Cucumber is a tool used to run the functional tests which are based on Behavior Driven Development(BDD) methodology. The test cases are written in a plain English text. Cucumber is written in Ruby programming language.

The various advantages of Cucumber are as follows:

• Tests are written in plain English text which allows the less technical people to write scenarios as well.

• Product owners, business analysts, developers, and testers all are involved in writing test scenarios.

• Code Reusability.

Gherkin language is used in Cucumber tool.

It is a representation of the application behavior in simple English language.

The 2 files required to run a cucumber test are:

• Feature file
• Step Definition File

A Feature file contains a high-level description of acceptance tests.

It is an entry point of Cucumber execution.

It contains either a scenario or multiple scenarios.

The tests in Feature file are written in Given-When-Then statements.

The extension of the feature file is .feature.

For eg: Test.feature

Feature file consists of parameters or conditions that are required to execute the code, they are:

• Feature
• Scenario
• Scenario Outline
• Given
• When Then

Step-definition in Cucumber defines the actual code implementation of the feature present in feature file.

Each step of the feature file is mapped to a corresponding method on Step definition file.

Scenario Outline is used when the same test scenario is executed for multiple sets of data.

It is always followed by the keyword “Examples” and this keyword specifies the set of values for each parameter

Feature: It describes the current test scripts that must be executed.

Scenario: It describes the steps and expected outcomes for a particular functionality.

Scenario Outline: It is used to execute same test scenario for multiple set of data.

Given: It specifies some context of the test to be executed.

When: It specifies some test action that needs to be carried out.

Then: It specifies the expected result of the test.

And: It is used for additional conditions, if any.

Advantages of Cucumber framework are as follows:

• It is an open-source tool.
• It is written in plain English text, hence making it easier for non-technical users to understand.
• It is easy to integrate it with other frameworks like Selenium.
• The test cases are easier to understand and maintain as well.

Background keyword is used to define a test case or series of steps which are common to all the tests in a feature file. Scenario keyword is replaced by Background keyword while writing the Cucumber test case in feature file.

A feature file can have maximum of 10 scenarios, but this number can vary for different projects and different organization. However, it is advisable to limit the number of scenarios in feature file.

Examples keyword is always used with Scenario Outline.

It is used to provide the value of the parameters used in the scenario.

Below is an example of a feature file for scenario: “Login the web application”

Feature: Login into the web application with username and password

Scenario: Login the web application

Given: Open Chrome browser and enter the URL

When: UserName and Password is provided

Then: Validate if login is successful

Below is the example of Step definition for Given statement :

@Given(Open Chrome browser and enter the URL.)

public void OpenChromeBrowser()
{
Driver = new ChromeDriver();
Driver.navigate.To(“https://google.com/”); }

Pipe (|) is used for parametrization in Cucumber.

It allows to specify one or more parameter values in a feature file.

Cucumber provides support for various programming language like Java, .Net, Ruby, etc.

dryRun is used to verify that every step in the feature file have corresponding code in Step Definition or not.

So, in case if any function gets missed in the Step definition for any step of feature file, then dryRun will give a message.

Its value can be set either true or false.

Monochrome option makes the console output for Cucumber test much more readable.

Its value can be wither true or false.

If it is set to false, then the console output is not as readable as it should be