Run Cucumber Selenium tests with Eclipse IDE or IntelliJ IDE

If you are a fan of BDD tests, then definitely consider Cucumber. Combined with Selenium's robust web automation capabilities, this provides a good solution for QA test-engineers and developers.

Some key reasons to use Cucumber with Selenium are included in the list below:

• Rich Ecosystem: Cucumber and Selenium both have very active communities and extensive documentation. This makes it easier to find documentation and request support if you encounter a problem or have a question.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Cucumber's plain-text formatting encourages collaboration between developers, QA and business people. As its syntax is easier to understand than code, it promotes sharing the test logic across everyone in your organization.
• Reusability and Modularity: Cucumber promotes the reusability of step definitions. This allows testers to create modular and maintainable test scripts. This promotes test code reusability, which benefits your entire test structure.
• Test Reporting and Analysis: Cucumber offers detailed and customizable test reports. These reports make it easier to analyze your test results and identify potential problems. As Selenium in itself lacks reporting, using Cucumber in combination with Selenium makes for a perfect combination.

CucumberJS is a JavaScript testing framework that implements the BDD principles. To get started with Javascript and Cucumber, you'll need to install the necessary NPM packages:

npm install @cucumber/cucumber selenium-webdriver

Once installed, you can create your first Selenium test with Cucumber. Simply create a directory features and add a file called sample.feature.

You can now write the test in a Gherkin formatted file:

Feature: Google can find TestingBot


Background:

	Given I am on Google


Scenario: Search for a term

	When I fill in "q" found by "name" with "TestingBot"

	And I submit

	Then I should see title "TestingBot - Google Search"

Next, you can create a hook which will take care of handling the Selenium driver:

const { Builder, Capabilities } = require("selenium-webdriver");
const { Before, After } = require("@cucumber/cucumber");

var createSeleniumSession = function(){
  return new Builder().
    usingServer('http://localhost:4444/wd/hub').
    withCapabilities(Capabilities.chrome()).
    build();
}

Before(function (scenario, callback) {
  var world = this;
  world.driver = createSeleniumSession();
  callback();
});

After(function(scenario, callback){
  this.driver.quit().then(function(){
    callback();
  });
});

Finally, you'll need to map the Gherkin syntax to code. You can do this by creating a step definition file in step_definitions.

const assert = require('assert')
const { When, Then } = require("@cucumber/cucumber")
let element

When(/^I fill in "([^"]*)" found by "([^"]*)" with "([^"]*)"$/, async function (value, type, keys) {
  element = await this.driver.findElement(type, value)
  await this.driver.sendKeys(keys)
})

When(/^I submit$/, async function () {
	element.submit()
})

Then(/^I should see title "([^"]*)"$/, async function (expectedTitle) {
  let title = await this.driver.getTitle()
  assert.equal(title, expectedTitle)
})

Eclipse is a popular IDE (Integrated Development Environment), mainly used by Java developers. It offers built-in support for the most popular Java frameworks and is widely used because of its good documentation, large plugin collection and great community.

Another popular IDE is IntelliJ IDEA by Jetbrains. The IntelliJ Ultimate edition even includes built-in support for Selenium tests.

Eclipse Cucumber Example

To get started, make sure you've installed the Eclipse IDE and Java Development Kit (JDK).

You can now create a new project in Eclipse. Open Eclipse and go to File > New > Java Project.
Enter a project name (e.g., "SeleniumCucumberExample") and click Finish.

Right-click on your project in Eclipse and select Properties. Go to Java Build Path > Libraries > Classpath and click on Add External JARs. Add the Selenium WebDriver JARs. You can download them from the official Selenium website.

Similarly, add the Cucumber JARs to your project. You can download these from the Cucumber JVM page.

Gherkin example

You can now add the first feature file. Create a new file that ends with .feature with this content:

Feature: Sample Feature


  Scenario: Open Google

    Given I open the Google website

    Then I verify the title is "Google"

Create Step Definitions

Create a package for your step definitions. Right-click on the src folder, go to New > Package, and enter a package name (for example stepDefinitions). Inside this new package, create a new Java class for step definitions (for example SampleStepDefinitions.java).

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

import io.cucumber.java.en.Given;
import io.cucumber.java.en.Then;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;

public class SampleStepDefinitions {

    WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

    @Given("^I open the Google website$")
    public void i_open_the_Google_website() {
        driver.get("https://www.google.com");
    }

    @Then("^I verify the title is \"([^\"]*)\"$")
    public void i_verify_the_title_is(String expectedTitle) {
        String actualTitle = driver.getTitle();
        assertEquals(expectedTitle, actualTitle);
        driver.quit();
    }
}

Create Test Runner

Create another package for your test runner. Right-click on the src folder, go to New > Package, and enter a package name (for example testRunners). Inside the package, create a new class for the test runner (for example TestRunner.java).

import org.junit.runner.RunWith;

import io.cucumber.junit.Cucumber;
import io.cucumber.junit.CucumberOptions;

@RunWith(Cucumber.class)
@CucumberOptions(features = "src", glue = "stepDefinitions")
public class TestRunner {

}

Run Cucumber test in Eclipse

Right-click on the TestRunner.java class, then select Run As > JUnit Test.

Eclipse will now execute the Cucumber scenario that you have defined. You will see the result in the console panel of Eclipse.

IntelliJ Cucumber Example

To run automated tests with Cucumber and Selenium in IntelliJ IDEA, please follow the steps below.

Install Cucumber Plugin in IntelliJ

• Open IntelliJ IDEA
• Navigate to File > Settings > Plugins
• Search for the Cucumber for Java plugin, click install

Create a New Maven Project

• Open IntelliJ IDEA
• Navigate to File > New > Project
• Choose "Maven" from the left-hand menu
• Follow the wizard to set up the Maven project.
• Add the necessary dependencies in pom.xml

<dependency>
	<groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
	<artifactId>cucumber-java</artifactId>
	<version>7.10.1</version>
	<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

Add Cucumber Feature Files

• Create feature files with the .feature extension in the src/test/resources directory.
• You can now write test scenarios using the Gherkin syntax

Write Cucumber Step Definitions

• Create step definition files in the src/test/java directory.
• Write step definitions for each step in the feature files.

Create Cucumber Test Runner Class

• Create a Java class with the @RunWith(Cucumber.class) annotation.
• Specify the path to the feature files and the location of the step definitions.

package sampleTest;

import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import cucumber.api.CucumberOptions;
import cucumber.api.junit.Cucumber;

@RunWith(Cucumber.class)
@CucumberOptions(
 features = "Feature", glue={"stepDefinition"}
)

public class CucumberTestRunner {

}

When you've completed all the steps, you can run your first Cucumber test through IntelliJ. Right-click on the test runner class and click Run tests.