Implicit should 'exist' assertion is not being applied on cy.get() when other assertion.

[jennifer-shehane]

Using cy.get() on an element should implicitly assert existence of the element. But in my examples below, you can see that I have no element foobarbaz, the Command Log correctly logs 0 elements found, yet my explicitly written assertions (not.be.visible and not.have.class) chained off of the gotten element pass.

cy.get() should always implicitly assert existence unless there is an explicit assertion down the chain on that element asserting that it should not.exist.

Example Test Code

it("dom element doesn't have attributes", function() {
  cy.get("foobarbaz").should("not.be.visible");
  cy.get("foobarbaz").should("not.have.class", "foo");
});

Example Command Log

[brian-mann]

This is because internally Cypress applies a default assertion should("exist") only if there are no other assertions.

Since you added additional assertions the implicit should("exist") was not applied. You're using negated assertions and those pass because cypress did not find the element, and a non existent element is both not visible and does not have the class.

Cypress needs to be updated to always apply the default should("exist") assertion even if there are other assertions so long as there is not a should("not.exist"). If there is it should reverse its behavior and wait for the element not to exist before applying assertions.

[fvanwijk]

I like to have cy.get('@someAlias').should('not.exist') to have the same behavior, because according to the docs an alias requeries the element.

Currently for a non-existing selection my example returns Timed out retrying: Expected to find element: ’someAlias', but never found it., while a regular should('not.exist') passes.

[udisun]

I'm getting some weird behavior with this, when trying this assertion:

cy.visit('/')
  .get('#signup').should('not.exist')

the assertion fails and prints:
expected #signup to exist in the DOM

it look like a bug as the .get function still tries to assert exist
version: 0.19.2