How to structure sequential test with cucumber tags and JUnit?

Question

I have a dream I would like to achive with Cucumber.

I would like to combine cucumber with selenium (<= so far so good) AND optimize the test execution with tags. In my dream I'm able to tag my szenarios with Strings which represent a database szenario. For example:

@noData
Scenario: bake a bread

@oneBread
Scenario: look at bread

@tenBreads
Scenario: give multiple breads to the poor

Some of my tests alter the data, some don't. So I thought, how about clustering all "non-altering" tests to access the given data in parallel

@viewOnly
Scenario: look at a bread

@viewOnly
Scenario: smell a bread

With this kind of clustering I aim to achive the slightest setup and working in parallel if possible.

@noData
@viewOnly
Scenario: bake a bread
          when i bake a bread
          then i see a bread

@oneBread
@viewOnly
Scenario: look at a bread
          then i see a bread

@oneBread
@viewOnly
Scenario: smell a bread
          then i see a bread

@oneBread
Scenario: slice a bread in half
          when i slice my bread
          then i got two parts of the bread

@oneBread
Scenario: butter a bread
          when i butter my bread
          then i got one bread covered in butter

With this Feature file, I'd expect that this solution would process the features in the following order:

Setup Szenario in database => @noData
@noData => Scenario: bake a bread
Setup Szenario in database => @oneBread
@oneBread => @viewOnly Scenario look at a bread
@oneBread => @viewOnly Scenario smell a bread
Setup Szenario in database => @oneBread
@oneBread => Scenario slice a bread in half
Setup Szenario in database => @oneBread
@oneBread => Scenario butter a bread

Once I played with JUnit runners and tried to process the created JUnit Tests on my own. Do I have to write my own JUnit runner again? Or is it possible to fullfil my requirements with Cucumber features ?

Can someone help me with that?

MarcelT · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-06 07:22:31Z

1

You could do that by running separate test for each database scenario. For that use the --tags parameter as explained here https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber/wiki/Tags#running-a-subset-of-scenarios

Another way, which I prefer, is to put similar database scenarios into feature files. For example a feature file for those how altering data. Use @Before to get the scenario's tags.

@Before
public void beforeTest(Scenario scenario){

}

hope that helps!

answered Sep 6, 2016 at 7:22

MarcelT

323 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

MarcelHodan Over a year ago

So when a new Scenario Tag is used, I would have to implement a new test to cover it via Cucumber?

Grasshopper · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-07 10:13:16Z

1

You have to setup Before hooks which only run if the tags match, and a static flag for the viewonly data. For the noData you can add a function similar to the one for onebread tag only, ie resetting the flag. I am not clear about the oneBread tag, does it mean setup one bread. Then what about multiple breads? Guess you will have to modify logic. Below should work for the feature file flow you mentioned.

private static boolean dbSetupReq = true;

//Only get called if both tags are present
@Before(value={"oneBread","viewOnly"})
public void oneBreadViewOnly() {

     if(dbSetupReq ) {
          addData();
          dbSetupReq = false;
     }
}

//Only get called if oneBread tag is present
@Before(value={"oneBread"})
public void oneBreadViewOnly() {

     dbSetupReq = true;
     addData();
}


public void addData() {
    // Add logic to add data to database
}

You could try something like this. Have an universal Before hook which runs all the time and takes in the Scenario object as parameter. You can access all the tags that are on the Scenario using getSourceTagNames() method which returns a String Collection of tagnames. Then you can apply logic based on tags present. Maybe you can put a tag on the Before hook to call it when a data setup is required.

@Before
public void dataSetup(Scenario sce) {

    List<String> tags = sce.getSourceTagNames();  
    //Do your thing with the tag names....   
}

edited Sep 7, 2016 at 10:13

answered Sep 6, 2016 at 12:30

Grasshopper

9,0782 gold badges19 silver badges34 bronze badges

1 Comment

MarcelHodan Over a year ago

A new tag would result in altering the logic, i guess. But wouldn't it be possible to extract the test, sort and manage them individually?

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to structure sequential test with cucumber tags and JUnit?

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related