The NVM (Node Version Manager) is a shell script that is used to install and manage Node.js on a Linux-based system. Homebrew is used to install NVM on macOS.

This guide will show you how to install NVM on your macOS machine and manage

Install Homebrew (You must have admin privileges)

If your system already has a node installed, uninstall it first. My system already has installed node via Homebrew. So uninstalling it first. Skip if not already installed.

Update the Homebrew package list and install NVM.

Next, create a directory for NVM at home.

Now, configure the required environment variables. Edit the following configuration file in your home directory

Next, load the variable to the current shell environment. From the next login, it will automatically loaded.

That's all. Your macOS system now has the NVM installed. Continue to the following step to install Node.js versions using nvm.

First, let's see what Node versions are available to install. By typing:

Now, you can install any version listed in the above output. You can also use aliases names like 

After installing you can verify what is installed with:

If you have installed multiple versions on your system, you can set any version as the default version at any time. To set node 14.X as the default version, simply use:

Similarly, you can install other versions like Node 12, 15, and 18 versions and switch between them.

We are going to go through NVM - Node Version Manager and how to setup via Homebrew

As there are many different IDE, I feel like Visual studio code is the right one for me for many reasons but the biggest one of all is the number of extensions available to make coding easy.

Below you can find my most helpful VS code extensions as an Automation engineer in no particular order.


The Better Comments extension will help you create more human-friendly comments in your code.
With this extension, you will be able to categorise your annotations into:

Commented out code can also be styled to make it clear the code shouldn't be there

Any other comment styles you'd like can be specified in the settings

Material Icons for all your file extensions. It really makes identifying the files at a quick glance easy and stand out.

Most of the time we create new files that will need to be imported into a parent file, this plugin helps import files much easier by autocompleting filenames.

Fancy screenshots of your code just by selecting it. The screenshot has rounded edges to make it look professional.

Cypress Helper provides shortcuts to navigate between cypress customs. It really comes in handy when debugging through complex code in less time.

If you love working with docker, This plugin is for you. It gives a visual sidebar with details like Containers, Images, Registries, Networks and Volumes. It really comes in handy when you want to know what is happening over your docker environments.

This plugin helps you tell who made the code changes without having to go anywhere. It would even provide you various contributors for a particular file. Simple hover over a line and it tells the code changes made. A lot of amazing git features are bought to your code editor.

This will only apply if you have integrated cucumber to your automation framework, it will simply:

Auto-parsing of feature steps from paths, provided in settings.json

Definitions support for all the steps parts

Document format support, including tables formatting

Multiple programming languages, JS, TS, Ruby, Kotlin etc.

As the name implies, this extension helps you share and collaborate your code among your team in real-time with real-time editing and chat. This helps and boosts teams’ productivity when working on a project.

Prettier is a code formatter compatible with many languages. It beautifies the code block with nice indentations, thus making the code more readable.

Top 10 Visual Studio Code extensions for Automation Engineers

Top Visual Studio Code extensions for Automation Engineers in 2022

Cucumber is a tool that supports behavior-driven development (BDD). It runs automated acceptance tests written in BDD format. Cucumber provides a way to write tests that anybody can understand, regardless of their technical knowledge. It explains test steps and application behavior in simple English using the Gherkin language. 

Cucumber is an important testing tool for the following reasons:

No longer need to write test scripts in multiple languages such as javascript, Python, Java, etc.

It can be integrated with many Automation tools such as Cypress, Selenium, Ruby on Rails, and other web-based testing tools.

Run the following command to install Cypress locally:

Run the following command to install the Cucumber for Cypress package:

 Add the configuration Cypress environment files

In the spec files extension parameter in the 

 file, make sure to point to the feature files:

Let’s first write this test by just using Cypress:

), enters the username and the password and clicks the “

In Cypress, users can group multiple commands into a single custom command by creating a file called 

Now, use the custom command in the tests:

The above code is written using Cypress. Now, on using Gherkin for Cucumber, the code goes as follows:

I login’, ‘the url is {word}’, and ‘I’m logged in

. So create 3 step definitions. Create a Javascript file inside a directory named as the feature file (

Once this code runs, Cucumber will convert it into Cypress commands. And, that’s how it works.

Till now, we have written all the Cypress test scripts directly in the JavaScript files, but with the integration of Cucumber, the test structure will change, and now the entry points will be the Cucumber feature files.

How To Install NVM on macOS with Homebrew

Prerequisites

Step 1 – Remove existing Node Versions

Step 2 – Install NVM on macOS

Step 3 – Install Node.js with NVM