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children

Get the children of each DOM element within a set of DOM elements.

.children() travels a single level down the DOM tree, as opposed to .find(), which searches every descendant.

info

The querying behavior of this command matches exactly how .children() works in jQuery.

Syntax​

.children()
.children(selector)
.children(options)
.children(selector, options)

Usage​

Correct Usage

cy.get('nav').children() // Yield children of nav
cy.get('nav').children('.active') // Yield children of nav with class '.active'

Incorrect Usage

cy.children() // Errors, cannot be chained off 'cy'
cy.clock().children() // Errors, 'clock' does not yield DOM elements

Arguments​

selector (String selector)

A selector used to filter matching DOM elements.

options (Object)

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

OptionDefaultDescription
logtrueDisplays the command in the Command log
timeoutdefaultCommandTimeoutTime to wait for .children() to resolve before timing out

Yields ​

  • .children() yields the new DOM element(s) it found.
  • .children() is a query, and it is safe to chain further commands.

Examples​

No Args​

Get the children of the .secondary-nav​

<ul>
  <li>About</li>
  <li>
    Services
    <ul class="secondary-nav">
      <li class="services-1">Web Design</li>
      <li class="services-2">Logo Design</li>
      <li class="services-3">
        Print Design
        <ul class="tertiary-nav">
          <li>Signage</li>
          <li>T-Shirt</li>
          <li>Business Cards</li>
        </ul>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>Contact</li>
</ul>
// yields [
//  <li class="services-1">Web Design</li>,
//  <li class="services-2">Logo Design</li>,
//  <li class="services-3">Print Design<ul class="tertiary-nav">…</ul></li>
// ]
cy.get('ul.secondary-nav').children()

The three <li> elements inside ul.tertiary-nav are descendants of ul.secondary-nav, not children of it, so they are not part of the result. The <li class="services-3"> that contains them is yielded whole, nested list and all.

Selector​

Get the children with class active​

<div>
  <ul>
    <li class="active">Unit Testing</li>
    <li>Integration Testing</li>
  </ul>
</div>
// yields [
//  <li class="active">Unit Testing</li>
// ]
cy.get('ul').children('.active')

Notes​

Shadow DOM boundaries and .children()​

.children() stops at a shadow boundary. Called on a shadow host, it yields the children written inside that host in the page's markup, not the elements inside its shadow root. This holds whether or not includeShadowDom is enabled, since that option applies to cy.get(), .find(), and cy.contains(). To query inside a shadow root, traverse into it with .shadow() first.

Rules​

Requirements ​

  • .children() requires being chained off a command that yields DOM element(s) or a document.

Assertions ​

  • .children() will automatically retry until the element(s) exist in the DOM.
  • .children() will automatically retry until all chained assertions have passed.

Timeouts ​

  • .children() can time out waiting for the element(s) to exist in the DOM.
  • .children() can time out waiting for assertions you've added to pass.

Command Log​

Assert that there should be 8 children elements in a nav

cy.get('.left-nav>.nav').children().should('have.length', 8)

The commands above will display in the Command Log as:

Command Log where the children entry reports a count of 8 and the length assertion passes

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

Console output for children, listing the 8 li elements found under ul.nav

History​

VersionChanges
12.0.0.children() is now a query. Overwrite it with Cypress.Commands.overwriteQuery() rather than Cypress.Commands.overwrite().

See also​

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