Reuse Cucumber steps

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

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 2

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