Question

I have the following step:

Then I should see an error message

with identical definition:

Then /^I should see an error message$/ do
    page.should have_selector('#flash_alert', text: 'Invalid')
end

in two different features: admin_sign_in.feature and user_login.feature.

Where should I place the definition properly?

Answer 1

Make a new file.

Call it something like flash_message_steps.rb or error_steps.rb or anything else you like. I would suggest something generic though, calling it admin_steps.rb or user_steps.rb doesn’t really make sense. All the files in the step_definitions folder are auto-loaded. Just be sure to define it once only as duplicate definitions for the same step will raise an ambiguity error.

I would also recommend making your step more generic, something like:

Then /^I should see an error message containing "([^\"]*)"$/ do |message|
    page.should have_selector('#flash_alert', text: message)
end

You can then use the same definition to test multiple errors:

Then I should see an error message containing "Invalid"

Then I should see an error message containing "You must sign in first"