How to add breakpoints to .feature files - debugging

Question

As a developer
I want to put breakpoint(s) in feature files
So that I can debug a feature/scenario/step
Have any of you implemented this functionality with Behave or Cucumber?

Answer 1

You can not put breakpoints to .feature files, because it is a plain text files. Instead you can put breakpoints inside test-steps which implement your BDD steps.
Example
When I click button "save"
Then saved page opened
You need to go inside that step and see something like that:
public void iClickButton(String buttonName) {
getButtonByName(buttonName).click();
}
You can put breakpoint inside method iClickButton and debug it.
That is how you can debug execution in BDD style.

Answer 2

I can't say I've ever been able to put breakpoints in feature files. Instead, I put them inside the step files so when that step runs, you can verify it did its job. It's a lot of switching back and forth between feature and step files, but it works

Answer 3

I just want to point out that in 2018 feature files are used by a lot more than Behave or Cucumber [i.e. Codeception for PHP]. "Gherkin" is supposed to be a business readable DSL and the concept of a "breakpoint" really doesn't apply in that domain. I'd say it's definitionally impossible to put a break point in a Gherkin feature file. You could certainly do that if you want, go for it, but there isn't a standard way of doing it, and it's possible you'd be confusing things in a large organization or team.

Answer 4

First of all you need to add debug in step definition not in feature file
Now, You are running it by maven command like:
mvn clean install
But you need to run it using junit or testng.
Put an debug point in your step defination and run the project as junit/testng in debug section
OR
If you still need to run it using maven you can try below parameter in maven command
-Dmaven.surefire.debug test -DforkCount=0 test