Updated March 16, 2023
Introduction to Cucumber
There are many tools available today. Cucumber is one tool to test the code written by programmers. There many tools like cucumber as JBehave, RSpec, etc. These tools are helpful to communicate with the customer related to the product. These are the tools that test other software in simple language with the given scenario. These tools are very easy to learn. If you are from a testing background and wanted to know how this tool exactly works, then you are at the right place. Every company tries to maintain its relationship with the client. Tools like cucumber help them to maintain this trust.
Every company has to make the right decisions based on customer satisfaction. Every product has to be matched with customers’ plan. Implementing our work in cucumber is to make the way easier to explain our specifications more clearly with the help of different scenarios.
What is Cucumber?
Now, let’s jump to start with what exactly cucumber is?; Cucumber is the fruit in the salad which you eat. Obliviously not. Cucumber is an automation testing Framework. The cucumber tool is based on the BDD approach, i.e. behavioural driven approach. In short, it describes the overall behaviour of the system. This is mostly customer-centric.
How to use the Cucumber tool?
Gherkin is the language used by cucumber. It is very easy to learn. This process helps us to showcase our work to the customer in a well-formatted format. Gherkin is a non-technical language. Every language has its standards to be fit in. Gherkin is also having some set of rules. Gherkin is the language used for developing the test cases in cucumber. The language has some set of keywords to use while writing the code of cucumber.
Keywords for Writing the Code of Cucumber
Following are the keywords:
- Feature
- Rule (Gherkin version 6)
- Example (or Scenario)
- Given, When, Then, And, But (steps)
- Background
- Scenario Outline (or Scenario Template)
- Examples
1) Feature: This part of the code simply tells the high-level scenario like what is going to happen here. This keyword is used at the starting of the code, followed by a colon(:). You can make it more descriptive as you need. In general, data under keyword is getting ignored by the cucumber.
2) Rule: This is also one of the keywords. This keyword is optional. As the name suggests, it sets the rule for the implementation of different scenarios. We may say that this provides some additional ideas about the feature.
3) Example (or Scenario): Example is executable code. It explains the code with the example, which may give us a scenario-based specification. The example is also one test. This may have a list of all the executable processes or steps.
4) Given, When, Then, And, But (steps): The main steps in the test are Given, When, Then, And, or But. These steps are executed one by one cucumber and do not allow you to describe each step.
Examples :
Given there are mangoes in the basket
Then there are mangoes in the basket.
5) Background:
Suppose you have a set of scenarios that have to check again and again. This repetitive task can be grouped in the given keyword. You may say that this scenario has been handled before also; please follow the steps. It is good practice to have one background for one feature. It should be clear to understand
6) Scenario Outline (or Scenario Template):
Same like background. Suppose we have one scenario. That scenario comes again. We can use the outline of the existing scenario. Scenario outlines and scenario templates are the same.
7) Examples: This example keyword is explained above, but here it came again to know that scenario has to include the example in it.
What is the use of Cucumber?
Let me tell you this with some examples. Suppose you have a project and the customer wants to know what are all the features you have to hand over. When it comes to end-user or a customer at that time, you are not able to explain all the technical details of your test cases. Here cucumber comes into the picture. This tool helps to describe all the scenarios with different conditions. It is way better than giving technical details to the customer which they don’t understand.
How does Cucumber make working so easy?
It is an open-source tool. Lots of companies are using this tool for improving their productivity. This tool can be used on any stack available today. This tool is used to test the functionality of code in a human-readable format.
What can you do with Cucumber?
Suppose we have some code which is the possibility of john reaching home. If John takes a plane for a short distance, it will be costly; if he comes by train, it will be cheap and reliable for the shorter distance.
Examples :
# Comment
@tag
Feature: John will be coming home by train is good.
As per the distance, the train is good to come home.
Scenario coming back home by train is good.
Given John has to come home.
When he reaches to station on time
Then he will be reaching home today itself.
By the above example, we are stating the possibility of taking the train catching it on time results to reach home today only.
Why should we need Cucumber?
There is always the possibility to improve customer trust by involving them in the process of developing the product. Cucumber gives us the ability to explain critical technical code specifications with simply readable language to the end-user or a customer. It focuses on behavioral-driven development tests.
Advantages
- It supports all languages.
- It connects the client with the technical specification in easy language.
- We can reuse the code written in the cucumber tool.
- The plugins are very fast.
- We do not require any programming language to write scripts in cucumber.
Conclusion
Cucumber is a testing tool used to automate test cases. We can integrate it with a tool like selenium. To write the test code in cucumber, developers and testers come together and jointly create scenario-based specifications to deal with the customer.
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