Cypress.io - sitemap.xml validation test - cypress

Question

:) I chose for automated testing a tool Cypress.io.
I need some tests for my sitemap.xml document and I dont know how to do that :(
I have tried install an npm package libxmljs
npm install libxmljs --save
and load it as plugin in cypress/plugins/index.js
const libxmljs = require('libxmljs');
But there is a problem with this. It shows an error
The plugins file is missing or invalid.
Your pluginsFile is set to /home/my-app/cypress/plugins/index.js, but
either the file is missing,
it contains a syntax error, or threw an error when required.
The pluginsFile must be a .js or .coffee file.
Please fix this, or set pluginsFile to false if a plugins file is not
necessary for your project.
Error: The module '/home/my-app/node_modules/libxmljs/build/Release/xmljs.node'
Please help me, how can I use libxmljs in Cypress.io or how i should write tests for Sitemap.xml in this end-to-end testing tool.
Thanks for your time! :)

Answer 1

Although #NoriSte's answer is correct, I found a simpler alternative without the need for any 3rd party code.
Cypress API exposes all the necessary methods to:
load a file (the sitemap.xml in your case): cy.request.
parse XML file (it exposes the jQuery API): Cypress.$
check if a page successfully loads (with a 200 status code): cy.visit
This is the following test that I use to test if all of the pages declared in the sitemap are loading (and make sure it doesn't point to any 404):
describe('Sitemap', () => {
// initialize the url array
let urls = []
// be sure to get the url list before executing any tests
before(async () => {
// getch the sitemap content
const response = await cy.request('sitemap.xml')
// convert sitemap xml body to an array of urls
urls = Cypress.$(response.body)
// according to the sitemap.xml spec,
// the url value should reside in a <loc /> node
// https://www.google.com/sitemaps/protocol.html
.find('loc')
// map to a js array
.toArray()
// get the text of the <loc /> node
.map(el => el.innerText)
})
it('should succesfully load each url in the sitemap', () => {
urls.forEach(cy.visit)
})
})

Answer 2

If you want to use libxmljs to parse your sitemap you should
read the sitemap itself with cy.request
add a custom task to Cypress (because libxmljs is a node library, cy.task is the only way to consume Node.js scripts from your Cypress tests)
returns the parsed data from your task
assert about it in a Cypress test
Those are the high-level steps you need to do 😉

Answer 3

To add to a great answer by gion_13, here’s his solution refactored to utilize Cypress promise-like-commands instead of async calls.
describe('Sitemap', () => {
let urls = [];
before(() => {
cy.request('sitemap.xml')
.as('sitemap')
.then((response) => {
urls = Cypress.$(response.body)
.find('loc')
.toArray()
.map(el => el.innerText);
});
});
it('should succesfully load each url in the sitemap', () => {
urls.forEach(cy.visit);
});
});
Using async in Cypress may raise error ‘Cypress detected that you returned a promise in a test, but also invoked one or more cy commands inside of that promise’.

Answer 4

describe('Sitemap', () => {
let urls = [];
before(() => {
const parser = new DOMParser();
cy.request('/sitemap.xml').then((response) => {
const document = parser.parseFromString(response.body, 'application/xml');
const parsedUrls = document.getElementsByTagName('loc');
urls = Array.from(parsedUrls).map((item) => item.innerHTML);
});
});
it('Should load each url from the sitemap', () => {
urls.forEach(cy.visit);
});
});