在多个代码功能测试中使用相同的小黄瓜步骤

Question

Say I've got a functional test scenario in example1.feature that has a step like

"I have something in the database"

In my steps folder I've got the implementation of that step in the file example1.php .

Now say I want to use that same step in example2.feature . I know that if I don't implement that step in example2.php , it'll automatically use the implementation from example1.php.

But is that recommended? implementing steps from for one test in the class of another test? It seems like that'd break test group isolation...

Or should I copy/paste the code into example2.php so that each test has its own implementation of the steps? Seems very un-dry and a maintenance nightmare...

Or is there another recommended way to handle this kind of situation, maybe having all the step classes extend a common class that defines steps to be used in multiple tests?

Answer 1

Is it possible to have two implementations for the same step? In other flavors of Cucumber you will bet an ambiguous step error. The tool doesn't know which implementation to use.

If it is possible with two implementations, then I would not worry about which file a step is implemented is. I would worry more about having the same implementation in two places.

The reason I would be more worried about two implementations is that there is no good way to know that they don't deviate during maintenance. If they deviate then you end up in a situation where the same step in Gherkin means two different things. That would be bad.