fixture with `.json` file extension ignores specified encoding and applies JSON.parse

Current behavior:

cy.fixture('upload.json', 'hex').then(s=>assert.typeOf(s, 'string')) // fails
cy.fixture('upload.foojson', 'hex').then(s=>assert.typeOf(s, 'string')) // passes

Desired behavior:

JSON.parse should not be applied when encoding is set.

Versions

Cypress 3.8.3, Windows 10, Electron 78

[jennifer-shehane]

I can recreate this.

it('not hex value', () => {
  // when file ext is .json this fails
  cy.fixture('movies.json', 'hex').then(s => assert.typeOf(s, 'string')) // fails
})

it('hex value', () => {
  // other extensions pass
  cy.fixture('movies.foojson', 'hex').then(s => assert.typeOf(s, 'string')) // passes
})

When the file has an extension of .json, we just do a JSON.parse and don’t consider the encoding at all as you can see in this line https://github.com/cypress-io/cypress/blob/develop/packages/server/lib/fixture.coffee#L106:L106

Somewhat related #5395

[jennifer-shehane]

Closing since there’s been no response. If someone can elaborate on the use case of encoding in hex format, we can consider reopening.