How to write a .feature file that tests deletion by an ID that I can't control?

Question

There is an API call like:

public int deleteGroup(String groupIdentifier) throws Exception;

I wrote a .feature:

Scenario: Deleting an existing group (by its ID) successfully
    Given I am authorized
    And <groupid> is already stored in WAAD
    When I call the delete group method for group <groupid>
    Then group <groupid> should NOT be present in WAAD

Examples:
    |    groupid    |
    |  test.group1  |
    |  test.group2  |

How can I ensure that the given UID is in the database if I cannot create an entry by UID? I can create a group by name.

What is the goal of this test? What do we want to verify? That the group can be deleted? Or that it can be deleted specifically by group ID? — cdlf, Aug 29 '14 at 16:12
The goal is to verify that the any group can be deleted by its group ID. — csikos.balint, Sep 01 '14 at 06:20

Dave Schweisguth · Answer 1 · 2015-08-22T11:52:51.543

1

Write your scenario like this:

Scenario: Deleting an existing group (by its ID) successfully
    Given I am authorized
    And a group named "whatever" is already stored in WAAD
    When I call the delete group method for the group named "whatever"
    Then the group named "whatever" should NOT be present in WAAD

In step 2, create the group.
In step 3, look up the group by name, determine its ID, and delete it by that ID.
In step 4, look up the group by name and assert that it isn't there.

This is a normal pattern that I've used many times. It requires some extra queries, but it relieves you of having to know IDs.

edited Aug 22 '15 at 11:52

answered Aug 29 '14 at 16:12

Dave Schweisguth

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Sorry for not being concrete enough but the Scenario is given this way. `Deleting an existing group by its ID successfully` (I have modified my original question). – csikos.balint Sep 01 '14 at 06:18
I clarified that the deletion in my example is by ID. – Dave Schweisguth Aug 22 '15 at 11:53

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 03 '14 at 07:05

one of my colleague provided quite a good solution. He suggested to have a scenario like this:

Scenario: Deleting an existing group (by its Id) successfully
    Given I am authorized
    And <groupname> is already stored in WAAD
    When I call the delete group method for group with <groupname> by its ID
    Then group <groupname> should NOT be present in WAAD
Examples:
|   geroupname  |
|  test.group1  |
|  test.group2  |

With this approach I emphasize that test implementation should use delete by ID but the test method's parameter is the name. So I can create at WHEN and store its ID.

How to write a .feature file that tests deletion by an ID that I can't control?

2 Answers2