CukeModeler

There comes a time in every programmer's adventures with Cucumber when they want to do Really Cool Stuff with their tests. This usually necessitates scanning all of their feature files and playing with the output. While the cucumber-gherkin gem (previously just the gherkin gem) does a fine job of parsing feature files, reading or even manipulating the resulting Abstract Syntax Tree is not always fun. cuke_modeler comes to the rescue by providing a modeling layer that is easier to work with.

Whether you just want something that will let you easily inspect your test suite or you are looking for a foundation tool upon which to build something Really Neat, this gem has you covered.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'cuke_modeler'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install cuke_modeler

Usage

First, load up the gem code.

require 'cuke_modeler'

Next, choose what you want to model. Directories and feature files are the most common thing to model but smaller portions of a test suite can be modeled as well.

directory = CukeModeler::Directory.new('path/to/the/code_directory')
file = CukeModeler::FeatureFile.new('path/to/the/feature_file')

gherkin = "Scenario: some test\n* a step"
test = CukeModeler::Scenario.new(gherkin)

The models can then be inspected for information.

directory.path #=> 'path/to/the/code_directory'
file.feature.name #=> 'the name of the feature'
test.steps.count #=> 1

Things can be done in the other direction as well by starting with empty models and setting their attributes afterward.

step = CukeModeler::Step.new
step.keyword = 'Given'
step.text = 'some step'

test = CukeModeler::Scenario.new
test.steps = [step]

test.to_s #=> "Scenario:\n  Given some step"

One could, if so inclined, use this method to dynamically edit or even create an entire test suite!

For more information on the different models (which more or less have the same relation to each other as described in the AST here) and how to use them, see the documentation.

Modeling dialects other than English

The modeling functionality provided by this gem will work with any dialect that is supported by the cucumber-gherkin gem. For modeling at the feature level or higher, no additional effort is needed because the # language header at the top of a feature already indicates that a non-default dialect is being used.

# language: en-au
Pretty much: An 'Australian' feature

  Aww, look mate: An 'Australian' scenario
    * a step

In order to model smaller portions of Gherkin, however, the parser will need to be told what dialect is being used.

# Setting the dialect to 'Australian'
CukeModeler::Parsing.dialect = 'en-au'

gherkin = "Awww, look mate: some test\n* a step"
test = CukeModeler::Scenario.new(gherkin)

Modeling other versions of Cucumber

Although this gem is written in Ruby and requires it to run, the modeling capabilities provided are for the feature file layer of a Cucumber test suite. As such, any feature file that is written in Gherkin can be modeled, even if that feature is ultimately run with SpecFlow (Cucumber for C#), Lettuce (Cucumber for Python), or some other flavor of Cucumber.

Other gems that are powered by cuke_modeler

cql - A convenient DSL for querying modeled Gherkin documents
cuketagger - A tool for adding tags to feature files
cuke_cataloger - Easily add uniques IDs to every test case in a suite
cuke_slicer - Break a test suite down into discrete test cases for easy parallel distribution
cuke_linter - Identify common code smells in your Gherkin

Development and Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.