diff --git a/cypress/support/commands.js b/cypress/support/commands.js
index b13b2e06b..dedce79e8 100644
--- a/cypress/support/commands.js
+++ b/cypress/support/commands.js
@@ -32,13 +32,14 @@ Cypress.Commands.overwrite("visit", (originalVisit, url, options) => {
 Cypress.Commands.add(
   "visitSearch",
   { prevSubject: false },
-  (searchQuery, baseUrl = urls.crkeng) => {
+  (searchQuery, baseUrl = urls.crkeng, headers = {}) => {
     Cypress.log({
       name: "visitSearch",
       message: `visiting search page for: ${searchQuery}`,
     });
     return cy.visit(`${baseUrl}/search?q=${encodeURIComponent(searchQuery)}`, {
       escapeComponents: false,
+      headers
     });
   }
 );
@@ -134,6 +135,36 @@ Cypress.Commands.add("login", () => {
   });
 });
 
+Cypress.Commands.add("user_login", (url) => {
+  cy.visit(url);
+  cy.get("[name=csrfmiddlewaretoken]")
+    .should("exist")
+    .should("have.attr", "value")
+    .as("csrfToken");
+  cy.get("@csrfToken").then(function (token) {
+    cy.request({
+      method: "POST",
+        url: url,
+        form: true,
+        body: {
+          username : "test_user",
+          password : "test",
+          next: "/",
+          csrfmiddlewaretoken: token,
+        },
+        headers: {
+          "X-CSRFTOKEN": token,
+        },
+        followRedirect: true,
+      }).then((response) => {
+        expect(response.status).to.eql(200);
+        cy.getCookies().then(cookies => {
+          Cypress.env('cookies', cookies)
+      })
+      });
+    });
+});
+
 /**
  * This function returns the column header visually to the top of a td element
  * (a column header is a th element with scope=col)
diff --git a/scripts/run-cypress b/scripts/run-cypress
index baa1f1dc2..6e29411c3 100755
--- a/scripts/run-cypress
+++ b/scripts/run-cypress
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ def main():
 
     # Create the gunaha user!
     for script in manage_scripts:
-        with open('./create_gunaha_user') as stdin:
+        with open( script_dir / 'create_gunaha_user') as stdin:
             check_call([script, "shell"], env=m_env, stdin=stdin)
 
     servers = []