "https://.....",
"env": {
"FOO": "bar"
}
}
Please see here for more details
https://docs.cypress.io/guides/references/configuration#Common-problems

Answer 3

I would try and make use of mocha's before() functionality, to maintain the same data across all tests in the describe() block.
// myTest.spec.ts
describe("My Test Describe", () => {
let testEmail;
before(() => {
console.log("the test is starting");
testEmail = makeRandomEmail();
console.log("test email", testEmail);
});
it("should set up the profile", () => {
cy.wrap(setupProfile(testEmail), {
timeout: 15000,
});
});
it("should test the thing", () => {
cy.visit(makeAppURL());
/* test stuff happens here which relies on the generated testEmail */
});
});