Reuse Cucumber steps - ruby

Question

I want to reuse some Cucumber steps but can't seem to find the right way.
I want to write a step like:
Given /^I login with (.*) credentials$/ |type|
# do stuff with type being one of "invalid" or "valid"
end
But then have another step like:
Given /^I login successfully$
# call "Given I login with valid credentials"
end
So in testing user authentication I can use the former, but most other places, I can use the latter, and not actually have to repro code.
Is there a way to call that other step, or do I just put the logic in a helper method, and call said method from each task (basically a method extraction refactoring, which, after reading my question makes me believe that's actually the best way anyway)?

Answer 1

Note that the method for calling steps within steps has changed in recent versions of cucumber, which you'll see if you get an error like "WARNING: Using 'Given/When/Then' in step definitions is deprecated, use 'step' to call other steps instead:/path/to/step_definitions/foo_steps.rb:631:in `block in '
". See the cucumber wiki for details.
The gist of the change is that you should now use the step or steps methods.
When /^I make all my stuff shiny$/
step "I polish my first thing"
end
When /^I make all my stuff shiny$/
steps %Q{
When I polish my first thing
When I shine my second thing
}
end

Answer 2

UPDATE: The method described below has been deprecated. The recommended way to call a step from within another step now looks like this:
Given /^I login successfully$/
step "I login with valid credentials"
end
Old, deprecated method (for reference):
You can call steps from other steps like this:
Given /^I login successfully$/
Given "I login with valid credentials"
Then "I should be logged in"
end
If all of the scenarios within a feature require this (or other steps), you can also add a Background to each features, with the common steps, like so:
Background:
Given I log in with valid credentials
Scenario: Change my password
Given I am on the account page

Answer 3

Calling steps from step definitions is a bad practice and has some disadvantages:
If scenario will fail and there are nested step invocations, you will get only the last invoked step definition in the stack trace. It may be hard to find from which place that last stepdef was called
Call to stepdef is sometimes harder to find and read than ruby method
Ruby methods give you more power than calling steps from step defs
Aslak Hellesøy recommends to extract popular actions to World instead of reusing steps. It isolates those actions in one place, makes this code easier to find. You can extract code to usual Ruby classes or modules as well.
#/support/world_extensions.rb
module KnowsUser
def login
visit('/login')
fill_in('User name', with: user.name)
fill_in('Password', with: user.password)
click_button('Log in')
end
def user
#user ||= User.create!(:name => 'Aslak', :password => 'xyz')
end
end
World(KnowsUser)
#/step_definitions/authentication_steps.rb
When /^I login$/ do
login
end
Given /^a logged in user$/ do
login
end
Here is a useful discussion on the subject in Cucumber mailing list - link

Answer 4

Best wrap your steps in %{} rather than quotes. Then, you don't need to escape double quotes which you'll need to use frequently.:
Given /^I login successfully$
step %{I login with valid credentials}
end
Given /^I login with (.*) credentials$/ |type|
# do stuff with type being one of "invalid" or "valid"
end

Answer 5

Reuse keywords in feature file which will provide code reusability.
It is highly NOT recommended to call step defs within step defs.
I would write my feature file this way,
Scenario Outline: To check login functionality
Given I login with "<username>" and "<password>"
Then I "<may or may not>" login successfully
Examples:
|username|password|may or may not|
|paul |123$ |may |
|dave |1111 |may not |
In my step definition, (This is Java)
#Given(I login with \"([^\"]*)\" and \"([^\"]*)\"$)
public void I_login_with_and(String username, String password){
//login with username and password
}
#Then(I \"([^\"]*)\" login successfully$)
public void I_login_successully_if(String validity){
if(validity.equals("may")){
//assert for valid login
}
else
if(validity.equals("may not")){
//assert for invalid login
}
}
In this way, there is a lot of code reusability.
Your same Given and Then handles both valid and invalid scenarios.
At the same time, your feature file makes sense to the readers.