Confusing difference between #step and #steps

[farcaller]

having a scenario:

Scenario: successfully log in with existing account using login
  Given there is user "testuser" registered with email "test@user.net"
  When I sign in with "testuser" and password "helloworld"
  Then I should see account menu for "test@user.net"
  And I should see a flash message stating that login is successful

And steps:

When /^I click on link "([^"]*)"$/ do |link|
  click_on link
end

When /^I fill in "([^"]*)" with "([^"]*)"$/ do |field, data|
  fill_in field, :with => data
end

When /^I click on button "([^"]*)"$/ do |button|
  click_button button
end

The following step works:

When /^I register with username "([^"]*)" and email "([^"]*)"$/ do |username, email|
  step %Q{I click on link "Sign up"}
  step %Q{I fill in "Username" with "#{username}"}
  step %Q{I fill in "Email" with "#{email}"}
  step %Q{I fill in "Password" with "123456"}
  step %Q{I fill in "Confirm Password" with "123456"}
  step %Q{I click on button "Sign up"}
end

But this one fails:

When /^I register with username "([^"]*)" and email "([^"]*)"$/ do |username, email|
  steps %Q{
    I click on link "Sign up"
    I fill in "Username" with "#{username}"
    I fill in "Email" with "#{email}"
    I fill in "Password" with "123456"
    I fill in "Confirm Password" with "123456"
    I click on button "Sign up"
  }
end

with errors like:

When I register with username "testuser" and email "test@user.net"       # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:4
  Lexing error on line 2: '    I click on link "Sign up"'. See http://wiki.github.com/cucumber/gherkin/lexingerror for more information. (Gherkin::Lexer::LexingError)
  ./features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:12:in `/^I register with username "([^"]*)" and email "([^"]*)"$/'
  features/user_registers.feature:12:in `When I register with username "testuser" and email "test@user.net"'

[msassak]

I'm pretty sure this is failing because #steps parses its input with Gherkin but #step invokes the given step definition directly. If that's the case this behavior is definitely surprising. Renaming #step to #invoke might reduce confusion.

[aslakhellesoy]

That's right. This will work:

steps %Q{
  When I click on link "Sign up"
  And I fill in "Username" with "#{username}"
  And I fill in "Email" with "#{email}"
  And I fill in "Password" with "123456"
  And I fill in "Confirm Password" with "123456"
  And I click on button "Sign up"
}

@mattwynne - what do you think? Rename #step to #invoke? I can cut a release tomorrow and update the book to reference that. (We'd keep #step for a while and issue a deprecation warning if people use it).

[farcaller]

Uhh.. Yup, that's a good point. Then I have two issues (got When/And missing at some point).

Consider this:

When /^I sign in with "([^"]*)" and password "([^"]*)"$/ do |username, password|
  steps %Q{
    When I click on link "Sign in"
    And I fill in "Username or email" with "#{username}"
    And I fill in "Password" with "#{password}"
    And I click on button "Sign in"
  }
end

Although it looks valid, it fails randomly with

When I register with username "testuser" and email "test@user.net"       # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:4
  Lexing error on line 4: 'controller/metal/implicit_render.rb:4:in `send_action''. See http://wiki.github.com/cucumber/gherkin/lexingerror for more information. (Gherkin::Lexer::LexingError)
  ./features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:12:in `/^I register with username "([^"]*)" and email "([^"]*)"$/'
  features/user_registers.feature:12:in `When I register with username "testuser" and email "test@user.net"'

...

When I register with username "testuser" and email "other@user.net"  # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:4
  Lexing error on line 7: '= //label[contains(normalize-space(string(.)), 'Passwo'. See http://wiki.github.com/cucumber/gherkin/lexingerror for more information. (Gherkin::Lexer::LexingError)
  ./features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:12:in `/^I register with username "([^"]*)" and email "([^"]*)"$/'
  features/user_registers.feature:19:in `When I register with username "testuser" and email "other@user.net"'

[aslakhellesoy]

Randomly? You mean it will work sometimes and fail other times without any edits in-between?

[farcaller]

I mean that I have /I sign in with "([^"])" and password "([^"])/ in several scenarios of one feature, and lexing error is different each time (as shown above) in one cucumber run.

[aslakhellesoy]

Can you isolate it to one scenario? Then do this:

gherkin = %Q{...}
Kernel.puts gherkin
steps(gherkin)

And show us what gherkin is printed for the scenario where you get lexing error.

[farcaller]

Given

When /^I sign in with "([^"]*)" and password "([^"]*)"$/ do |username, password|
  gherkin = %Q{
    When I click on link "Sign in"
    And I fill in "Username or email" with "#{username}"
    And I fill in "Password" with "#{password}"
    And I click on button "Sign in"
  }

  Kernel.puts "    ---"
  Kernel.puts gherkin
  Kernel.puts "    +++"
  steps(gherkin)
end

I have the following failures:

Given there is user "testuser" registered with email "test@user.net" # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:27
---

When I click on link "Sign in"
And I fill in "Username or email" with "testuser"
And I fill in "Password" with "helloworld"
And I click on button "Sign in"

+++
When I sign in with "testuser" and password "helloworld"             # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:36
  Lexing error on line 4: 'Z?'. See http://wiki.github.com/cucumber/gherkin/lexingerror for more information. (Gherkin::Lexer::LexingError)
  ./features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:47:in `/^I sign in with "([^"]*)" and password "([^"]*)"$/'
  features/user_logs_in.feature:11:in `When I sign in with "testuser" and password "helloworld"'

and

Given there is user "testuser" registered with email "test@user.net" # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:27
---

When I click on link "Sign in"
And I fill in "Username or email" with "test@user.net"
And I fill in "Password" with "helloworld"
And I click on button "Sign in"

+++
When I sign in with "test@user.net" and password "helloworld"        # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:36
  Lexing error on line 4: 'eware/callbacks.rb:29:in `block in call''. See http://wiki.github.com/cucumber/gherkin/lexingerror for more information. (Gherkin::Lexer::LexingError)
  ./features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:47:in `/^I sign in with "([^"]*)" and password "([^"]*)"$/'
  features/user_logs_in.feature:17:in `When I sign in with "test@user.net" and password "hello world"'

and one successful:

Given there is no user "testuser" registered                     # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:1
---

When I click on link "Sign in"
And I fill in "Username or email" with "testuser"
And I fill in "Password" with "helloworld"
And I click on button "Sign in"

+++
When I sign in with "testuser" and password "helloworld"         # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:36
Then I should see login error                                    # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:59

and another successful:

Given I navigate to index page                             # features/step_definitions/web_steps.rb:1
---

When I click on link "Sign in"
And I fill in "Username or email" with "testuser"
And I fill in "Password" with "helloworld"
And I click on button "Sign in"

+++
And I am logged in as "testuser" and password "helloworld" # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:69

Where "I am logged in" is defined as:

Given /^I am logged in as "([^"]*)" and password "([^"]*)"$/ do |username, password|
  step %Q{there is user "#{username}" registered with email "test@user.net"}
  step %Q{I sign in with "#{username}" and password "#{password}"}
end

[farcaller]

Actually yes, it does fail randomly. After re-run:

Given there is user "testuser" registered with email "test@user.net" # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:27
When I register with username "hello" and email "test@user.net"      # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:4
  Lexing error on line 4: 'er/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p0@rails3/gems/haml-3.1.3/lib/haml/helpers/action_view_mods.rb:180:in `block in form_for_with_haml''. See http://wiki.github.com/cucumber/gherkin/lexingerror for more information. (Gherkin::Lexer::LexingError)
  ./features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:12:in `/^I register with username "([^"]*)" and email "([^"]*)"$/'
  features/user_registers.feature:24:in `When I register with username "hello" and email "test@user.net"'
Then I should see registration error                                 # features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb:31

(that was successful a moment ago).

Seem to be memory corruption issue here.

[msassak]

I see you're using MRI 1.9.3--can you run this with 1.9.2 and see what happens?

[aslakhellesoy]

Can you confirm that your ruby file is saved with UTF-8 encoding? And what OS are you on?

[mattwynne]

On 9 Nov 2011, at 10:26, Aslak Hellesøy wrote:

@mattwynne - what do you think? Rename #step to #invoke? I can cut a release tomorrow and update the book to reference that. (We'd keep #step for a while and issue a deprecation warning if people use it).

Sounds good to me.

[farcaller]

broken on MRI 1.9.3, also crashes jruby 1.6.5. Seem to work ok on MRI 1.9.2

[msassak]

That's a separate bug in Gherkin then. I created an issue for it here: cucumber/gherkin#142 and renamed this one to accurately reflect its content.

[tsemana]

The related issue opened under Gherkin is closed. Suggest this issue be closed as well.

[lock]

This thread has been automatically locked since there has not been any recent activity after it was closed. Please open a new issue for related bugs.