Get cucumber datatable in hooks file using Ruby/Watir

Question

First time here so I'll try to be most readable possible. I have a test in a feature file which uses a datatable for sorting some data as seen below:

Current cucumber test example

Currently I am using scenario.test_steps.map(&:name) to get all the steps (this is necessary because of an integration to an application lifecycle software manager) in an array and this is what I get:

Cucumber steps got in the hooks file

My question is: is it possible to get the datatable information in the Before do |scenario| hook over the hooks file?

Thanks in advance to anyone who helps!

Answer 1

When iterating through scenario.test_steps, each test step has an associated Cucumber::Core::Ast::Step. This contains the step specific information such as the step name, data table, etc. The associated Ast::Step will be the last element of the test step's source:

test_step.source
#=> [
#=> #<Cucumber::Core::Ast::Feature "Feature: Something" (features/something.feature:1)>,
#=> #<Cucumber::Core::Ast::Scenario "Scenario: Only a test" (features/something.feature:3)>, 
#=> #<Cucumber::Core::Ast::Step "Given : the fields" (features/something.feature:4)>
#=> ]

To access the Ast::Step multi-line argument, check the multiline_arg. If a data table has been specified, an Ast::DataTable will be returned. Otherwise, an Ast::EmptyMultilineArgument will be returned. You can check if the returned value is a data table by calling data_table?.

As an example, the below would iterate through each test step and output the data table if defined:

Before do |scenario| 
 scenario.test_steps.each do |test_step|
 multiline_arg = test_step.source.last.multiline_arg
 puts multiline_arg.raw if multiline_arg.data_table?
 end
end

• Eduardo Wagner: Thanks for the reply @Justin Ko. I copy and paste exactly as you put it but didn't work so I did some changes using a begin rescue block and voilá it worked!