How to load Spring application context with Cucumber runner

Question

My goal is running Cucumber scenarios while using Spring for objects creation and wiring. As far as I understood (from some Cucumber books), the Cucumber runner should be responsible for loading the application context as long as the path configured properly.

For example, if I have a runner Java class that looks like this:

@RunWith(Cucumber.class)
@CucumberOptions(features = {"classpath:xxx_features"}, 
                 glue = {"com.package.name"})

public class FunctionalDevIT {
}

then Cucumber runner will automatically scan and initialize all the beans that it will find so I won't have to load the application context manually as well as get beans one by one from the context.

Currently, just to get my head around the concept, I have a created the most basic configuration that consists of three Java classes:

1. Runner class (as described above)

2. Beans Class - the class that contains the beans

    @Component public class BeansClass { @Bean public void test1() { System.out.println("test1!"); } } 

3. Main class - the class that uses the beans defined in the Beans Class

    @ContextConfiguration("classpath:/cucumber.xml") public class MainClass { @Autowired private BeansClass testclass; @Before public void navigate() { testclass.test1(); } } 

At the moment that approach doesn't work for me and I get the NullPointerException when I try to call the testclass.test1() method in the Main Class which means that the context wasn't loaded after all.

Am I missing some configuration or perhaps my whole understanding of how that is supposed to be working is wrong?

PS All my files are currently in the same package.

Answer 1

I resolved this issue by adding and additional configuration class that has been annotated with @ComponentScan and @Configuration , so something like this:

@ComponentScan
@Configuration
public class ConfigurationClass {
    . . . 
}

Then I used this class in ConfigurationClass in the main class:

@ContextConfiguration(classes = WebDriverConfiguration.class)
public class MainClass {
    . . .
}