NullPointerException when using multiple stepdefinitions in Cucumber-jvm

Question

I am currently building a framework to test a Rest-API endpoint. As I am planning to write a lot of test cases, I decided to organize the project to allow me to reuse common Step Definition methods.

The structure is as follows;

FunctionalTest
    com.example.steps
        -- AbstractEndpointSteps.java
        -- SimpleSearchSteps.java
    com.example.stepdefinitions
        -- CommonStepDefinition.java
        -- SimpleSearchStepDefinition.java`

However when I try to call SimpleSearchSteps.java methods I get a NullPointerException

CommonStepDefinition Code

package com.example.functionaltest.features.stepdefinitions;

import net.thucydides.core.annotations.Steps;

import com.example.functionaltest.steps.AbstractEndpointSteps;
import cucumber.api.java.en.Given;
import cucumber.api.java.en.Then;
import cucumber.api.java.en.When;


public class CommonStepDefinition {

    @Steps
    private AbstractEndpointSteps endpointSteps;

    @Given("^a base uri \"([^\"]*)\" and base path \"([^\"]*)\"$")
    public void aBaseUriAndBasePath(String baseURI, String basePath) {
        endpointSteps.givenBasepath(baseURI, basePath);
    }

    @When("^country is \"([^\"]*)\"$")
    public void countryIs(String country) 
    {
        endpointSteps.whenCountry(country);
    }

    @Then("^the status code is (\\d+)$")
    public void theStatusCodeIs(int statusCode) {
        endpointSteps.executeRequest();
        endpointSteps.thenTheStatusCodeIs200(statusCode);
    }

}

SimpleSearchStepDefinition.java

package com.example.functionaltest.features.stepdefinitions;

import net.thucydides.core.annotations.Steps;
import com.example.functionaltest.steps.EndpointSteps;
import cucumber.api.java.en.When;


public class SimpleSearchStepDefinition {

    @Steps
    private SimpleSearchSteps searchSteps;



    @When("^what is \"([^\"]*)\"$")
    public void whatIs(String what) {
        searchSteps.whenWhatIsGiven(what);
    }

}

The tutorial https://github.com/thucydides-webtests/thucydides/wiki/Getting-Started states that an `@Steps` annotated field should be `public`. — Luciano van der Veekens, Jul 04 '17 at 14:59
Thanks @LucianovanderVeekens set to `public`, but still same issue — philip, Jul 04 '17 at 15:08

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 05 '17 at 14:21

Looks like you are missing holder class for Cucumber annotation, something like this you should have so that cucumber knows and identified that steps and features of yours:

@RunWith(Cucumber.class)
@CucumberOptions(
    glue = {"com.example.functionaltest.features.steps"},
    features = {"classpath:functionaltest/features"}
)
public class FunctionalTest {
}

Note that, in your src/test/resources you should have functionaltest/features folder with your .feature files according to this sample, you can ofc, change it by your design

Thanks for your answer, but adding the did not solve the NPE issue — philip, Jul 13 '17 at 10:35

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 05 '17 at 02:51

Can you take a look at Karate it is exactly what you are trying to build ! Since you are used to Cucumber, here are a few things that Karate provides as enhancements (being based on Cucumber-JVM)

built-in step-definitions, no need to write Java code
re-use *.feature files and call them from other scripts
dynamic data-driven testing
parallel-execution of tests
ability to run some routines only once per feature

Disclaimer: I am the dev.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 13 '17 at 10:46

0

I solved this issue by using a static instance of RequestSpecBuilder in the AbstractEndpointSteps instead of RequestSpecification.

Therefore, I was able to avoid duplication of StepDefinitions and NPE issues altogether

answered Jul 13 '17 at 10:46

philip

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NullPointerException when using multiple stepdefinitions in Cucumber-jvm

3 Answers3