How to properly write the values of an array into a JSON file using writeFile in Cypress?

Question

I wanted to write the values of an array into a JSON file by using writeFile .

console.log(category);

cy.writeFile('cypress/fixtures/actionsName.json', category);

I've outputted the values of the category array. See below

My expected contents of the file would be something like this

However, upon writing the contents of the JSON file using writeFile, it only prints the top level array, not including its contents.

I'm not sure what I'm missing, I would really appreciate if someone can take a look. Thanks in advance!

UPDATE: As per request, below is the code used to populate the category array. Let me know if anything needs to be updated/optimized.

getActionName(){
    let category = new Array();
    let actions = new Array();

    //Get all action name and store to json
    cy.get('.linkbox').each(($category) => {

        //Get category name
        const text = $category.find('.heading').text();
        cy.log("Category: " + text);
        category.push(text);

        //Get each action name and push to the related category
        cy.wrap($category).find('ul li h2').each(($action) => {
            const text = $action.text();
            cy.log("Action: " + text);

            actions.push(text);
        }).then(() => {
            category[text] = actions;
            actions = [];
        })

    }).then(() =>{
        console.log(category);

        //!Only writes the top level array
        cy.writeFile('cypress/fixtures/actionsName.json', category);
    }) 
}

can you add the entire code ? – Alapan Das Jan 08 '22 at 06:45 — Alapan Das, Jan 08 '22 at 06:45
@AlapanDas Please see updates. Thank you – Harvey Jan 08 '22 at 06:56 — Harvey, Jan 08 '22 at 06:56

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 08 '22 at 07:03

It's a bit hard to tell for sure from the screenshot, but I think the array has non-standard properties attached (an Array is an object).

Try converting,

const keys = ['Alert', 'Dynamic Elements', 'Frames and Windows', etc]
const output = keys.reduce((acc, item) => {
  acc[item] = category[item]
  return acc
}, {})
cy.writeFile('cypress/fixtures/actionsName.json', output)

Just looked at your posted code - the problem is as expected, you're attaching the lists to the array as properties. The above should work, or you can clean up the way you gather the lists.

getActionName(){
    //let category = new Array();  // change this to an object
    let category = {};
    let actions = new Array();

    //Get all action name and store to json
    cy.get('.linkbox').each(($category) => {

        //Get category name
        const text = $category.find('.heading').text();
        cy.log("Category: " + text);
        //category.push(text);    // don't need this

        //Get each action name and push to the related category
        cy.wrap($category).find('ul li h2').each(($action) => {
            const text = $action.text();
            cy.log("Action: " + text);

            actions.push(text);
        }).then(() => {
            category[text] = actions;
            actions = [];
        })

    }).then(() =>{
        console.log(category);

        //!Only writes the top level array
        cy.writeFile('cypress/fixtures/actionsName.json', category);
    }) 
}

Yes, I missed that one. category variable should be an object. This works! Thank you — Harvey, Jan 08 '22 at 07:10

How to properly write the values of an array into a JSON file using writeFile in Cypress?

1 Answers1