Testing Software

Cucumber – tool for running automated tests written in plain language

Cucumber is a software tool that supports Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD). This is a software development process that aims to enhance software quality and reduce maintenance costs.

Cucumber reads executable specifications written in plain text and validates that the software does what those specifications say. The specifications consists of multiple examples, or scenarios. Cucumber allows the execution of feature documentation written in business-facing text

Its ordinary language parser is called Gherkin. It’s a set of grammar rules that makes plain text structured enough for Cucumber to understand. The purpose behind Gherkin’s syntax is to promote behavior-driven development practices across an entire development team, including business analysts and managers. Syntax is centered around a line-oriented design, similar to that of Python. Gherkin uses a set of special keywords to give structure and meaning to executable specifications. The Cucumber grammar exists in different flavours for many spoken languages so that your team can use the keywords in your own language.

Cucumber reduces the effort to keep requirements specifications, tests and documentation in sync – with Cucumber they are all the same documents – a single source of truth for everyone on the team.

Features include:

  • Automate with Selenium, API calls or direct function calls in the same process.
  • Generate reports in HTML, JSON and other formats, or build your own reports.
  • Integrate with CucumberStudio, JIRA or build your own plugins. Cucumber uses reporter plugins to produce reports that contain information about what scenarios have passed or failed.
  • Store plain text specifications alongside your code in your own source control system
  • Cross-platform support – works with Java, JavaScript, Ruby, .NET and many other languages.

Website: cucumber.io/tools/cucumber-open
Support: Documentation, GitHub Code Repository
Developer: SmartBear
License: MIT License

Cucumber is written in Java, TypeScript, C, Go, Ruby, C#, and other languages.

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