SpecFlow assist - create instance from table

Question

I'm trying out the specFlow assist and not sure how would one create class property from table. Imagine I have this class:

public class Tracking 
{
    public string Category { get; set; }
}

public class ODARequest
{
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public Tracking Tracking { get; set; }
}

My Given scenario is next:

Scenario: Successfully create an account
Given I have entered the following data into the ODA form:
    | Field                  | Value            |
    | Title                  | Mr               |
    | Name                   | Andy             |
    | Tracking Category      | MDA              |


public void GivenIHaveEnteredTheFollowingDataIntoTheODAForm(Table table)
{
    var request = table.CreateInstance<ODARequest>();
}

The Tracking property will not be populated. Anyone know how to describe Tracking.Category in the table for this situation?

Answer 1

I haven't been able to find a way of getting specflow to map "CreateInstance" to non-standard data types properties.

However, in this case you could at least use a StepArgumentTransformation as follows:

    [Given(@"I have entered the following data into the ODA form:")]
    public void GivenIHaveEnteredTheFollowingDataIntoTheODAForm(ODARequest request)
    {
        Assert.IsNotNull(request.Tracking);
    }

    [StepArgumentTransformation(@".*")]
    public ODARequest StringToTracking(Table input)
    {
        return new ODARequest() { 
            Title = input.Rows.Single(row => row["Title"])["value"],
            Name = input.Rows.Single(row => row["Name"])["value"],
            Tracking = new Tracking() 
                { Category = input.Rows.Single(row => row["Field"] == "Tracking Category")["Value"] }
            };
    }

With a little work you could tidy the stepargumenttransformation up to accept each parameter as optional (rather than having "single()" throw if it is omitted).

I feel like there really ought to be a better way to do this, more like your original suggested code. Hope this is helpful.