Cucumber: It's about Talking not Testing

Many people use Cucumber purely as an end-to-end testing tool, and often wonder why they’re bothering to use it over something like Steak: they reason that if they’re the only ones reading the feature files, why bother having the plain text features? Others find that the cost of maintaining Cucumber features after a while outweighs the benefits of using them, and stop using it altogether.

Both these conclusions stem from seeing cucumber purely as a testing tool: whereas it’s actually an extraordinarily powerful communication tool designed to facilitate the discussion of behaviour between those to write code and those who don’t, and only incidentally a testing tool.

Learn about a proven and powerful way to use Cucumber which leads to maintainable code, features your customer actually reads, clearer communication and understanding on your project, and as a bonus ensures your code behaves correctly over time.

Transcript

1. Cucumber It’s about talking not testing Chris Parsons (@chrismdp) Friday, 29 June 12
2. GardenApp 1.0 Friday, 29 June 12
3. Kick off meeting Friday, 29 June 12
4. Friday, 29 June 12
5. Friday, 29 June 12
6. Feature: User orders plant As a user of the website, I want to place an order on the website, so that I can order a plant through the website Scenario: User orders plant Given there is a plant with name: “Plant 1”, price: “£1”, size: “large”, foliage: “foliage 1” When I visit the homepage And I click on “Plant 1” And I click “Add” Friday, 29 June 12
7. And I fill in “City” with “City 1” And I fill in “Postcode” with “SW1A 1AA” And I click “Continue” And I click “Continue” And I fill in “Card number” with “1234 1234 1234 1234” And I fill in “Expiry date” with “00/00” And I fill in “Name on Card” with “Name on Card 1” And I fill in “CV2” with “123” And I click “Place Order” Then I should receive an email Friday, 29 June 12
8. What is Cucumber? Friday, 29 June 12
9. $ mkdir features $ vim features/ first.feature $ cucumber Friday, 29 June 12
10. Myth #1: Cucumber was made for us. Friday, 29 June 12
11. Listening Friday, 29 June 12
12. “So, I’m thinking of a gardening website, where you can buy stuff...” Friday, 29 June 12
13. “...but with a way for those who love gardening to make it a whole interactive experience, right?” Friday, 29 June 12
14. “So gardeners can create like an ‘area’ to put pictures of their plants...” Friday, 29 June 12
15. “...and other gardeners can say what they think, and suggest garden layout improvements...” Friday, 29 June 12
16. “Herp derpety derp derp herp herpity derp website derp herp derp buy stuff” Friday, 29 June 12
17. “...derpety herpity derpety herpity users derp herp social derp?” Friday, 29 June 12
18. “Users herp derp account derpety users#show derp photos (hmm, EC2 storage; which gem? Add day to estimate)” Friday, 29 June 12
19. “...herp herpity herp derp ratings derpity comments” Friday, 29 June 12
20. Myth #2: Cucumber features capture everything. Friday, 29 June 12
21. What is a feature? Friday, 29 June 12
22. The feature is not the feature. Friday, 29 June 12
23. Friday, 29 June 12
24. Reminder of communication Friday, 29 June 12
25. Record of communication Friday, 29 June 12
26. Reek Detector for communication Friday, 29 June 12
27. Myth #3: Cucumber is a testing tool. Friday, 29 June 12
28. “Why?” not “How?” Friday, 29 June 12
29. Feature: User orders plant As a user of the website, I want to place an order on the website, so that I can order a plant through the website Scenario: User orders plant Given there is a plant with name: “Plant 1”, price: “£1”, size: “large”, foliage: “foliage 1” When I visit the homepage And I click on “Plant 1” And I click “Add” Friday, 29 June 12
30. And I fill in “City” with “City 1” And I fill in “Postcode” with “SW1A 1AA” And I click “Continue” And I click “Continue” And I fill in “Card number” with “1234 1234 1234 1234” And I fill in “Expiry date” with “00/00” And I fill in “Name on Card” with “Name on Card 1” And I fill in “CV2” with “123” And I click “Place Order” Then I should receive an email Friday, 29 June 12
31. Given /there (?:is|are) (a|\d+) (\w+) with ((\w+): (\w+) )+$/ do |count, name, fields| count = count == “a” ? 1 : count.to_i params = {} fields.each do |field| params[field[0]] = field[1] end count.times { name.classify.create! (params) } end Friday, 29 June 12
32. ....FF...FFFUUU Friday, 29 June 12
33. GardenApp 2.0 Friday, 29 June 12
34. Ubiquitous Language Friday, 29 June 12
35. “So, I’m thinking of a gardening website, where you can buy stuff...” Friday, 29 June 12
36. “...but with a way for those who love gardening to make it a whole interactive experience, right?” Friday, 29 June 12
37. “So gardeners can create like an ‘area’ to put pictures of their plants...” Friday, 29 June 12
38. “...and other gardeners can say what they think, and suggest garden layout improvements...” Friday, 29 June 12
39. Feature: User orders plant As Gareth the aspiring gardener, I want to buy plants I’ve seen shared on other gardeners uploaded layouts, so that I can improve my own garden with ideas from others Friday, 29 June 12
40. Scenario: Gareth buys plants When “Gareth” buys a recommended plant Then the order should be placed Friday, 29 June 12
41. Scenario: Gareth supplies incorrect information When “Gareth” enters incorrect information during a purchase Then he is shown an appropriate error And the order does not get placed Friday, 29 June 12
42. When /^“(.+)” buys a recommended plant$/ do |name| place_order(user_for(name)) end Then /^the order should be placed$/ do |name| check_order_placed(user_for(name)) end Friday, 29 June 12
43. When /^“(.+)” enters incorrect information during a purchase$/ do |name| place_order(user_for(name)) do fill_in :credit_card, :with => “bad” end end Friday, 29 June 12
44. def user_for(name) User.find_by_name(name) || User.create(:name => name) end def place_order(user) visit order_path fill_in :name, :with => user.name yield if block_given? click_button “Submit” end Friday, 29 June 12
45. You don’t have to use it! Friday, 29 June 12
46. Are we really listening? Friday, 29 June 12
47. Are we just checking it works? Friday, 29 June 12
48. Friday, 29 June 12
49. Coupon Code: SCOTRUBY for 20% off Friday, 29 June 12
50. Chris Parsons @chrismdp http://bddkickstart.com Friday, 29 June 12