What is the correct way to use @ParameterType in Cucumber in Java binding

[elysium306]

Hello everyone,

I am trying to define a customer param for some special case

I remember we used to be able to define inline parameters, like

Given some action
| action1 |
| action2 |
| action3|
When do something else
Then get some result

and it seems like it have been removed, or replaced with current DataTable dataTable ( I admit it's so powerful, we can do amazing things with it)

in my case, I am trying to escape something range of numbers, and I don't want to treat it like argument as well

for better readability, I want to display those numbers just like regular text that is displayed on the console, long story short

'''
  @CustomerTag
  Scenario: Customer tags example
    Given some action '1 - 5' 'Brave Heart'
    When some something else '6 - 17' 'Pride and Prejudice'
    Then some result is generated
'''

and I defined this

'''

    	@ParameterType("(.*)")
	public String custom(String paramType) {
		return paramType;
	}

and I am trying to use it like this

      @Given("some action {custom} {string}")
	public void some_action(String custom, String string) {
		System.out.println("some action {custom} {string}");
		System.out.println(string);
	}

	@When("some something else {custom} {string}")
	public void some_something_else(String custom, String string) {
		System.out.println("some something else {custom} {string}");
		System.out.println(string);
	}

	@Then("some result is generated")
	public void some_result_is_generated() {
		System.out.println("some result is generated");
	}

'''

hoping in the report, it displays as much close to 

'''
    Given some action '1 - 5' 'Brave Heart'
    When some something else '6 - 17' 'Pride and Prejudice'
    Then some result is generated
'''

as possible

but never got it to work

it is complaining that my parameter type was "not registered", I've tried lots of things, but still no luck

I know it has to work, otherwise it would have been removed by now, but just couldn't figure out how to use it. 

if someone who's familiar with this can give me some tips, would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you guys!! lots of love!

[mpkorstanje]

At a glance it looks like the class your parameter type definition is declared in is not on the glue path. For a quick test put it in the same class as your step definitions.

If that doesn't help, please fork https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber-java-skeleton and show your problem there.

[elysium306]

This is what I have

originally, I have defined both @ParameterType() and the other step implementations in the same class.

just couldn't get them to work. if possible, do you mind trying to replica the same issue to see if it works for you?

basically, in my real world project, I wanted to keep that age range 1 - 5, and then 6 - 17 as is when implemented for the non-technical readers who's reading the test.

with some changes in Cucumber, now print it on the console became so much harder.

and I've learnt that, even if I get this to work, it may actually come back as another argument in the method, instead of just printing it.

I didn't even want to wrap around ``, just leave it as is, but Cucumber translated as "{int} - {int}", when I didn't wrap it around backtik, which seems to be even worse :)

Thank you for your response! Hopefully you or someone can give me some tips on how to work around this challenge.

[mpkorstanje]

if possible, do you mind trying to replica the same issue to see if it works for you?

This works for me:

Feature: Custom parameters

  Scenario: example
    Given I read chapters 1 - 15 of 'Pride and Prejudice'

package io.cucumber.skeleton;

import io.cucumber.java.ParameterType;
import io.cucumber.java.en.Given;

public class StepDefinitions {

    @ParameterType(".*")
    public String custom(String value) {
        return value;
    }

    @Given("I read chapters {custom} of {string}")
    public void i_read_chapters_of(String chapterRange, String book) {
    }

}

$ mvn test
...
INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]  T E S T S
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Running io.cucumber.skeleton.RunCucumberTest

Scenario: example                                       # io/cucumber/skeleton/belly.feature:3
  Given I read chapters 1 - 15 of 'Pride and Prejudice' # io.cucumber.skeleton.StepDefinitions.i_read_chapters_of(java.lang.String,java.lang.String)
[INFO] Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.077 s -- in io.cucumber.skeleton.RunCucumberTest
[INFO] 
[INFO] Results:
[INFO] 
[INFO] Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
[INFO] 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

with some changes in Cucumber, now print it on the console became so much harder.
and I've learnt that, even if I get this to work, it may actually come back as another argument in the method, instead of just printing it.

I'm not sure I'm following. Can you be more precise?

What was the behavior before and what was the behavior after? Which versions of Cucumber were you using?

I didn't even want to wrap around ``, just leave it as is, but Cucumber translated as "{int} - {int}", when I didn't wrap it around backtik, which seems to be even worse :)

The snippets suggested by Cucumber are just that, suggestions meant to help you get started. You may choose to ignore them and write your own step definition.

If you want to see snippets with your custom types you can set useForSnippets. Though when you do this, it is good to have a more specific regular expression. For example with.

public class StepDefinitions {

    public record ChapterRange(Integer from, Integer to) {

    }
    @ParameterType(value = "(\\d)+ - (\\d)+", useForSnippets = true)
    public ChapterRange chapters(String from, String to) {
        return new ChapterRange(Integer.parseInt(from), Integer.parseInt(to));
    }

}

The suggested snippet will use your custom type.

$ mvn test
...
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]  T E S T S
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Running io.cucumber.skeleton.RunCucumberTest

Scenario: example                                       # io/cucumber/skeleton/belly.feature:3
  Given I read chapters 1 - 15 of 'Pride and Prejudice'
[ERROR] Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.096 s <<< FAILURE! -- in io.cucumber.skeleton.RunCucumberTest
[ERROR] Custom parameters.Custom parameters - example -- Time elapsed: 0.049 s <<< ERROR!
io.cucumber.junit.platform.engine.UndefinedStepException: 
The step 'I read chapters 1 - 15 of 'Pride and Prejudice'' is undefined.
You can implement this step using the snippet(s) below:

@Given("I read chapters {chapters} of {string}")
public void i_read_chapters_of(ChapterRange chapters, String string) {
    // Write code here that turns the phrase above into concrete actions
    throw new io.cucumber.java.PendingException();
}