Using placeholders in feature file of Behat

Question

I have a feature file as below

    Feature: Test send API request
    In order to test my API
    As a Tester
    I want to be able to perform HTTP request


    Scenario:Sending GET request to activate user after registration api to verify whether the response code is 403 when 'X-Auth-Token' is missing
            When I have a request "GET /api/activateuser?token=:tokenhash"
            And I set the "Accept" header to "application/json"
            And I set the "X-Auth-Token" header to "0125ee8dfe42bafbec95aa0d2676c91d8a780715b76504cf798aae6e74c08a30"
            .
            .

    Scenario:Sending GET request to activate user after registration api to verify whether the response code is 403 when 'X-Auth-Token' is invalid
            When I have a request "GET /api/activateuser?token=:tokenhash"
            And I set the "Accept" header to "application/json"
            And I set the "X-Auth-Token" header to "0125ee8dfe42bafbec95aa0d2676c91d8a780715b76504cf798aae6e74c08a30"
            .
            .

    Scenario:Sending GET request to activate user after registration api to verify whether the response code is 404 when userid is invalid
            When I have a request "GET /api/activateuser?token=:tokenhash"
            And I set the "Accept" header to "application/json"
            And I set the "X-Auth-Token" header to "0125ee8dfe42bafbec95aa0d2676c91d8a780715b76504cf798aae6e74c08a30"
            .
            .

In the request 'X-Auth-Token' parameter will be same for all scnerios, which will not change frequently. So I was thinking of setting it to some variable and use that variable in the scenarios. But havent found any method to do this in behat. It is okay evenif we can set the value in behat.yml and use it in the scenario, but even that was not possible.

Also i have more than one parameters that needed to be set like this.

So is there any method to set the value once and resuse it in every scenario?

Answer 1

You can use combination of two.

1. A Background where you run all common steps for all scenarios.
2. A BeforeFeature hook that prepares your current test scope.

What happens below is this.

1. @BeforeScenario tag runs prepare() method before everything else to set your variable for current feature session.

2. Step definitions under Background task run before each scenarios so you don't have to duplicate them in each scenarios.

NOTE: If your X-Auth-Token won't change frequently then just hard-code the value in your FeatureContext file and don't implement step 2 above at all. My example is there to give you an idea of some useful features of Behat.

EXAMPLE

Adjust it for your need!

FeatureContext

namespace Your\Bundle\Features\Context;

use Behat\Behat\Hook\Scope\BeforeScenarioScope;
...

class FeatureContext ...
{
    private static $xAuthToken;

    /**
     * @BeforeFeature
     */
    public static function prepare()
    {
        self::setXAuthToken();
    }

    private static function setXAuthToken()
    {
        self::$xAuthToken = 123;
    }

    /**
     * @Given /^I set the header "([^"]*)" to "([^"]*)"$/
     */
    public function iSetTheHeader($header, $value)
    {
        // Do whatever you want
    }

    /**
     * @Given /^I send "([^"]*)" request to "([^"]*)"$/
     */
    public function iSendRequest($method, $url)
    {
        // Do whatever you want
    }

    /**
     * @Given /^the X-Auth-Token is available$/
     */
    public function theXAuthTokenIsAvailable()
    {
        echo self::$xAuthToken;
    }
}

Feature file

Feature: Shared token

  Background: I am common to all scenarios
    Given I set the header "Accept" to "application/json"
    When I send "GET" request to "/api/hello-world"

  Scenario: 1
    Given the X-Auth-Token is available

  Scenario: 2
    Given the X-Auth-Token is available

RESULT