Github actions: Conditionally record test results to cypress.io while using on: deployment_status trigger

[bscaspar]

We have a nextjs project deployed to Vercel. Currently we use a simple GitHub action for our testing pipeline which so far has worked great. It looks like this:

name: e2e-ci
on: deployment_status

jobs:
  e2e:
    if: github.event.deployment_status.state == 'success'
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
      # Install NPM dependencies, cache them correctly
      # and run all Cypress tests
      - name: Cypress run
        uses: cypress-io/github-action@v2
        with:
          record: true
        env:
          CYPRESS_BASE_URL: ${{ github.event.deployment_status.target_url }}
          CYPRESS_RECORD_KEY: [our key here]

The action runs on deployment_status and grabs the deployed Vercel URL after a successful deployment and runs the tests against this environment.

Each time we check code in, a new deployment happens, and a new test run (if the deployment was successful). Here’s the issue:

Recording the test results to cypress.io on every single deployment is a waste of resources since a lot of these dev deployments are for basic UI testing purposes. I want to upload the test results for the preview and master branch only.

Unfortunately, I can’t use the on: branch command with the deployment_status action to specify the branch. Nor do I have access to the GITHUB_REF env var which would also determine the branch since that’s only accessible to actions that are triggered by the pull_request or pull_request_target triggers.

I'm looking for recommendations for conditionally setting the record flag with this type of action. Or other recs on how folks using nextjs + Vercel + Cypress use Github actions. Thank you!

[muratkeremozcan]

You have to have some scripting logic before the Cypress runstep, which gives you a boolean result. After that, you pass that result instead of record: true

name: e2e-ci
on: deployment_status

jobs:
  e2e:
    if: github.event.deployment_status.state == 'success'
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
      # Install NPM dependencies, cache them correctly
      # and run all Cypress tests
      
      # some CI logic that gives you a result, assigned to a variavble named thatResult
      
      
      - name: Cypress run
        uses: cypress-io/github-action@v2
        with:
          record: $(thatResult)
        env:
          CYPRESS_BASE_URL: ${{ github.event.deployment_status.target_url }}
          CYPRESS_RECORD_KEY: [our key here]

Here is a more complex example where instead of boolean value, the environment is figured out with a script and passed to the config file. It should give some ideas. https://dev.to/muratkeremozcan/the-32-ways-of-selective-testing-with-cypress-a-unified-concise-approach-to-selective-testing-in-ci-and-local-machines-1c19

[bscaspar]

Thanks for the help! With those docs and this blog I was able to come up with the following:

name: e2e-ci
on: deployment_status

jobs:
  e2e:
    if: github.event.deployment_status.state == 'success'
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          # fetch all commits so we can find the branch
          fetch-depth: 0
      - name: Assign branch to env var 🌳
        run: |
          echo "deployment_branch_name=$(git name-rev --name-only $GITHUB_SHA)" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      - name: Assign cypress_record var based on branch
        run: |
          echo "${{ env.deployment_branch_name }}"
          echo "cypress_record=${{ contains('remotes/origin/dev refs/heads/preview refs/heads/master', env.deployment_branch_name) }}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      - name: Cypress run
        uses: cypress-io/github-action@v2
        with:
          record: ${{ env.cypress_record }}
        env:
          CYPRESS_BASE_URL: ${{ github.event.deployment_status.target_url }}
          CYPRESS_RECORD_KEY: 50cb67fb-c0c1-45a5-a759-f73ac49eeb0c

The updates I made from the documentation you sent, which was really helpful, are:

• running tests agains deployed Vercel URL with CYPRESS_BASE_URL: ${{ github.event.deployment_status.target_url }}
• getting the branch name using

with:
     # fetch all commits so we can find the branch
     fetch-depth: 0

• determining whether or not to record using echo "cypress_record=${{ contains('remotes/origin/dev refs/heads/preview refs/heads/master', env.deployment_branch_name) }}" >> $GITHUB_ENV

It's not perfect but it works! Only recording test to cypress.io when the merging branch is dev (so dev -> preview) or preview for preview -> master