Java Cucumber: How to get string parameter values from all the steps in a single scenario

Question

I'm looking for a way to get all the parameters that are being passed in each step before entering the actual scenario for each scenario in my feature file.

Sample feature file:

Feature: Login action
  Background:
    When "{login url}" is open

  Scenario: Registered user provides valid username and password
    Given user enters username "{username}" and password "test password"
    And user clicks on "btnLogin"
    Then user is logged in

Parameters I want to get:

{login url}

{username}

password

btnLogin

What I tried so far:

I have tried using a common hook that will be automatically used by all of my scenarios:

public class ScenarioHook {

    public ScenarioHook() {
    }

    @Before
    public void setupScenario(Scenario scenario) throws InterruptedException {
    //Here I am currently watching the {scenario} object and I can see all the steps
    //but I still dont know where to get the passed parameter values.
    }

    @After
    public void teardownScenario() throws InterruptedException {
    }
}

UPDATE 1: The reason why I want to do this is I want to manipulate the strings (if possible). e.g. all data enclosed in "{}" will be transformed to something else before entering the actual scenario.

Can you please provide some information as to why you want to do so? — Eugene S, Jul 10 '17 at 03:39
@EugeneS Have updated my question with the basic details of why I want it. Thanks! — iamkenos, Jul 10 '17 at 04:51

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 10 '17 at 13:44

5

You can use the @Transform annotation to change the value of the parameter to the step definition.

For this you will need to create a class which contains the logic of the string modification and will return the modified value.

public class StringTransformer extends Transformer<String>{

    public String transform(String value) {     
        return "transformed "+value;
    }    
}

Next you need to include this class in your stepdefinition using the @Transform annotation in front of the method argument.

   @When("^Login with (.*?)$")
        public void helloHere(@Transform(StringTransformer.class) String userName)
    {
            System.out.println("TEXT --- " + userName);
    }

This should give you the new transformed string. You can use this to create objects from your initial string. (Actually that is what it is used for)

answered Jul 10 '17 at 13:44

Grasshopper

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Thanks! I'll try this immediately. I'll accept your answer if I find it working but would really appreciate if you can tell whether there's a way to do it without having to prefix each parameter with the @Transform annotation. Thanks again! – iamkenos Jul 10 '17 at 14:58
You can try by using the concept of xstreams using the XStreamConverter annotation - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/cukes/goJdfuv8VHY. Use this link to check out how to create xstream converters - http://x-stream.github.io/converter-tutorial.html. – Grasshopper Jul 10 '17 at 15:13
Your solution worked. I'll check XStreamConverter out. Huge help! Thanks mate! – iamkenos Jul 10 '17 at 15:22

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 10 '17 at 04:31

Cucumber Sceanario class will not provide you this information as I don't think all steps are actually being loaded and parsed before starting executing the scenario but parsed one by one during the scenario execution. One option I can think of is to create a background step where you will manually include all parameters involved in the scenario. For example:

Feature: Login action

  Background:
    Given these parameters are using within this scenario: "{login url}", "{username}", "password", "btnLogin"

    When "{login url}" is open

Java Cucumber: How to get string parameter values from all the steps in a single scenario

2 Answers2