Calling Steps From Steps in SpecFlow

Steps are the building blocks of SpecFlow. Each Given/When/Then line in a SpecFlow scenario represents a step, and steps should be reused across features and scenarios to test your application from different angles. When you’re building a low-level scenario, you may want to use very specific steps. In a higher-level feature, you may want to perform the same tasks but in a less granular fashion. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could create a “super-step” that just calls the necessary sub-steps?

Well, guess what? You can, and it’s really easy to do. First, let’s build some fake code to work with. I created a simple PersonRepository that lets me add and save Person objects. Here are the classes and my initial SpecFlow test.

Person.cs

using System;

namespace samples.SpecFlowDemo
{
    public class Person
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }

        public string Name { get; set; }

        public DateTime? DateOfBirth { get; set; }
    }
}

PersonRepository.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace samples.SpecFlowDemo
{
    public static class PersonRepository
    {
        private static readonly Dictionary<int, Person> Persons;

        static PersonRepository()
        {
            Persons = new Dictionary<int, Person>();
        }

        public static Person Get(int id)
        {
            if (!Persons.ContainsKey(id))
            {
                return null;
            }
            return Persons[id];
        }

        public static bool Save(Person person)
        {
            if (person == null)
            {
                return false;
            }
            if (!Persons.ContainsKey(person.Id))
            {
                Persons.Add(person.Id, person);
            }
            Persons[person.Id] = person;
            return true;
        }
    }
}

Person_Add.feature

Feature: Person_Add
	In order track person records
	As a records manager
	I need to add new persons

Scenario: Add a person
	Given I have a new person record with the following properties
		| id  | name   | date of birth |
		| 100 | Rodney | 2/20/1950     |
	When I save the person
	Then the person is saved successfully
	And I can retrieve the person by ID

Person_AddSteps.cs

using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;
using TechTalk.SpecFlow;
using TechTalk.SpecFlow.Assist;

namespace samples.SpecFlowDemo.SpecFlow
{
    [Binding]
    public class Person_AddSteps
    {
        [Given(@"I have a new person record with the following properties")]
        public void GivenIHaveANewPersonRecordWithTheFollowingProperties(Table table)
        {
            ScenarioContext.Current.Set<Person>(
                table.CreateInstance<Person>());
        }
        
        [When(@"I save the person")]
        public void WhenISaveThePerson()
        {
            var r = PersonRepository.Save(
                ScenarioContext.Current.Get<Person>());
            ScenarioContext.Current.Set<bool>(r, "SaveResult");
        }
        
        [Then(@"the person is saved successfully")]
        public void ThenThePersonIsSavedSuccessfully()
        {
            Assert.IsTrue(
                ScenarioContext.Current.Get<bool>("SaveResult"),
                "SaveResult");
        }
        
        [Then(@"I can retrieve the person by ID")]
        public void ThenICanRetrieveThePersonByID()
        {
            var expected = ScenarioContext.Current.Get<Person>();
            var actual = PersonRepository.Get(expected.Id);
            Assert.AreSame(expected, actual);
        }
    }
}

Now let’s say I want to test the PersonRepository’s ability to update records. In order to update a record, the record needs to exist. I could reuse the add feature’s “I have a person” step with a provided table of properties and its “I save the person” step, but it would be nice if I didn’t have to call both of those steps and provide data each time I needed to do something with an existing record.

I can avoid the repetition by calling those steps from within a new step that I’ll create called “I have an existing person record.” Here’s the code for my update feature.

Person_Update.feature

Feature: Person_Update
	In order track person records
	As a records manager
	I need to update existing persons

Scenario: Update a person
	Given I have an existing person record
	When I change the person name to "Rocko"
	And I save the person
	Then the person is saved successfully
	And I can retrieve the person by ID
	And the person name was saved as "Rocko"

Person_UpdateSteps.cs (Note the highlighted lines. The only “gotcha” that I ran into is that the steps class must inherit from SpecFlow’s Steps class in order to access the Given/When/Then functions.)

using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;
using TechTalk.SpecFlow;

namespace samples.SpecFlowDemo.SpecFlow
{
    [Binding]
    public class Person_UpdateSteps : Steps
    {
        [Given(@"I have an existing person record")]
        public void GivenIHaveAnExistingPersonRecord()
        {
            var header = new[] { "Field", "Value" };
            var t = new Table(header);
            t.AddRow("id", "100");
            t.AddRow("name", "Fred");
            t.AddRow("date of birth", "12/15/1990");

            Given("I have a new person record with the following properties", t);
            When("I save the person");
        }
        
        [When(@"I change the person name to ""(.*)""")]
        public void WhenIChangeThePersonNameTo(string p0)
        {
            var p = ScenarioContext.Current.Get<Person>();
            p.Name = p0;
        }
                
        [Then(@"the person name was saved as ""(.*)""")]
        public void ThenThePersonNameWasSavedAs(string p0)
        {
            var p = ScenarioContext.Current.Get<Person>();
            Assert.AreEqual(p0, p.Name);
        }
    }
}

You can read more about calling steps from step definitions in the SpecFlow documentation.

You can also download the code for this example from GitHub.

Author: Adam Prescott

I'm enthusiastic and passionate about creating intuitive, great-looking software. I strive to find the simplest solutions to complex problems, and I embrace agile principles and test-driven development. View all posts by Adam Prescott