Introduction to
Cucumber Testing Tool

Every tech company, regardless of its size, must have a testing team to make sure that its product is stable, reliable, and user-friendly. With advancements in technologies and development tools, applications have become more complex, with thousands of individual components and millions of possible scenarios. This translates to a complicated and time-consuming testing process for the testing team. Thankfully, a plethora of automation testing tools have surfaced in recent years that have made the lives of these teams much better. One such popular testing tool is Cucumber.

Development
November 11, 2022
Martijn van der Put

Introduction to Cucumber Testing Tool 

Cucumber is an open-source software testing tool that enables you to write test cases in an easy-to-read format. This ensures that anyone, irrespective of their technical capabilities, can understand the test cases.

The Cucumber framework was originally written using the Ruby programming language. Back then, it was used solely for testing in Ruby. Later, Cucumber started supporting a variety of programming languages like Javascript, .NET, Pearl, Java, PHP, Python, etc.,

Cucumber is widely used by testers for testing the behavior of the software. In other words, this tool is primarily used to write the acceptance test for a website application as per the behavior of the application's functionalities. It offers an easy-to-understand testing script for system acceptance and automation testing.

Now to comprehend the working of Cucumber better, we need to understand more about a concept called Behavior Driven Development testing framework.

What is Behavior Driven Development (BDD)? 

In this software development technique, which evolved from Test-Driven Development (TDD), the developers write new code only when the test cases fail. In the BDD approach, one can create scripts from the perspectives of both the developer and the customer.

Initially, there will be a brainstorming session where the developers, QA testers, project managers, product stakeholders, and user acceptance testers come together and finalize the test cases that should be passed so that the application can be called successful.

Here is an example test case for a user authentication feature. These are the key test cases that should be passed to call it a successful feature:

  • When the correct username and password are given, the user should be able to log in.
  • If there is an incorrect username and correct password input, then the user should not be able to log in.
  • If there is a correct username and incorrect password input, then the user should not be able to log in.

BDD follows the “Given-When-Then” approach for writing test cases.

  • Given the entered credential are correct
  • When the login button is clicked
  • Then display a proper validation message.

The test case scenarios can become complex and elaborate when additional features are added, such as:

  • User logging in without signup
  • User forgetting the password
  • User forgetting the username
  • User logging in using the wrong social login method, and so on.

In such situations, the developers usually complete the coding and then pass the code to the testing team. This would lengthen the process unnecessarily and push the testing process almost close to the release date, resulting in rapid and ineffective testing. Cucumber BDD was designed to overcome these situations and make the entire testing process seamless for the tester through a given-when-then approach.

Key terms used in Cucumber 

There are a few common terms used by a tester while using Cucumber. Here are the common ones you must know -

  • Feature File: This contains the code that is written in English (Gherkin Language)
  • Features: These are the list of features or functions that are to be tested. (Ex. User login, Create Account, Forgot Password)
  • Tags: They are used to segregate the test cases
  • Scenarios: They depict what happens after a specific click or wrong input. (Ex. Error message if the password is wrong)
  • Step Definition: This file contains the actual code written by the developer.

How does it work?

  • The test cases are created by the testers as the developers develop the code, both happening in parallel. So when the code comes to the testing phase, the test cases will be ready.
  • The Cucumber tool will first read the English language text in the feature file.
  • Then it would search for the exact match of the step in the definition file. As soon as it finds the match, it will execute the test cases and showcase the result as pass or fail.
  • The code developed by the developer should be in accordance with the defined test scripts. If not, code refractories will be required. The code freezes only after all the test Scripts are successfully executed.

Benefits of Cucumber Testing Tool

  • It focuses on end-user experience, making the lives of all stakeholders simpler.
  • Unlike other testing tools, Cucumber provides an end-to-end testing framework.
  • It acts as a bridge between various teams like business analysts, manual testers, developers, and automation testers.
  • It is very reliable and has proven to be quite effective for all types of organizations.
  • Writing the test cases in Cucumber is very easy.
  • It supports most programming languages.
  • The setup and execution of the testing environment are also easy and quick.

Conclusion

Testing tools like Cucumber have become critical assets for testers across the globe as it enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of the testing process. It also aids the business and the developers in launching the product on time. Cucumber’s support for most languages and its robustness have made it a go-to tool for most organizations of today.



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