Cypress Uncaught Assertion Error despite cy.on('uncaught:exception')

Question

In relation to the following error:

Uncaught Error: Script error.
Cypress detected that an uncaught error was thrown from a cross origin script.
We cannot provide you the stack trace, line number, or file where this error occurred.

Referencing https://docs.cypress.io/api/events/catalog-of-events.html#To-catch-a-single-uncaught-exception

I am trying to run a test that fills out a form and clicks the button to submit:

it('adds biological sample with maximal input', function(){
    cy.on('uncaught:exception', (err, runnable) => {
    expect(err.message).to.include('of undefined')
      done()
      return false
    });
    cy.get('a').contains('Add biological sample').click();

 . . . 

    cy.contains('Action results');
  });

I get an error despite my spec containing the following:

    cy.on('uncaught:exception', (err, runnable) => {
    expect(err.message).to.include('of undefined')
      done()
      return false
    });

Here's an image of the test failing .

The error in the bottom left reads,

Error: Uncaught AssertionError: expected '$f is not defined\n\nThis error originated from your application code, not from Cypress. \n\nWhen Cypress detects uncaught errors originating from your application it will automatically fail the current test.\n\nThis behavior is configurable, and you can choose to turn this off by listening to the \'uncaught:exception\' event.\n\nhttps://on.cypress.io/uncaught-exception-from-application' to include 'of undefined' (https://www.flukebook.org/_cypress/runner/cypress_runner.js:49186)

It seems that I am taking Cypress's advice and not getting the desired result. Any suggestions? Has this happened to anyone else?

Answer 1

Can you please remove expect(err.message).to.include('of undefined') and done() from the cypress exception block and add the below piece of code inside the test & run the test again

Cypress.on('uncaught:exception', (err, runnable) => {
    // returning false here prevents Cypress from
    // failing the test
    return false
})

Answer 2

The easiest way to fix this is to add the following to the top of your spec:

Cypress.on('uncaught:exception', (err, runnable) => {
  return false;
});

This gets the same indentation level as your "it" blocks, nested directly under "describe". It will cause cypress to ignore all uncaught JS exceptions.

In the question, Atticus29 expects "of undefined" to be present in the error message, but the error doesn't actually contain that string. He could change

expect(err.message).to.include('of undefined')

to

expect(err.message).to.include('is not defined')

then it will pass.

To turn off all uncaught exception handling in a spec (recommended) https://docs.cypress.io/api/events/catalog-of-events.html#To-turn-off-all-uncaught-exception-handling

To catch a single uncaught exception and assert that it contains a string https://docs.cypress.io/api/events/catalog-of-events.html#To-catch-a-single-uncaught-exception

Answer 3

Although the fix of suppressing Cypress.on sometimes fix the problem, it doesn't really reveal the root problem. It's still better to figure out why you are having an unhandled error in your code (even in the test).

In my case, my form submission forward the page to another page (or current page), which causes re-render. To fix it, I need to call preventDefault.

  const onSubmit: React.FormEventHandler<HTMLFormElement> = (e) => {
    e.preventDefault();
  };

Every problem is a bit different, the above is only one example. Try to think about what your test actually does in the real site.

Answer 4

Add these lines Before your Test Suit.

Cypress.on('uncaught:exception', (err, runnable) => {
// returning false here prevents Cypress from
// failing the test
return false
});