Question

I have two scenarios in two different feature files but both scenarios tests search functions but on different parts of my page.
The scenarios I have looks something like this:

Scenario Outline: Search items from QuickSearch
Given that the following items
  | id | title       | 
  | 1  | Item1       | 
  | 2  | Item2       |
When I search for <criteria> in this search
Then I should get <result>
And I should not get <excluded>

Examples:
|criteria|result    | excluded  |
| 1      | 1        | 2         |
| 2      | 2        | 1         |

and:

Scenario Outline: Using a filter
Given that I have the following things:
 |id |name     |
 |1  | thing1  |
 |2  | thing2  |
When I use the <filter> filled with <criteria>
Then I should obtain these <results>
And I should not obtain these <exclusions>

Examples:
|filter     |criteria   |results    |exclusions |
|name       |thing      |1,2        |           |
|id         |1          |1          |2          |

As you can tell in the second scenario I have changed the word get to obtain in order to write separate steps for the two scenarios.
The only reason I need two different steps is because the id in the 2 different scenarios map to different names (no I cant use the same for both and don’t want to start on id 3 in the second)

So I’m thinking about common steps for both of the scenarios (at least when it comes to the then steps) and I want a hash mapping id and name together in order to do validation, but I want the hash to be different depending on which scenario called the step.

So, is there a way in cucumber + capybara that I can tell which scenario called a step?

Answer 1

I do not know of a way to directly access the scenario name from the Cucumber step. However, you can access the name in a before hook and store it in a variable so that it is available to your steps.

Add this before hook to your env.rb:

Before do |scenario|
    case scenario
        when Cucumber::Ast::OutlineTable::ExampleRow
            @scenario_name = scenario.scenario_outline.name
        when Cucumber::Ast::Scenario
            @scenario_name = scenario.name
        else
            raise('Unhandled scenario class')
    end
end

Edit: if you’re using a more recent version of Cucumber, try instead:

Before do |scenario|
  case scenario.source.last
  when Cucumber::Core::Ast::ExamplesTable::Row
    @scenario_name = scenario.scenario_outline.name
  when Cucumber::Core::Ast::Scenario
    @scenario_name = scenario.name
  else
    raise('Unhandled scenario class')
  end
end

Your steps can then check the scenario name using @scenario_name. Example:

Then /I should get (.*)/ do |result|
  if @scenario_name == 'Search items from QuickSearch'
    # Do scenario specific stuff
  elsif @scenario_name == 'Using a filter'
    # Do scenario specific stuff
  end

  # Do any scenario stuff
end