1. Created by Iqbal, Jabeen Shazia
Review of Cucumber
To begin with, In Software, the smallest testable part is called Unit, which has one or few inputs
and mostly has single output. It is required to validate these units whether this each unit of the
software performs as designed. This level of testing is referred as Unit Testing, where individual
units/components of a software are tested [1]. The method used, to perform this unit testing is
referred as White Box Testing. Usually, developers perform this unit testing, but in some cases it
may be performed by the independent software testers as well. Unit tests are created and executed
to make sure that the software performs as intended. The main purpose of this unit testing is to
identify failures in the logic and/or algorithms that helps to improve the quality of the code.
Motivation of Unit Test
There are many motivations to perform the Unit Testing. Let me point out some of the motivations
as follows.
→ To change or maintain the code, we would need more confidence, which we will get by
performing the Unit Testing to the units. In other words, whenever we have good unit tests and
they run every time, any code is possible to modify
→ Codes are often reusable. So to make use of the code, Unit testing is required to perform in
those codes, in order to reuse the codes for other software.
→ To make the development of the software fast, Unit Testing is required. The reason is, if there
is no unit testing involved, then the system or user acceptance alone would be included, in
which the effort required to fix the defects will be tedious whereas the effort required to fix the
defects in the unit testing is less comparative to the system or user acceptance test.
→ Here it comes the main thing to consider, Cost. The cost of fixing of the defects detected in the
Unit Testing would be less comparative to the cost of fixing of defects detected in another test
such as system or acceptance testing.
→ Most useful for this unit testing is that debugging becomes easy. When a Unit test fails, only
the latest changes need to be debugged.
→ Code after performing the unit testing is more reliable.
Perform Unit Testing
As we all know, Unit Testing is the most important level of testing. Below are the steps, which we
are required to be considered to perform the Unit Testing.
1

2. 1.Create a Test Plan - Test Plan is the document, which has the information about how the test
will be performed, things to be tested, roles, responsibilities, test environment, activities involved
etc.
2.Create Test Cases and Test Data - Test case and Test Data documents are prepared using the
sample format the Organization is adopting. Test Cases document will involve information such as
Test case description, expected result, actual result, pass/fail, etc… Test Data document will
involve information such as the inputs required to be created for the specific function and
condition, to perform the unit testing.
3.Write Test Scripts – If we going to automate the Test Cases, then writing Test Scripts may
results in saving time that is requited for testing
4.Write the actual code- Code is developed in such a way that these test cases gets pass when
executed.
5.Once the code is ready to execute the test cases – Execution of the Test Cases, written in the
above 2nd step, will be performed on the written code.
6.Fix the bugs if any and re test the code - Result of the execution of code will be captured. If
the no error pops up, the codes are ready to go. If not, alter the code in such a way to remove the
error/bug occurred during execution. Once the code is updated, rerun the test cases on the updated
code to validate whether the result turns out to be pass.
7.Repeat the test cycle until the “unit” is free of all bugs - Tester need to keep updating the
code, if the error/bugs appears until there is no bugs in that specific module.
Procedure to use the Unit Test Tool – Cucumber
Before going in to the working of this unit test tool, let me give you the little introduction of this
test tool.
I have taken the unit-testing tool for Ruby language. As par of the Ruby culture, testing is a firmly
embedded in to it.
We would have probably come across the Test::Unit Unit Testing tool, which adopts the Test
Driven Development (TDD) concept. As we are aware that the manual testing wont be possible to
apply in this TDD since the regression testing is required to perform every time the code is
developed for one feature/function and tested. Automation testing is must to make this TDD
successful. If suppose, the requirement is not correct, if the testers and developers misunderstood
the requirements then the issue arises, the automation scripts are required to be updated, which is
time consuming and rework. Therefore, to avoid these issues, to make the testers and developers
more comfortable with the requirements, that in turn gave rise to Behavior Driven Development
(BDD). Cucumber is the unit testing too and it is BDD tool. Cucumber is the latest addition to the
RSpec family of tools.
Gherkin, a small computer language, is the format for Cucumber Specifications. It is so simple
that we do not have to write the program to use it. This allow us to write it in English. Mostly,
2

3. Product Owner in the scrum concept will write this gherkin scripts. This is used to build the test
code. The main purpose to build this scripts is to confirm the requirement.
Below is the example of simple Gherkin document:
Feature: Password management
Scenario: Forgot password
Given a user with email "yourusername@email.info" exists
When I ask for a password reset
Then an email with a password reset link should be sent
Bolded syntax - only keywords in Gherkins.
Not Bolded – Normal English
Since I am crazy about Ruby programming language, I am using JetBrains RubyMine 2016.1.1
to perform this unit testing. There are two important files need to be created to make this unit
testing successful.
1. The Gherkin script should be stored in a text file with the extension of .feature file. For our
example, the file could be stored in a password_management.feature file.
2. The ruby code has to be written in the ruby file with the extension .rb where the code is
written and validated against the gherkin. The file name should be step_definitions
When we run this gherkin script in JetBrians RubyMine, this cucumber will create a report to
verify whether the software behaves exactly as mentioned in the Gherkin document or whether
some codes are missing or incorrect.
To make this gherkin script to validate our code, we need to write some code, which translate the
texts in this Gherkin document in to the language, the software understands it. In our case, we are
using Ruby programming language. Cucumber looks for the matching words and executes that.
Repeat these steps until the result of the Gherkin scripts shows successful without any errors,
which means the code written is 100 % ready to deliver to the user. This is reason practitioners are
referring this cucumber unit testing tool as the acceptance testing.
Steps to play with cucumber
 Step 01: Open the RubyMine JetBrains.
 Step 02: Create folder as “feature” and create two files
• FilenameForGherkinScripts.feature
• Step_defination
 Step 03: Write the Gherkin Scripts in the .feature file
 Step 04: Run the .feature file
 Step 05: Check the errors throwed
 Step 06: Paste the Gherkin Scripts and Write the actual Ruby Code in the Step definitions
file
 Step 07: Again run the .feature file, repeat the steps 05 and 07 until all errors the are
cleared out
3

4. Figure 0.1 Flowchart of Cucumber
4

5. GherkinScript
Step_definitions
5

6. Step definitions – Final Code
Merits of Cucumber Unit Testing Tool
 This unit testing tool is the friendly and understandable by non technical user
 The Given-When-Then syntax of Cucumber scenarios imposes some structure on scenarios
while leaving plenty of room for teams to grow their own language to describe their system
 The style of writing test allows to reuse the gherkins scripts
 Predictability and improve the confidence among testers and developers
 The separation of the three level of feature in the gherkin scripts makes it easier to reuse
any part of the code
 As we know that interaction of Business and IT is not quite good. This cucumber makes the
bond stronger between by mentioning the customer’s executable specification to the team,
helping them to be aware of the business goals in mind at all times
 Automation in cucumber lets the specification updated in the gherkins scripts
 Automation leads to save the team from costly regression
 Even the reuse of code is possible, since we write the features in separate
6

7.  Supports other language as well beyond Ruby like Java, Scala, Groovy etc.
 Quick and easy set up and executions
 Cucumber focuses on end-user experience
 Efficient tool for testing
Demerits of Cucumber Unit Testing Tool
 Extra code for converting the textual specification to Ruby code
 One more layer between test description and the code (you need to make sure the code
really matches the description)
 Cucumber supports only web environment
Summary and my insights
As I mentioned earlier, I am learning Ruby Programming Language now, so I wanted to select
the unit testing tool for Ruby, I came across many tools such as JUnit, etc.. . These tools never
really made me interested. Then I came across this ‘Cucumber’, which is Behavior Driven
Development, made me excited and wanted to learn about it. I can say that this is most likely
performing the acceptance testing in initial phase itself, where testing will be carried out, keeping
customer in mind, how the application will behave for the customer. The most amazing thing
about this cucumber is that, ‘Gherkins Scripts’, these scripts are non-technical, anyone can
understand better, which makes everyone business analyst, testers, developers more comfortable.
These scripts really increase the confidence in the code once it is developed and execute. Even
though it has drawbacks such as extra task is involved for Gherkins Scripts, I feel like this
approach is better than any tool I have researched.
Reference
[1] Unit Testing, http://softwaretestingfundamentals.com/unit-testing/
[2] Steps to perform Unit Testing, http://www.exforsys.com/tutorials/testing/unit-testing.html
[3] Cucumber, https://cucumber.io/#why
[4] Procedure to perform cucumber and Pros/Cons,
http://www.slideshare.net/selvanathankapilan/cucumber-gherkin-language
[5] Step by step procedure, https://www.jetbrains.com/help/ruby/2016.1/creating-step-
definition.html
7