The cucumber framework refers to the testing tool whose main purpose is to support behavior-driven development. With this kind of framework in practice, you can write tests that are easy to understand irrespective of the technicality they hold.
Usually what happens in behavior-driven development is that the business analysts and product owners write scenarios and describe the behavior of the system but from the viewpoint of the customer.
Its purpose is to get it reviewed and sign off before the developers have begun writing their codes. The cucumber framework makes use of the Ruby programming language. Have you ever wondered why the cucumber framework is called the cucumber framework? It’s because it is as cool as a cucumber.
Let us know in greater depth about the software testing framework cucumber and its uses in selenium and java testing.
What’s the use of BDD in cucumber automation?
How behavior-driven development will work in cucumber automation is crucial to know. Let us try to figure out the same by way of an example. Let us suppose that you have to create a funds transfer module in a net banking application.
Consequently, there are diverse ways to test it in the cucumber testing framework. If there is enough balance in the source account, then fund transfer becomes easy. The account details should also be correct for the fund transfer to take place. Even if it is a bank holiday, then the fund transfer should take place.
Another thing to bear in mind while carrying out the transaction is that the security information entered should be correct. Usually, the developers develop features first and then go on to write the test later on. This makes the development complex.
Consequently, behavior-driven development was conceived. All of this makes the process easier for developers.
Selenium vs cucumber framework
In many ways, the selenium and cucumber frameworks are the same. As such, both are used for functional testing and are open-sourced. Still, there are some minute differences between the selenium and cucumber framework. Such as who uses them and when would you use them?
Let us learn the main difference between these frameworks in the post mentioned below.
- Selenium is an automation tool for web apps whereas cucumber is an automation tool for behavior-driven development.
- In addition to this, selenium executes UI tests whereas cucumber does acceptance testing.
- The cucumber framework is quite simple whereas selenium script creation is difficult and complex.
It is the technical teams such as programmers and SDET who prefer selenium. As far as the cucumber network is concerned, then it is preferred by the non-technical teams be it testers or business stakeholders.
Selenium framework holds the capability to work independently without any help from cucumber. But the same does not hold for the cucumber framework. The Cucumber network is dependent upon the selenium for implementation reasons.
About selenium framework
Selenium is a highly popular testing framework. Moreover, it has a diverse set of tools for testing web-based applications and automates browsers also.
All the software development engineers prefer using the selenium framework for testing purposes only. It assists them in writing test scripts in whatever programming language they desire be it java, ruby, python, PHP, or Groovy. Once the tests have been done, then they are executed also later on multiple browsers.
Selenium suit network has four networks:
- Selenium remote control
- Selenium integrated development environment
- Selenium grid
- Webdriver
Benefits of selenium
Selenium framework is extremely popular among testers and has numerous benefits. Not only this, it has become the favorite automation tool for many developers and testers across the globe due to its ease of use and availability.
It is widely used for web application testing being an open-source automation testing framework. Mainly, it is built on java testing but used for web applications. It is a leading automation tool in the automation industry.
With a wide range of browsers and platforms, it supports automation testing of the functional aspects of the web application. The software’s quality, usability, security, and performance are ensured by the selenium.
Everyone needs to work smartly without harming the quality of the product which can only be done by selenium. The advantages that selenium offers over other testing tools are quite good.
You can use the selenium network to write the test script which is later on executed by Java. As per your requirement, you can use java, ruby, PHP, and other programming environments.
What is Cucumber Framework?
In the cucumber framework, you can write the test scenarios by making use of plain language. People recognize it as a tool for behavior-driven development which is a software development process encouraging collaboration by using the plain English language known as gherkin.
It is such a language that anyone even from a non-technical background can read and understand easily. The framework originally was in a ruby programming language. But as time went by, it came to support numerous other programming languages such as java and Javascript. But most commonly, it is used for acceptance tests.
It is usually the business testers who prefer to use the cucumber framework on a team. There is another BDD framework known as quantum which can be understood even without the coding knowledge. Once you have defined the feature and scenario under test, then you have to provide the context, user action, and the expected outcome.
Perks of cucumber framework
Let’s have an insight into some of the benefits of the testing framework cucumber.
- The cucumber framework involves business stakeholders who can easily read the code.
- Its prime emphasis is on end-user experience.
- The setup and execution of the cucumber framework are pretty simple.
- Another benefit of the cucumber network is it supports multiple languages such as java, net, ruby, and many more.
- The Cucumber framework seems like a bridge between business and technical language.
- It is a highly efficient tool. Moreover, no knowledge of coding is required.
Cucumber and selenium framework
Some organizations implement the cucumber network for selenium framework to make room for reliable test automation. They can develop a shared understanding of the software’s performance by doing so. In addition to this, it improves collaboration between the testers, coders, and decision-makers. It also automates web testing across web browsers at scale.
In some rare cases, the business side of the organization may not have the required inputs as it depends on how the application behaves. Depending upon the size of your team or the automation work, it may also be true. Be it any case, using the cucumber framework at the test creation phase may not be necessary.
The appropriate time to use the selenium and cucumber network
Wondering what is the ideal time to use selenium and cucumber networks? If this is so, then here’s an answer of the same. As everyone is familiar with, selenium is the tool for automating scenarios at the UI layer which goes on to check the behavior of the system as a whole.
Selenium turns out to be the best tool whenever it’s about automating scenarios at the UI layer and checking the whole system’s behavior. The best time to use the selenium is during system integration and UI testing.
Writing cucumber feature files will not serve the purpose of automation. Moreover, it will be a complicated task. One should sue the cucumber tool for story testing. With integration tests, cucumber checks the behavior of the API layer. There is a provision to test each feature thoroughly. Cucumber works beautifully with a simplistic and naive view of scenarios.
Conclusion
Both cucumber and selenium tools can be downloaded easily as they are free and open source. You can also integrate it with selenium for testing and use it for cross-browser web applications. You can use the scripts again for diverse platforms and languages. Both are regarded as the best tools in the process. Getting the combination of selenium and cucumber brings you ample advantages such as providing readability of the code and the steps required easily. Also, learn about the best software testing companies in India to know more about it.