Is Cucumber Scenario equivalent to a Java Class?

Question

@Add User
Scenario: Add a new User profile in the System
Given user is on the Add User profile page
Then Add a new user profile in the system
Then verify that user has been added successfully

Now, for example, i want call the methods of "Login" over here. If i dont initialize the elements using the page factory in this scenario itself, then i get null pointer exception.

Login login = PageFactory.initElements(driver, Login.class);

if i have initialized the class in some other scenario, then also i get null pointer error. Should i initialize the class globally outside of any methods?

Answer 1

In cucumber to share states between steps you need to use DI mechanisms. Your steps definitions can be (and usually are) spread over several classes.

Here you may find general concept description https://cucumber.io/docs/cucumber/state. Which is stating:

Cucumber will create a new instance of each of your glue code classes before each scenario.

So you need to pass the object (which you need for your test - page object or anything else) reference to each of your classes where you need that and they will persist within a scenario.

There are two examples.

• if you prefer classic syntax of step definition (with annotations) you may refer to this: http://www.thinkcode.se/blog/2017/04/01/sharing-state-between-steps-in-cucumberjvm-using-picocontainer

• if you prefer lambda syntax you may refer to this: https://webelement.click/en/cucumber_java_8_selenium_pageobject_picocontainer_tutorial