behaving is a web application testing framework for Behavior-Driven-Development, based on behave and splinter.
behave is written in Python and is similar to Cucumber or lettuce. behaving adds the step-libraries for multi-user web/email/sms/gcm interactions, and provides the Python behaving namespace so that independent step-libraries can work together.
Please refer to behave's excellent documentation for a guide on how to use it, how to write your custom steps and make it possible to extend behaving.
Starting to use behaving is pretty easy. Inside some python module, add your features consisting each of one or more scenarios. These features are Gherkin language files with an extension of .feature
. In the same directory you should have a steps module which imports the behaving steps as well as your own custom steps (more on that later in the setup section) . Here's a basic example:
Feature: Text presence Background: Given a browser Scenario: Search for BDD When I visit "http://www.wikipedia.org/" And I fill in "search" with "BDD" And I press "go" Then I should see "Behavior-driven development" within 5 seconds
While the web is the focus of behaving, it also includes simple mocks for a mail, SMS and a GCM server. These come with a small collection of steps allowing you to do things like:
Feature: Email & SMS Scenario: Click link in an email Given a browser When I send an email to "[email protected]" with subject "Crypho" and body "Try out our product at http://crypho.com" And I click the link in the email I received at "[email protected]" Then the browser's URL should be "http://crypho.com/" Scenario: Receive SMS with body When I send an sms to "+4745690001" with body "Hello world" Then I should receive an sms at "+4745690001" containing "world" Scenario: Receive GCM Notification When I send a gcm message "{"to":"deviceID", "data": {"message": "Foo Bar", "badge": 6}}" Then I should receive a gcm notification at "deviceID" containing "{'data': {'message': 'Foo Bar'}}"
Typically, it will be your web application that sends email/sms/notifications and testing it comes down to configuring the application to send email/sms/notifications to the mock servers.
A lot of web apps today rely on multi-user interactions. To help you with those interactions, behaving uses the notion of personas. A persona within a test runs in its own instance of a browser and you can have more than one persona (and its browser instance) running concurrently. You switch among personas by calling
Given "PersonaName" as the persona
Personas are also typically implemented as simple dictionaries allowing them to carry state, save and reuse variables inside a scenario. When a persona is first invoked it is created as an empty dictionary. You can predefine personas though with set values.
Let's take the familiar LOTR characters as our test users. On setting up the test environment (details later in the setup section), we set up the characters basic variables we might be needing in the tests as such:
PERSONAS = { 'Frodo': dict( fullname=u'Frodo Baggins', email=u'[email protected]', password=u'frodopass', mobile='+4745690001', address: { street: "The Shire", zip: "4321" } ), 'Gandalf': dict( fullname=u'Gandalf the Grey', email=u'[email protected]', password=u'gandalfpass', mobile='+4745690004', address: { street: "Rivendell street 1", zip: "1234" } ), ... } def before_scenario(context, scenario): ... context.personas = PERSONAS
Within a test and given a persona, you can now use $var_name
to access a variable of a persona. You can also set new variables on personas. So the following,
Given "Gandalf" as the persona When I fill in "name" with "$fullname" And I fill in "street" with "$address.street" And I set "title" to the text of "document-title" And I fill in "delete" with "$title" And I set "address.country" to the text of "country" And I set "postaddress" to: """ $fullname $address.street, $address.zip, $address.country """
would fill in the field with id name
with Gandalf the Grey
, street
with Rivendell street 1
set the variable title
to the text of the element with id document-title
and reuse the variable title
to fill in the field with id delete
. It would also store the value of the field with id "country" in address[country
].
The $var_name
pattern is also usable in the text received by steps that expect a body of text, which means that the postaddress
persona variable will contain Gandalf's complete snail-mail postage address nicely formatted on multiple lines.
Let us assume the following (coming from a real example) scenario. Crypho, is an online messaging/sharing site that provides users with end-to-end encrypted real-time communications. behaving was written to help test Crypho.
In Crypho, teams collaborate in spaces. To invite somebody in a space the invitee has to share a token with an invitor, so both can verify each other's identity.
Feature: Frodo invites Gandalf to The Shire space Given state "the-shire" Scenario: Frodo invites Gandalf to The Shire Given "Gandalf" as the persona When I log in
Before the scenarios start, the custom step Given state "the-shire"
executes. This preloads the db with data, sets up the server etc. Then the scenario executes:
First Gandalf logs in. The step Given "Gandalf" as the persona
, fires up a browser that belongs to the persona Gandalf. The following step, When I log in
is a custom step defined as follows:
@when('I log in') def log_in(context): assert context.persona context.execute_steps(u""" When I go to Home Then I should see an element with id "email" within 2 seconds When I fill in "email" with "$email" And I press "send-sms" Then I should see "We have sent you an SMS with a security code" within 2 seconds And I should receive an sms at "$mobile" And "token" should be enabled When I parse the sms I received at "$mobile" and set "Your Crypho code is {token}" And I fill in "token" with "$token" And I fill in "password" with "$password" And I press "login" Then I should see "Crypho" within 5 seconds """)
Observe above how the current persona (Gandalf) parses the sms it receives and saves it as "token". Later Gandalf reuses it to fill in the two-factor authentication field.
Now that Gandalf is logged in, the test proceeds with Frodo. Frodo will log in, and invite Gandalf to a private space.
Given "Frodo" as the persona When I log in And I click the link with text that contains "My spaces" And I click the link with text that contains "The Shire" And I press "invite-members" Then I should see "Invite members" within 1 seconds When I fill in "invitees" with "[email protected]" And I fill in "invitation-message" with "Come and join us!" And I press "send-invitations" Then I should see "Your invitations have been sent" within 2 seconds
Once the invitations are sent we switch back to Gandalf's browser, who should have received a notification in his browser, as well as an email. He then proceeds to send an sms to Frodo with the token who completes the invitation.
Given "Gandalf" as the persona Then I should see "Your invitations have been updated" within 2 seconds And I should receive an email at "[email protected]" containing "Frodo Baggins has invited you to join a private workspace in Crypho" When I click the link with text that contains "Invitations" And I click the link with text that contains "Pending invitations" Then I should see "Come and join us!" When I set "token" to the text of "invitation-token" And I send an sms to "45699900" with body "$token" Given "Frodo" as the persona Then I should receive an sms at "45699900" When I set "FrodoToken" to the body of the sms I received at "45699900" And I click the link with text that contains "Invitations" And I click the link with text that contains "Enter authorization token" And I fill in "auth-token" with "$FrodoToken" And I press "Submit" Then I should see "The invitation has been accepted." within 5 seconds And I should see "Gandalf the Grey has joined the space, invited by Frodo Baggins" within 10 seconds
You can see the test in action on video here.
There maybe instances where you require personas but do not want a seperate browser associated with each persona, this can be achieved by adding the attribute single_browser to the context object (usually performed in one of the hooks in environment.py
), e.g:
def before_scenario(context): context.single_browser = True
Start by installing behaving by using either pip
or easy_install
. This will also install dependencies and create the behave
script with which you invoke your tests. If you prefer using buildout, clone the package itself from its repository, it contains already a buildout configuration.
Typically you will be having a folder containing all your features and steps. For example a directory structure like the following:
features/ features/mytest.feature features/myothertest.feature features/environment.py features/steps/ features/steps/steps.py
In the steps directory you will need to import the behaving steps you need. You can also define your own steps. So steps.py
might look like:
from behave import when from behaving.web.steps import * from behaving.sms.steps import * from behaving.mail.steps import * from behaving.notifications.gcm.steps import * from behaving.personas.steps import * @when('I go to home') def go_to_home(context): context.browser.visit('https://localhost:8080/')
In environment.py
you specify settings as well the things that need to happen at various stages of testing, i.e. before and after everything, a feature run, or a scenario run. For convenience you can import and reuse behaving.environment
which will perform default actions like closing all browsers after a scenario, clean the email folder etc.
It is also possible to use behaving.web.environment
, behaving.mail.environment
, behaving.sms.environment
and behaving.personas.environment
on their own, if you don't have need for SMS for example.
An example of an environment that does simply set some variables and then rely on default actions for the various stages, might look like the following:
import os from behaving import environment as benv PERSONAS = {} def before_all(context): import mypackage context.attachment_dir = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(mypackage.__file__), 'tests/data') context.sms_path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(mypackage.__file__), '../../var/sms/') context.gcm_path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(mypackage.__file__), '../../var/gcm/') context.mail_path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(mypackage.__file__), '../../var/mail/') benv.before_all(context) def after_all(context): benv.after_all(context) def before_feature(context, feature): benv.before_feature(context, feature) def after_feature(context, feature): benv.after_feature(context, feature) def before_scenario(context, scenario): benv.before_scenario(context, scenario) context.personas = PERSONAS def after_scenario(context, scenario): benv.after_scenario(context, scenario)
The following variables are supported and can be set to override defaults:
screenshots_dir
(the path where screenshots will be saved. If it is set, any failure in a scenario will result in a screenshot of the browser at the time when the failure happened.)attachment_dir
(the path where file attachments can be found)sms_path
(the path to be used bysmsmock
to save sms. Defaults tocurrent_dir/sms
)gcm_path
(the path to be used bygcmmock
to save gcm notifications. Defaults tocurrent_dir/gcm
)mail_path
(the path to be used bymailmock
to save mail. Defaults tocurrent_dir/mail
)default_browser
default_browser_size
(tuple (width, height), applied to each browser as it's created)max_browser_attempts
(how many times to retry creating the browser if it fails)remote_webdriver
(whether to use the remote webdriver. Defaults toFalse
)browser_args
(a dict of additional keyword arguments used when creating a browser)base_url
(the base url for a browser, allows you to use relative paths)
You can run the tests simply by issuing
./bin/behave ./features
When behaving is installed, it creates three scripts to help you test mail, gcm and sms, mailmock
, gcmmock
and smsmock
respectively. You can directly invoke them before running your tests, they all take a port as well as the directory to output data as parameters. For example,
./bin/smsmock -p 8081 -o ./var/sms ./bin/gcmmock -p 8082 -o ./var/notifications/gcm ./bin/mailmock -p 8083 -o ./var/mail [--no-stdout]
Browsers
- Given a browser [opens the default browser, i.e. Firefox]
- Given
brand
as the default browser [sets the default browser to bebrand
, this is the browser name when using the remote webdriver or Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or PhantomJS] - Given Cordova as the default browser [for use with Cordova mobile apps]
- Given the electron app "
app_path
" [for use with electron-based desktop apps] - Given browser "
name
" [opens the browser namedname
] - When I reload
- When I go back
- When I go forward
- When I resize the browser to
width``x``height
- When I resize the viewport to
width``x``height
- When I take a screenshot
[will save a screenshot of the browser if
screenshots_dir
is set on the environment. Also, ifscreenshots_dir
is set, all failing tests will result in a screenshot.] - When I execute the script "
script
" - When I set the cookie "
key
" to "value
" - When I delete the cookie "
key
" - When I delete all cookies
- When I close the browser "
name
"
Frames
- When I switch to frame with css "
css
" - When I switch back to the main page
- When I switch to frame with css "
Windows
- When I open a new window named "
name
" at "url
" - When I name the current window "
name
" - When I switch to the window named "
name
"
- When I open a new window named "
URLs
- Given the base url "
url
" [sets the base url tourl
, alternatively setcontext.base_url
directly inenvironment.py
] - When I visit "
url
" - When I go to "
url
" - When I parse the url path and set "
{expression}
" - Then the browser's URL should be "
url
" - Then the browser's URL should contain "
text
" - Then the browser's URL should not contain "
text
"
- Given the base url "
Links
- When I click the link to "
url
" - When I click the link to a url that contains "
url
" - When I click the link with text "
text
" - When I click the link with text that contains "
text
"
- When I click the link to "
Text, element & class presence
When I wait for
timeout
secondsWhen I show the element with id "
id
"When I hide the element with id "
id
"Text
- Then I should see "
text
" - Then I should not see "
text
" - Then I should see "
text
" withintimeout
seconds - Then I should not see "
text
" withintimeout
seconds
- Then I should see "
ID
- Then I should see an element with id "
id
" - Then I should not see an element with id "
id
" - Then I should see an element with id "
id
" withintimeout
seconds - Then I should not see an element with id "
id
" withintimeout
seconds
- Then I should see an element with id "
CSS
Existence
- Then I should see an element with the css selector "
selector
" - Then I should not see an element with the css selector "
selector
" - Then I should see an element with the css selector "
selector
" withintimeout
seconds - Then I should not see an element with the css selector "
selector
" withintimeout
seconds - Then I should see
n
elements with the css selector "css
" - Then I should see at least
n
elements with the css selector "css
" withintimeout
seconds
- Then I should see an element with the css selector "
Visibility
- Then the element with the css selector "
css
" should be visible - Then the element with the css selector "
css
" should be visible withintimeout
seconds - Then the element with the css selector "
css
" should not be visible - Then the element with the css selector "
css
" should be visible withintimeout
seconds - Then {n:d} elements with the css selector "
css
" should be visible - Then {n:d} elements with the css selector "
css
" should be visible withintimeout
seconds - Then at least {n:d} elements with the css selector "
css
" should be visible - Then at least {n:d} elements with the css selector "
css
" should be visible withintimeout
seconds
- Then the element with the css selector "
Existence of a class on an element
- Then the element with xpath "
xpath
" should have the class "cls
" - Then the element with xpath "
xpath
" should not have the class "cls
" - Then the element with xpath "
xpath
" should have the class "cls
" withintimeout
seconds - Then the element with xpath "
xpath
" should not have the class "cls
" withintimeout
seconds - Then "
name
" should have the class "cls
" - Then "
name
" should not have the class "cls
" - Then "
name
" should have the class "cls
" withintimeout
seconds - Then "
name
" should not have the class "cls
" withintimeout:d
seconds
- Then the element with xpath "
XPath
- Then I should see an element with xpath "
xpath
" - Then I should not see an element with xpath "
xpath
" - Then I should see an element with xpath "
xpath
" withintimeout
seconds - Then I should not see an element with xpath "
xpath
" withintimeout
seconds
- Then I should see an element with xpath "
Forms
- When I fill in "
name
" with "value
" - When I clear field "
name
" - When I type "
value
" to "name
" [same as fill, but happens slowly triggering keyboard events] - When I choose "
value
" from "name
" - When I check "
name
" - When I uncheck "
name
" - When I select "
value
" from "name
"" - When I select by text "
text
" from "name
"" - When I press "
name|id|text|innerText
" - When I press the element with xpath "
xpath
" - When I attach the file "
path
" to "name
" - When I set the innner HTML of the element with id "
id
" to "contents
" [Sets html on acontenteditable
element with idid
tocontents
] - When I set the innner HTML of the element with class "
class
" to "contents
" - When I set the innner HTML of the element with class "
class
" to "contents
" - When I send "
KEY
" to "name
" - When I focus on "
name
" - Then field "
name
" should have the value "value
" - Then "
name
" should be enabled - Then "
name
" should be disabled - Then "
name
" should not be enabled - Then "
name
" should be valid - Then "
name
" should be invalid - Then "
name
" should not be valid - Then "
name
" should be required - Then "
name
" should not be required
- When I fill in "
- Alerts & prompts
- When I enter "
text
" to the alert - When I accept the alert
- When I dismiss the alert
- Then I should see an alert
- Then I should see an alert within
timeout
seconds - Then I should see an alert containing "
text
" - Then I should see an alert containing "
text
" withintimeout
seconds
- When I enter "
Mouse
- When I mouse over the element with xpath "
xpath
" - When I mouse out of the element with xpath "
xpath
"
- When I mouse over the element with xpath "
Downloads
- Then the file "
filename
" with contents "text
" should have been downloaded withintimeout
seconds - Then the file "
filename
" should have been downloaded withintimeout
seconds
- Then the file "
Persona interaction & variables
- When I set "
key
" to the text of "id|name
" - When I set "
key
" to the attribute "attr
" of the element with xpath "xpath
" - When I evaluate the script "
script
" and assign the result to "key
"
- When I set "
- When I click the link in the email I received at "
address
" - When I parse the email I received at "
address
" and set "expression
" - Then I should receive an email at "
address
" - Then I should receive an email at "
address
" with subject "subject
" - Then I should receive an email at "
address
" containing "text
" - Then I should receive an email at "
address
" with attachment "filename
" - Then I should not have received any emails at "
address
"
- When I set "
key
" to the body of the sms I received at "number
" - When I parse the sms I received at "
number
" and set "expression
" - Then I should receive an sms at "
number
" - Then I should receive an sms at "
number
" containing "text
"
- When I send a gcm message "{"to":"deviceID", "data": {"message": "Foo Bar", "badge": 6}}"
- Then I should receive a gcm notification at "deviceID" containing "{'data': {'message': 'Foo Bar'}}"
- Given "
name
" as the persona - When I set "
key
" to "value
" - When I set "
key
" to: """some longer body of text
usually multiline
""" - When I clone persona "
source
" to "target
" - Then "
key
" is set to "value
"
- When I pause the tests
Please see the Contribution Guidelines