Automated testing is surely a necessary routine in any large project. Test automation is associated with a number of tools and approaches, each possessing its pros and cons. But today we are going to focus on a Cucumber tool combined with Selenium framework.

Basic Features

There is no need to introduce Selenium Webdriver as it is the most popular tool for browser automated control used by nearly every quality control company. It is one of the main tools for automated testing of web applications.

Selenium together with Cucumber are crucial for assessing application compatibility across various browsers, which normally demands time an money. The main advantage of this method is that it allows to identify errors very fast, so that they can be easily resolved.

While Selenium allows to conduct browser operations, Cucumber understands many programming languages and scripts. When automated testing services are concerned, both work as an effective tool mechanism.

How It Works

Cucumber is a testing infrastructure that allows to overcome a gap between app developers and business managers. Tests are written in a simple language, where BDD syntax with a standard Given-When-Then set is clear to any user.

Tests are interpreted by Cucumber into a certain programming language, at the same time Selenium is used to control tests in the browser. From these Cucumber functions more like a framework, which should be used in conjunction with Selenium.

When applying to a quality consulting firm for automated testing services, most likely you will find out that they use these three common phases for writing automated tests:

1) Specify scenario. Gherkin is the name of the language understandable for Cucumber just as for human. Normally, user stories are taken as the scenarios and the BA team’s responsibility is to define its features. The last can be put together in Feature files.

2) Implement steps for execution. This point goes right after the above-mentioned one. Implementation can be done in a variety of languages. Most of them including popular Java are supported by Cucumber. To make it work correctly, it is recommended to create a project structure. For that reason references can be added to the Selenium jars.

3) Define user interface element description. PageObject is considered the best design pattern for defining UI element descriptions. It makes an automated test support easier. The thing is, if any changes are made to the page elements, they will abstract into the PageObject. No need to update the files.