Cypress root command fetches the root DOM element. Which means this command is used to fetch the root element of a webpage from where the origin tag was created.
- Simply put, it gets the root of a grown tree buried within the ground.
- It can also be coupled mainly with the within command to yield its root.
- By default, the root DOM element yielded by this command is <html>.
- When calling .root() from a .within() command, the root element will point to the element you are "within".
Syntax
cy.root()
cy.root(options)Some of the options we can include in the command can be a timeout, log, etc.
- Log: To display the command in the command log.
- Timeout: Wait for some particular thing to get finished before timing out.
Correct Use
cy.root() --> Yield root element <html>
cy.get('li').within(($li) => {
cy.root() // Yield root element <li>
})When inside within the root element will point out to the element we are "within."
Let us check out various root command examples.
Example 1: Using Plain cy.root()
Let us check out what cy.root() does when executing it plainly without using it within command.
In this article, we will be using the https://www.programsbuzz.com/user/login login page for the root command.
it('Visit Page',() => {
cy.visit("https://www.programsbuzz.com/user/login")
cy.root()
}) 
As we can see, it has yielded <html> element.
Example 2: Using Assertion
it('Visit Page',() => {
cy.visit("https://www.programsbuzz.com/user/login")
cy.root().should('match', 'html')
}) 
As we can see, it has been asserted that the yielded element is HTML.
Example 3: Form Interaction With Root
it('Visit Page',() => {
cy.visit("https://www.programsbuzz.com/user/login")
cy.get('form#user-login-form').within(($form)=>{
cy.get("input#edit-name").type('naruto')
cy.get("input#edit-pass").type('shadowclone')
cy.root().submit()
})
}) - We are first visiting the respective page.
- Then we isolate a part of the form with the within command and create a parameter $form.
- Now we are fetching the CSS selectors of the username and password field.
- Using root now as it submits the form yielded from within.
- Submit command is used in forms to submit within that form scope automatically.
We can see that root yields here from within command.