mgroen2's avatar
mgroen2
Super Contributor
8 years ago
Status:
Implemented

BDD integration in TestComplete

 

I like the BDD principles and was investigating it's potential application combined with TestComplete. 

Read this, this, this and this article on it.

 

Personally I have come to the conclusion that BDD has definitely potential but the frameworks currently investigated (Lettuce, Cucumber) require way to much fragile configuration (settings project folders name, test names, etc, etc) to be able to use this effectively in Contiuous Delivery / Continuous Integration alike approaches. In practise you end up maintaining the configuration files, editing connection / integration scripts to keep 'alive' the integration between Cucumber/Lettuce and TestComplete.

 

Therefore, I would go for a BDD framework within TestComplete (or another product from SmartBear) which can guaranty integrity of BDD features/specifications/test-steps on the one hand, and the actual tests/validations (wheter these are scripts or Keyword tests) on the other hand.

 

I would like to see this implemented in either TestComplete itself (sort of like currently Manual Testing (and the conversion to automated tests) is supported (but this is going to be depreciated unfortunately but that's another subject), or in a seperate tool which would then be required to be very well integrated with TC (such as like sharing variables, parameters, etc).

 

When supported in TestComplete itself it could be placed in "advanced node" in a project, for example. And this module would be able to read (import) .feature files like the GIVEN/WHEN/THEN , Gherkin language support. After importing the test/QA engineer would do his/her work to 'knot' the features and the tests together in the framework.

 

By keeping this all in one tool would prevent ending up in constantly updating settings like updating configuration files, (re)define directories if projects are moved, etc. That's exactly what's NOT needed in CI/CD environments.

 

 

 

5 Comments

  • Hello friends!

     

    I would like to say thank you to mgroen2 for the excellent description of this functionality. I love the idea and would like to see something like this in TestComplete several years ago. However, the demand for this new type of tests in TestComplete was not too significant

     

    You are talking about adding native support for Gherkin .feature tests or a similar language to TestComplete along with a way of implementing definitions for test steps right within the IDE. However, I suspect that other 17 people who kudoed your idea may imagine something different. For example, this could be integration with Cucumber/JBehave/etc., special .NET or Java library used by TestComplete or TestLeft, or something else.

     

    So, I have a question for everyone who kudoed this idea: do you see the desired behavior the same as mgroen2 described? If not, could you please explain how you see this functionality?

     

    Thank you! :)

  • Status changed:
    Selected for Development
    to
    Implemented

    Hi everyone!

     

    I'm happy to announce that we've implemented BDD support in TestComplete v14. There are two ways you can get started - 

    1. Within TestComplete itself: https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/bdd/index.html

    2. With our continous testing platform: https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/working-with/integration/hiptest/index.html

     

    Hope this helps you accelerate your BDD efforts.

     

    Prashant