Getting started with Allure Cucumber.rb

Generate beautiful HTML reports using Allure Report and your Cucumber.rb tests.

INFO

Check out the example project at github.com/allure-examples/allure-cucumber-example to see Allure Cucumber.rb in action.

Setting up

1. Prepare your project

1. Install the Allure Report command-line tool, if it is not yet installed in your operating system. Note that Allure Report requires Java, see the installation instructions.

2. Add Allure Cucumber.rb to your project's Gemfile. For example:

   source 'https://rubygems.org'
   
   gem 'allure-cucumber', '~> 2.23.0'
   gem 'cucumber', '~> 9.1'

3. Open a terminal, go to the project directory and install the dependencies from the Gemfile. For example, if you use Bundler:

   cd /home/user/myproject
   bundle install

4. In the project's cucumber.yml file, specify the Allure's formatter for Cucumber.rb.

   default: --format AllureCucumber::CucumberFormatter

2. Run tests

Run your Cucumber.rb tests same way as your would run them usually. For example:

bundle exec cucumber

This will save necessary data into allure-results or other directory, according to the Configuration. If the directory already exists, the new files will be added to the existing ones, so that a future report will be based on them all.

3. Generate a report

Finally, convert the test results into an HTML report. This can be done by one of two commands:

• allure generate processes the test results and saves an HTML report into the allure-report directory. To view the report, use the allure open command.

• allure serve creates the same report as allure generate, then automatically opens the main page of the report in a web browser.

Writing tests

The Allure Cucumber.rb integration extends the standard reporting features of Cucumber.rb by providing additional capabilities for crafting more informative and structured tests. This section highlights key enhancements that can be utilized:

• Metadata Annotation: Enhance test reports with descriptions, links, and other metadata.
• Test Organization: Structure your tests into clear hierarchies for better readability and organization organize tests.
• Step Division: Break down tests into smaller test steps for easier understanding and maintenance.
• Parametrized Tests: Clearly describe the parameters for parametrized tests to specify different scenarios.
• Attachments: Automatically capture screenshots and other files during test execution.
• Test Selection: Use a test plan file to select which tests to run, allowing for flexible test execution.
• Environment Details: Include comprehensive environment information to accompany the test report.

Adding Metadata

Allure allows you to enrich your reports with a variety of metadata. This additional information provides context and details for each test, enhancing the report's usefulness. Refer to the metadata reference section for an exhaustive list of what can be added.

require 'allure-cucumber'

When 'I open labels page' do
  Allure.description_html 'This test attempts to log into the website using a login and a password.'
  Allure.label 'owner', 'John Doe'
  # ...
end

Organize tests

As described in Improving navigation in your test report, Allure supports multiple ways to organize tests into hierarchical structures.

To specify a test's location in the behavior-based hierarchy:

Runtime API

require 'allure-cucumber'

When 'I open labels page' do
  Allure.epic 'Web interface'
  Allure.feature 'Essential features'
  Allure.story 'Authentication'
  # ...
end

Gherkin tags

Feature: Labels

  @EPIC:WebInterface
  @FEATURE:EssentialFeatures
  @STORY:Authentication
  Scenario: Create new label for authorized user
    When I open labels page
    And I create label with title "hello"
    Then I should see label with title "hello"

To specify a test's location in the suite-based hierarchy:

require 'allure-cucumber'

When 'I open labels page' do
    Allure.label 'parentSuite' 'Web interface'
    Allure.suite 'Essential features'
    Allure.label 'subSuite', 'Authentication'
  # ...
end

Divide a test into steps

Allure Cucumber.rb provides three ways of creating steps and sub-steps: “annotated steps”, “block-based steps” and “no-op steps”, see the reference.

Annotated steps

require 'allure-cucumber'

When 'I open labels page' do
  Steps.step_1
  Steps.step_2
end

class Steps
  extend AllureStepAnnotation

  step 'Step 1'

  def self.step_1
    step_1_1
    step_1_2
  end

  step 'Step 1.1'

  def self.step_1_1
    # ...
  end

  step 'Step 1.2'

  def self.step_1_2
    # ...
  end

  step 'Step 2'

  def self.step_2
    step_2_1
    step_2_2
  end

  step 'Step 2.1'

  def self.step_2_1
    # ...
  end

  step 'Step 2.2'

  def self.step_2_2
    # ...
  end
end

Block-based steps and no-op steps

require 'allure-cucumber'

When 'I open labels page' do
  Allure.run_step 'Step 1' do

    # ...
    Allure.step name: 'Step 1.1', status: :passed

    # ...
    Allure.step name: 'Step 1.2', status: :passed
  end

  Allure.run_step 'Step 2' do

    # ...
    Allure.step name: 'Step 2.1', status: :passed

    # ...
    Allure.step name: 'Step 2.2', status: :passed
  end
end

Describe parametrized tests

An Allure test report can reflect two ways in which you can pass data from your Gherkin file to your Ruby implementation code, namely:

• scenario outlines,
• runtime parameters.

The example below shows a Gherkin file and a Ruby implementation file of a test. In this example, the four parameters for the “I enter my details...” step will be displayed in both instances of the scenario in the test report.

Feature: User management

  Scenario Outline: Registration
    When I go to the registration form
    And I enter my details: <login>, <password>, <name>, <birthday>
    Then the profile should be created

    Examples:
      | login   | password | name     | birthday   |
      | johndoe | qwerty   | John Doe | 1970-01-01 |
      | janedoe | 123456   | Jane Doe | 1111-11-11 |

require 'allure-cucumber'

When 'I go to the registration form' do
  # ...
end

And /^I enter my details: (.*), (.*), (.*), (.*)$/ do |login, password, name, birthday|
  # ...
end

Then 'the profile should be created' do
  # ...
end

Attach screenshots and other files

In Allure reports, you have the ability to attach various types of files, which can greatly enhance the comprehensibility of the report. A common practice is to attach screenshots that capture the state of the user interface at specific moments during test execution.

For detailed instructions on how to implement attachments, refer to the attachments section in the Allure Cucumber.rb reference.

require 'allure-cucumber'

When 'I open labels page' do
  Allure.add_attachment name: 'Screenshot',
                        source: File.new('/path/to/image.png'),
                        type: Allure::ContentType::PNG
  Allure.add_attachment name: 'Data',
                        source: 'This is the file content.',
                        type: Allure::ContentType::TXT
  # ...
end

Select tests via a test plan file

If the ALLURE_TESTPLAN_PATH environment variable is defined and points to an existing file, Cucumber.rb will only run tests listed in this file.

Here's an example of running tests according to a file named testplan.json:

MacOS/Linux

export ALLURE_TESTPLAN_PATH=testplan.json
bundle exec cucumber

Windows

setx ALLURE_TESTPLAN_PATH "testplan.json"
bundle exec cucumber

Environment information

For the main page of the report, you can collect various information about the environment in which the tests were executed. To do so, specify the information in the environment_properties configuration parameter.

For example, it is a good idea to use this to remember the OS version and Ruby version. This may help the future reader investigate bugs that are reproducible only in some environments.

require 'allure-cucumber'

AllureCucumber.configure do |config|
  config.environment_properties = {
    os_platform: RbConfig::CONFIG['host_os'],
    ruby_version: RUBY_VERSION,
  }
end

Note that if your launch includes multiple Cucumber.rb runs (see How it works), Allure Cucumber.rb will only save the environment information from the latest run.