Launchers / Automated tests

Cucumber (cucumber.jar)

The Cucumber launcher allows interfacing with Cucumber tests.

Note that you can also run your Cucumber tests by using the JUnit launcher as Cucumber provide a JUnit runner.
Please refer to Cucumber documentation if you wish to do so.

Configuration

The cucumber.xml file is just a template and must NOT be edited. It's used by the system to build dynamically the form that the user will be able to fill in from the GUI when creating a custom execution configuration.

Parameter Description
General
Test root path This must indicate where are located all the Cucumber tests.
This is a root path. Each test in XStudio has a canonical path that will be appended to this path.
This path MUST not include an ending slash.

Default value is: D:/tests/cucumber
Cucumber
Java install path This must indicate the path to the java install.

Default value is: C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.6.0_06
Cucumber Install Path This must indicate where you installed Cucumber
Default value is: C:/Cucumber
Additional classpath This must indicate potential additional classpath necessary to run the tests. This can contain several path separated by �;� each pointing to either a .jar file or a directory containing .class files.

Default value is: <empty> but could be similar to C:/tests/librairies/lib1.jar;C:/tests/librairies/lib2.jar;C:/tests/classes
Optional arguments This must indicate some optional arguments you may want to pass
Default value is: <empty>

These values can be changed while creating the campaign session from XStudio.
Note about file path parameters:
Any parameter referring to a file or folder path (for instance Test root path) can be provided either using \ separator (if the tests are going to be executed on a Windows agent) or / separator (if the tests are going to be executed on a linux or MacOSX agent).

On windows, if you provide a path containing an OS-localizable folder such as C:\Program Files, always prefer the English version (i.e. NOT C:\Programmes if you're using a french-localized Windows) or the corresponding native environment variable (i.e. %PROGRAMFILES%).


Process

With this launcher, all the tests are executed independently and results and messages are retrieved from the console traces (that is by the way upload as an attachment).

A test is executed by the launcher using this syntax:

Windows:
"<javaInstallPath>/java.exe"
-classpath "<cucumberInstallPath>;<additionalClassPath>;<testRootPath>"
cucumber.api.cli.Main
--plugin html:<testName>.html --plugin junit:<testName>.xml
<optionalArguments>
<testRootPath>/<testPath>/<testName>.feature

Linux:
"<javaInstallPath>/java"
-classpath "<cucumberInstallPath>;<additionalClassPath>;<testRootPath>"
cucumber.api.cli.Main
--plugin html:<testName>.html --plugin junit:<testName>.xml
<optionalArguments>
<testRootPath>/<testPath>/<testName>.feature

This command is executed by the launcher from the following working directory: <testRootPath>

Attachments

The files generated during test execution are uploaded to XStudio so that you can open/read them afterwards:
  • <testRootPath>/<testPath>/cucumber_xxx.txt
  • <testRootPath>/<testPath>/<testName>.html
  • <testRootPath>/<testPath>/<testName>.xml

Results

The result parsing is done on the JUnit result file generated

Mapping

  • In XStudio you need to create a test for each Cucumber Feature
  • Under each test in XStudio, a default test cases will be automatically created and it will includes all the traces and steps included in the Cucumber feature

Permissions

WARNING: if you're running your tests on Windows, it may be required to run the tests as administrator.
Having an account with Administrators permissions may even not be enough in some cases (especially if you're using Windows 10) and you may need to disable completely the UAC (User Access Control) on your computer.
To do so:
  • Press the Windows + R key combination
  • Type in regedit
  • Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
  • In the right-side pane, look for EnableLUA and set the value 0
  • Close the registry editor
  • Restart your computer

Debug

If your tests are not executed correctly or are reporting only failures, this is very likely because your configuration is incorrect or because you used a wrong naming convention for your tests and test cases.

The best way to quickly find out what's wrong is to look at the traces generated by XStudio (or XAgent).
The traces always include the detailed description of what the launcher performs (command line execution, script execution, API calling etc.) to run a test case. So, if you experiment some problems, the first thing to do is to activate the traces and look at what's happening when you run your tests.

Then, try to execute manually in a cmd box the exact same commands.
This will normally fail the same way.
At this point, you needs to figure out what has to be changed in these commands in order to have them run properly.

When you have something working, compare these commands to what's described in the Process chapter above. This will tell you exactly what you need to change.

Most of the time, this is related to:
  • some incorrect values in some parameters of your configuration,
  • the name of your tests,
  • the name of your test cases,
  • the canonical path of your tests