click

Click a DOM element.

.click() is a command, and is unsafe to chain off of.

Syntax

.click()
.click(options)
.click(position)
.click(position, options)
.click(x, y)
.click(x, y, options)

Usage

Correct Usage

cy.get('.btn').click() // Click on button
cy.focused().click() // Click on el with focus
cy.contains('Welcome').click() // Click on first el containing 'Welcome'

Incorrect Usage

cy.click('.btn') // Errors, cannot be chained off 'cy'
cy.window().click() // Errors, 'window' does not yield DOM element

Arguments

position (String)

The position where the click should be issued. The center position is the default position. Valid positions are topLeft, top, topRight, left, center, right, bottomLeft, bottom, and bottomRight.

cypress-command-positions-diagram

x (Number)

The distance in pixels from the element's left to issue the click.

y (Number)

The distance in pixels from the element's top to issue the click.

options (Object)

Pass in an options object to change the default behavior of .click().

OptionDefaultDescription
altKeyfalseActivates the alt key (option key for Mac). Aliases: optionKey.
animationDistanceThresholdanimationDistanceThresholdThe distance in pixels an element must exceed over time to be considered animating.
ctrlKeyfalseActivates the control key. Aliases: controlKey.
logtrueDisplays the command in the Command log
forcefalseForces the action, disables waiting for actionability
metaKeyfalseActivates the meta key (Windows key or command key for Mac). Aliases: commandKey, cmdKey.
multiplefalseSerially click multiple elements
scrollBehaviorscrollBehaviorViewport position to where an element should be scrolled before executing the command
shiftKeyfalseActivates the shift key.
timeoutdefaultCommandTimeoutTime to wait for .click() to resolve before timing out
waitForAnimationswaitForAnimationsWhether to wait for elements to finish animating before executing the command.

Yields

  • .click() yields the same subject it was given.
  • .click() is a command, and it is unsafe to chain further methods that rely on the subject.

Examples

No Args

cy.get('.nav > a').click()

Position

Specify a corner of the element to click

Click the top right corner of the button.

cy.get('img').click('topRight')

Coordinates

Specify explicit coordinates relative to the top left corner

The click below will be issued inside of the element (15px from the left and 40px from the top).

cy.get('#top-banner').click(15, 40)

Options

Force a click regardless of its actionable state

Forcing a click overrides the actionable checks Cypress applies and will automatically fire the events.

cy.get('.close').as('closeBtn')
cy.get('@closeBtn').click({ force: true })

Force a click with position argument

cy.get('#collapse-sidebar').click('bottomLeft', { force: true })

Force a click with relative coordinates

cy.get('#footer .next').click(5, 60, { force: true })

Click all elements with id starting with 'btn'

By default, Cypress will error if you're trying to click multiple elements. By passing { multiple: true } Cypress will iteratively apply the click to each element and will also log to the Command Log multiple times.

cy.get('[id^=btn]').click({ multiple: true })

Click with key combinations

The .click() command may also be fired with key modifiers in order to simulate holding key combinations while clicking, such as ALT + click.

The following keys can be combined with .click() through the options.

OptionNotes
altKeyActivates the alt key (option key for Mac). Aliases: optionKey.
ctrlKeyActivates the control key. Aliases: controlKey.
metaKeyActivates the meta key (Windows key or command key for Mac). Aliases: commandKey, cmdKey.
shiftKeyActivates the shift key.

Shift click

// execute a SHIFT + click on the first <li>
cy.get('li:first').click({
  shiftKey: true,
})

Notes

Actionability

The element must first reach actionability

.click() is an "action command" that follows all the rules of Actionability.

Focus

Focus is given to the first focusable element

For example, clicking a <span> inside of a <button> gives the focus to the button, since that's what would happen in a real user scenario.

However, Cypress additionally handles situations where a child descendent is clicked inside of a focusable parent, but actually isn't visually inside the parent (per the CSS Object Model). In those cases if no focusable parent is found the window is given focus instead (which matches real browser behavior).

Cancellation

Mousedown cancellation will not cause focus

If the mousedown event has its default action prevented (e.preventDefault()) then the element will not receive focus as per the spec.

Rules

Requirements

  • .click() requires being chained off a command that yields DOM element(s).

Assertions

  • .click() will automatically wait for the element to reach an actionable state
  • .click() will automatically retry until all chained assertions have passed

Timeouts

  • .click() can time out waiting for the element to reach an actionable state .
  • .click() can time out waiting for assertions you've added to pass.

Command Log

Click the button

cy.get('.action-btn').click()

The commands above will display in the Command Log as:

Command log for click

When clicking on click within the command log, the console outputs the following:

console.log for click

History

VersionChanges
6.1.0Added option scrollBehavior
3.5.0Added sending mouseover, mousemove, mouseout, pointerdown, pointerup, and pointermove during .click()

See also