How can I organize my Specflow test cases?

Question

I'm working with a project and I'm planning to use Specflow and Selenium C#. I'm new with using Specflow (SpecFlow is the open source port of Cucumber for .NET) for automation and I'm going to use it for regression testing of an existing website. I'm just curious if a single feature file should cover all the regression test cases or would it be better to create a feature per tab?

I'm just concern with code duplication as creating a featue per tab would share the same background of "Given that I'm on the web page".

Our current manual test steps look like this:

1. Patient Info Tab

   • Edit Patient Info
   • Update Contact Preferences

2. Physician Verification Tab

   • Physician Search
   • Edit Physician Info

Answer 1

I would consider breaking it up into Patient Info and Physician Verification.

You mention tabs - can these windows be accessed separately? I would try and treat them separately in separate specs if at all possible.

Answer 2

Its not actually duplication that's happening , its more of Code Reuse. You state the scenarios in your .feature file and define the test cases using

Given .... 
When .... 
Then ....

constructs. Specflow generator binds each step with a function(in C#) which is implemented in a .cs file. No matter how many times a step is being repeated , its referring the same function to which it is binded. Moreover while testing a UI you cannot possibly eliminate repetition of certain steps.