Filed under: Cucumber, Guice, — Tags: Behaviour-Driven Development, Gherkin, Share state between steps, cucumber-guice — Thomas Sundberg — 2017-08-16
A scenario in Gherkin is created by steps. Each step depends on previous steps. This means that we must be able to share state between steps.
The glue between Gherkin and the system under test is implemented as regular Java methods and implemented in regular Java classes. The steps are global in the sense that every step in the same package or subpackage relative to the runner will be found and executed. This allows us to define one step in one class and another step in another class.
Dividing steps between many classes may be a good idea. It is, however, probably not needed early in a project. The first reasonable division should therefore probably be no division. When you write your first scenario, you will most likely only have a few steps. Not more than that they can fit into one class without too much hassle. The first class with steps is probably small and you can easily find your way around in it.
The problem with too large step classes doesn't occur until after a while. You have added a bunch of scenarios to your project and finding your way around in the step definition class is getting harder and harder. The problem with large classes are that they
You would like to split the steps into multiple classes. The question is how.
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