Cucumber is a very good tool for achieving functional testing. However your cuke suite can become unwieldy very soon. Even a little bit of indiscipline can lead to huge build times, with random failures. Over time, maintaining and writing the cukes starts costing more than the benefit derived out of it. On the other hand, you can start ignoring your functional build only to discover some nasty bug later which your poor cuke suite was telling you. In this presentation we try and look at what can be done to avoid this and derive complete value from cukes. We share experiences and learnings about cuking the right way from real projects Learnings 1) best practices of writing and maintaining cukes 2) some new things that could be tried out with cukes to make them more reliable and valuable.

1. Ketan Soni
@ketan_soni
Atreyee Maiti
@AtreyeeMaiti

4. Cucumber is meant to provide stakeholders a way
to express specifications in plain english. All
team members can be on the same page about the
specifications. Also since this is automated, you
effectively have executable specifications.
Cucumber consists of feature files which has
scenarios in given, when then statements and
corresponding implementation of those in
step_definition files.

5. Scenario: Purchasing books online
Given I have selected following books in my
shopping cart:
|title | price|
|Sherlock Homes |12.35 |
|Little Women |5.00 |
When I proceed to checkout
And I fill out the billing and shipping details
And I give my credit card details
Then I should see the order confirmation message

11. We will look at a sample scenario and
try and analyse what’s wrong in the
way it is written

12. Scenario: User should be able to verify items in his shopping cart
and proceed to checkout by filling in billing and shipping details.
Given I have a user "john“ with last name “doe” and email
“jdoe@gmail.com”
And I have a product “Kindle” in products list
And product “ipad" exists with color “white”
And I have added 2 “Kindle” and 2 “ipad” with color “white” in my
shopping cart.
When I click on view shopping cart within “//div[@id=header]”
And I wait “10"
Then I should see "Kindle" and “ipad" in the view shopping cart
overlay
When I press "//span[@id='proceed_to_checkout']" button
Then I see the page title as "Billing Page“
When I fill in “First Name” with “John”
And I fill in “Last Name” with “Doe”
And I fill in “Email” with “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I select “US” from “Country”
Then the countries list should show all countries
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
And I press “Next”
Then I should see my shipping details on the order confirmation
page

13. Scenario: User should be able to verify items in his shopping cart and
proceed to checkout by filling in billing and shipping details.
Given I have a user "john“ with last name “doe” and email “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I have a product “Kindle” with price “50$” in
products list
And product “ipad" exists with color “white”
And I have added 2 “Kindle” and 2 “ipad” with color “white” in my shopping
cart.
When I click on view shopping cart within “//div[@id=header]”
And I wait “10"
Then I should see "Kindle" and “ipad" in the view shopping cart overlay
When I press "//span[@id='proceed_to_checkout']" button
Then I see the page title as "Billing Page"
When I fill in “First Name” with “John”
And I fill in “Last Name” with “Doe”
And I fill in “Email” with “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I select “US” from “Country”
Then the countries list should show all countries
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
And I press “Next”
Then I should see my shipping details on the order confirmation page

14. Step rewritten:
Given following products are available:
|product title| price |
|Kindle | 50.00 |
|ipad | 50.00 |
And product “ipad” is available with following
options:
|product option|product option value|
| colour | white |
And I wait “10"
Then I should see "Kindle" and “ipad" in the view shopping cart overlay
When I press "//span[@id='proceed_to_checkout']" button
Then I see the page title as "Billing Page"
When I fill in “First Name” with “John”
And I fill in “Last Name” with “Doe”
And I fill in “Email” with “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I select “US” from “Country”
Then the countries list should show all countries
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
And I press “Next”
Then I should see my shipping details on the order confirmation page

15. Scenario: User should be able to verify items in his shopping cart and
proceed to checkout by filling in billing and shipping details.
Given I have a user "john“ with last name “doe” and email “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I have a product “Kindle” with price “50$” in products list
And product “ipad" exists with color “white”
And I have added 2 “Kindle” and 2 “ipad” with color
“white” in my shopping cart.
When I click on view shopping cart within “//div[@id=header]”
And I wait “10"
Then I should see "Kindle" and “ipad" in the view shopping cart overlay
When I press "//span[@id='proceed_to_checkout']" button
Then I see the page title as "Billing Page"
When I fill in “First Name” with “John”
And I fill in “Last Name” with “Doe”
And I fill in “Email” with “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I select “US” from “Country”
Then the countries list should show all countries
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
And I press “Next”
Then I should see my shipping details on the order confirmation page

16. Scenario: User should be able to verify items in his shopping cart and proceed to checkout by
filling in billing and shipping details.
Step rewritten:
And I add the following to my shopping cart:
|product name|product option|option value|quantity|
| kindle | color | white | 2 |
| ipad | | | 2 |
And I have a product “Kindle” in products list
And product “ipad" exists with color “white”
And I have added 2 “Kindle” and 2 “ipad” with color “white” in my shopping cart.
When I click on view shopping cart within “//div[@id=header]”
And I wait “10"
Then I should see "Kindle" and “ipad" in the view shopping cart overlay
When I press "//span[@id='proceed_to_checkout']" button
Then I see the page title as "Billing Page"
When I fill in “First Name” with “John”
And I fill in “Last Name” with “Doe”
And I fill in “Email” with “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I select “US” from “Country”
Then the countries list should show all countries
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
And I press “Next”
Then I should see my shipping details on the order confirmation page

17. Scenario: User should be able to verify items in his shopping cart and
proceed to checkout by filling in billing and shipping details.
Given I have a user "john“ with last name “doe” and email “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I have a product “Kindle” with price “50$” in products list
And product “ipad" exists with color “white”
And I have added 2 “Kindle” and 2 “ipad” with color “white” in my shopping
cart.
When I click on view shopping cart within
“//div[@id=header]”
And I wait “10"
Then I should see "Kindle" and “ipad" in the view shopping cart overlay
When I press "//span[@id='proceed_to_checkout']" button
Then I see the page title as "Billing Page"
When I fill in “First Name” with “John”
And I fill in “Last Name” with “Doe”
And I fill in “Email” with “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I select “US” from “Country”
Then the countries list should show all countries
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
And I press “Next”
Then I should see my shipping details on the order confirmation page

18. filling in billing and shipping details.
Step rewritten:
When I view the shopping cart
When /^I view the shopping cart$/ do
with_scope(Sections::MAP[“header”]) do
click_link(“Shopping Cart”)
end
end
And I have a product “Kindle” in products list
And product “ipad" exists with color “white”
e.g. sections. rb
And I have added 2 “Kindle” and 2 “ipad” with color “white” in my shopping cart.
module Sections
When I click on view shopping cart within “//div[@id=header]”
And I wait “10"
MAP =
Then I should see "Kindle" and “ipad" in the view shopping cart overlay
When I press "//span[@id='proceed_to_checkout']" button
Then I see the page title as "Billing Page"
{
When I fill in “First Name” with “John” „header' =>
And I fill in “Last Name” with “Doe”
And I fill in “Email” with “jdoe@gmail.com” '//div[@id=„header‟]„
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I select “US” from “Country”
Then the countries list should show all countries
}
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
end
And I press “Next”
Then I should see my shipping details on the order confirmation page

19. Scenario: User should be able to verify items in his shopping cart and
proceed to checkout by filling in billing and shipping details.
Given I have a user "john“ with last name “doe” and email “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I have a product “Kindle” with price “50$” in products list
And product “ipad" exists with color “white”
And I have added 2 “Kindle” and 2 “ipad” with color “white” in my shopping
cart.
When I click on view shopping cart within “//div[@id=header]”
And I wait “10"
Then I should see "Kindle" and “ipad" in the view shopping cart overlay
When I press "//span[@id='proceed_to_checkout']" button
Then I see the page title as "Billing Page"
When I fill in “First Name” with “John”
And I fill in “Last Name” with “Doe”
And I fill in “Email” with “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I select “US” from “Country”
Then the countries list should show all countries
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
And I press “Next”
Then I should see my shipping details on the order confirmation page

20. Scenario: User should be able to verify items in his shopping cart and proceed to checkout by
When I view the shopping cart
When /^I view the shopping cart$/ do
with_scope(sections[“header”]) do
click_link(“Shopping Cart”)
end
And %{wait for element to appear
sections[„cart‟]”}
End
When /^wait for element to appear "([^"]*)"$/ do
|selector|
loop_until { find(:xpath, selector).visible? }
end
And I fill in “Email” with “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I select “US” from “Country”
Then the countries list should show all countries
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
And I press “Next”
Then I should see my shipping details on the order confirmation page

21. Scenario: User should be able to verify items in his shopping cart and
proceed to checkout by filling in billing and shipping details.
And product “ipad" exists with color “white”
And I have added 2 “Kindle” and 2 “ipad” with color “white” in my shopping
cart.
When I click on view shopping cart within “//div[@id=header]”
And I wait “10"
Then I should see "Kindle" and “ipad" in the view shopping cart overlay
When I press "//span[@id='proceed_to_checkout']" button
Then I see the page title as "Billing Page"
When I fill in “First Name” with “John”
And I fill in “Last Name” with “Doe”
And I fill in “Email” with “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I select “US” from “Country”
Then the countries list should show all
countries
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
And I press “Next”
Then I should see my shipping details on the order confirmation page

22. Scenario: User should be able to verify items in his shopping cart and
proceed to checkout by filling in billing and shipping details.
And product “ipad" exists with color “white”
And I have added 2 “Kindle” and 2 “ipad” with color “white” in my shopping
cart.
When I click on view shopping cart within “//div[@id=header]”
And I wait “10"
Then I should see "Kindle" and “ipad" in the view shopping cart overlay
When I press "//span[@id='proceed_to_checkout']" button
Then I see the page title as "Billing Page"
When I fill in “First Name” with “John”
And I fill in “Last Name” with “Doe”
And I fill in “Email” with “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I select “US” from “Country”
Then the countries list should show all
countries
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
And I press “Next”
Then I should see my shipping details on the order confirmation page

23. Step rewritten:
When I fill in my billing details
And I choose to keep shipping address same as
billing
When /^I fill in my billing details$/ do
fill_in(“first_name”, :with => “John”)
fill_in(“last_name”, :with => “Doe”)
fill_in(“email”, :with => “jdoe@gmail.com”)
fill_in(“address”, :with => “Chicago, IL”)
fill_in(“zipcode”, :with => “John”)
select(“US”, :from => “Country”)
End
When /^I choose to keep shipping address same as
billing$/ do
check(“shipping_same_as_billing”)
End
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I press “Next”

24. Step rewritten:
When I fill in my billing details
And I choose to keep shipping address same as
billing
When /^I fill in my billing details$/ do
fill_in(“first_name”, :with => “John”)
fill_in(“last_name”, :with => “Doe”)
fill_in(“email”, :with => “jdoe@gmail.com”)
fill_in(“address”, :with => “Chicago, IL”)
fill_in(“zipcode”, :with => “John”)
select(“US”, :from => “Country”)
End
When /^I choose to keep shipping address same as
billing$/ do
check(“shipping_same_as_billing”)
End
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I press “Next”

25. Scenario: User should be able to verify items in his shopping cart and
proceed to checkout by filling in billing and shipping details.
Given I have a user "john“ with last name “doe” and email “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I have a product “Kindle” with price “50$” in products list
And product “ipad" exists with color “white”
And I have added 2 “Kindle” and 2 “ipad” with color “white” in my shopping
cart.
When I press "//span[@id='proceed_to_checkout']" button
Then I see the page title as "Billing Page"
When I fill in “First Name” with “John”
And I fill in “Last Name” with “Doe”
And I fill in “Email” with “jdoe@gmail.com”
And I fill in “Address” with “Chicago, IL”
And I select “US” from “Country”
Then the countries list should show all
countries
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
And I press “Next”
Then I should see my shipping details on the order confirmation page

26. Then I should see my shipping details on the order
confirmation page
When I press "//span[@id='proceed_to_checkout']" button
Then /^I should see my shipping details on the
order confirmation page$/ do
shipping_details = @user.shipping_address
[:fist_name, :email, :zipcode].each do |field|
Then %{I should see “#{shipping_details[field]}”}
end
om “Country”
Then the countries list should show all countries
This step depends on
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
an instance variable
And I press “Next”
being populated from
some previous step

27. Scenario: User should be able to verify items in his shopping cart and proceed to checkout by filling in billing
and shipping details.
Given I have a user "john“ with last name “doe” and email jdoe@gmail.com
When I click on view shopping cart within “//div[@id=header]”
And I wait “10"
Then I should see "Kindle" and “ipad" in the view shopping cart overlay
Then I should see my shipping details on the order
confirmation page
When I press "//span[@id='proceed_to_checkout']" button
Then I see the page title as "Billing Page"
When I fill in “First Name” with “John”
And I fill in “Last Name” with “Doe”
And I fill in “Email” with “jdoe@gmail.com
Then /^I should see my shipping details on the
order confirmation page$/ do
shipping_details = @user.shipping_address
[:fist_name, :email, :zipcode].each do |field|
Then %{I should see “#{shipping_details[field]}”}
end
om “Country”
Then the countries list should show all countries
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
And I press “Next”

28. Scenario: User should be able to verify items in his shopping cart and proceed to checkout by
filling in billing and shipping details.
Then I should see shipping details for user “john”
on the order confirmation page
Then /^I should see shipping details for user
“(.*)” on the order confirmation page$/ do
|identifier|
user = User.find_by_identifier(identifier)
shipping_details = user.shipping_address
[:fist_name, :email, :zipcode].each do |field|
Then %{I should see “#{shipping_details[field]}”}
end
Send in unique
Then the countries list should show socountries the
identifiers all that
And I select “US” from “Country”
And I fill in “Zipcode” with “60601”
specific record can be
When I check “shipping_same_as_billing”
And I press “Next”
retrieved and testing can
Then I should see my shipping details on the order confirmation page
be done

29. Given I have a user with details as:
|first name| John |
|last name | Doe |
|email | jdoe@gmail.com|
Given following products are available:
|product title| price |
|Kindle | 50.00 |
|ipad | 50.00 |
And product “ipad” is available with following options:
|product option|product option value|
| colour | white |
And I add the following to my shopping cart:
|product title|product option|option value| quantity |
| kindle | color | white | 2 |
| ipad | | | 2 |
When I view the shopping cart
Then I should see the following items in “Cart” section:
| product |quantity|
|kindle |2 |
| ipad |1 |
When I proceed to checkout
When I fill in my billing details
And I choose to keep shipping address same as billing
And I submit the billing form
Then I should see shipping details for user “john” on the order
confirmation page

31. Use the rerun profile feature (with caution!)
rerun = File.file?('rerun.txt') ?
IO.read('rerun.txt') : ""
rerun_opts = rerun.to_s.strip.empty? ? "--format
#{ENV['CUCUMBER_FORMAT'] || 'progress'} features" :
"--format #{ENV['CUCUMBER_FORMAT'] || 'pretty'}
#{rerun}"
%>
rerun: <%= rerun_opts %> --format rerun --out
rerun.txt --strict --tags ~@wip

33. Backdoor entry for login:
Quite often end to end scenarios consist of a user
getting logged in and then doing things on the
app. You need not repeat the complicated login
process (via the ui). Simply get the user logged in
the fastest way via a backdoor entry. Saves a lot of
time !! Cut down 5 mins in a feature file.

34. Backdoor entry for login:
Without backdoor With backdoor
When /^I log in as "([^"]*)" Given /^I am logged in as
with password "([^"]*)" without "(.*)"$/ do |screen_name|
overlay$/ do |email, password| url =
When %{I go to the login page} "/backdoor/#{screen_name}“
When %{authenticate user call to visit url
cis is stubbed to return end
"<user><id>1</id></user>"}
When %{search user call to cis is
stubbed to return
"<user><id>1</id></user>"}
When %{I fill in "email" with
"#{email}"}
When %{I fill in "password" with
"#{password}"}
When %{I press "login"}
And %{I wait "1"}
@logged_in_user =
User.find_by_email(email)
end

35. if Rails.env.test?
get "/backdoor/:screen_name", :to =>
"sessions#backdoor", :as => "backdoor“
end
def backdoor
user =
User.find_by_screen_name(params[:screen_na
me])
set_current_user(user)
head :ok
end

36.  Do not use page.has_xpath? should be false. Go for
page.should_not have_xpath.
Has_xpath? would try repeatedly (till capybara timeout)
to find the element. When it doesn’t find it, the value
returned would be false which would match with the
assert. Rather than that use has_no_xpath? So then
capybara exits the first time itself when it does not find
the element. Will save a lot of time!!! Cut down build
time by 7 mins for us!

37.  Use scenario outlines with caution
Scenario outlines should be used only if
you actually need the whole scenario to be
repeated for your examples not otherwise.

40. When /^I fill in my billing details$/ do
And %{I fill in “first_name” with “John”}
And %{I fill in “zipcode” with “John”}
And %{I select “US” from “Country”}
End
When /^I fill in my billing details$/ do
fill_in(“first_name”, :with => “John”)
fill_in(“zipcode”, :with => “John”)
select(“US”, :from => “Country”)
End
Rather than dealing with regex matches deal with
capybara methods which are equally readable.
Introduce methods, modules, and keep your code dry
and clean.

41. Stop doing Start doing

42. Happy cuking…

43.  http://benmabey.com/2008/05/19/imperative-vs-declarative-
scenarios-in-user-stories.html
 http://elabs.se/blog/15-you-re-cuking-it-wrong
 mislav.uniqpath.com/2010/09/cuking-it-right/
 http://aslakhellesoy.com/post/11055981222/the-training-wheels-
came-off
 http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/home/refuctoring-your-cukes