SpecFlow : How to write selenium Webdriver script with SpecFlow and C# using Visual Studio

SpecFlow is the .Net version of Cucumber. This is a Behavior development framework for .Net. Here we will show how we can implement our Selenium Webdriver script using SpecFlow framework.

Test Case : Verify the search Functionality of Google Search page

• Open the browser and navigate to “www.google.com”.
• Enter the word “SpecFlow” as Search Text.
• Click on Search button.
• Verify the search result.

Step One : Installing IDE integration package for SpecFlow

• Open Visual Studio and go to Tools>>Extension and Updates…

 

• Extensions and Update window is displayed. Enter the word “SpecFlow” at search text box and press enter from keyboard. “SpecFlow for Visual Studio 2013” package is displayed as Search Result.
• If you see Disable and Uninstall button then it means it is already installed with your IDE like the following.

• If you see Download button then Click on this button.

• It starts downloading.

• After finishing download,click on Install button.

• After finishing installation, click on Restart Now button.

• Visual Studio will be restarted and if you go to Tools>>Extension and Updates… and search with “SpecFlow” then you see “SpecFlow for Visual Studio 2013” is installed.
• In the same way search the extensions “NUnit Test Adapter” and Download it. It is used for NUnit Framework.

• Click on Install button.

• Click on Restart Now button to restart Visual Studio.

Step Two : Crating a new project with Unit Test Framework

• Click on File menu and go File>>New>>Project

• New project window is displayed.
• Select Visual C#
• Select Test
• Select Unit Test Project

• Enter project name as “GoogleSearchTest”
• Select Location. In my case “D:\Development\”.
• Select Solution name. In my case Solution name is same as Project name.
• Check Create Directory for solution
• Click on OK button.

• “GoogleSearchTest” project is created.

Step Three : Add SpecFlow  reference from nuget.org

• Go to Solution Explorer and Right click on Reference and click on Manage NuGet Packages…

• Manage NuGet Packages window is displayed.
• Enter the text SpecFlow at search text box and press enter from Keyboard.
• SpecFlow package is displayed at Search list.
• Click on Install button.

• Installation Started.

• After finishing installation, a green color icon is displayed and shown that SpecFlow is installed.

• In the same way, we need to add SepcFlow.NUnit package.

• Clicking on Install button will install this package.

Step Four : Add Selenium Webdriver reference from nuget.org

• Enter the text Selenium WebDriver at search text box and press enter from Keyboard

Selenium WebDriver package is displayed at Search list.

Click on Install button.

Latest WebDriver will be installed and added as Reference.

Select Selenium WebDriver Support Classes package and click on Install button.

• After finishing installation and click on Close button to close the Package Manager window.
• Now verify that all the References are showing properly at the solution explorer.

Step Five : Create a Feature file and write test case steps using gherkin syntax

• Right click on the Project and go to Project>>Add>>New Item.

• Add New Item window displayed.
• Select Visual C# Items.
• Select SpecFlow Feature File.
• Enter file name as “GoogleSearchFeature.feature”. Note that Feature file name must have the extension “.feature”.
• Click on Add button.

• New Feature file is added with the project.

• Double click on the File name “GoogleSearchFeature.feature” and File is opened at the Editor with default text.

• Write the Feature name as “GoogleSearch”. Remove all the default text from Feature section.

Feature: GoogleSearch

• Write the case title as the scenario.

Scenario: Verify the search Functionality of Google Search page

• Write the test case steps using Gherkin syntax (Given…GoogleSearchWhen…Then).

Given : It describes the precondition to execute test steps.
When : It describes the steps to perform the test.
Then : It describes the expected result. 

In our case, Given clause will be,

Given I navigate to the page "www.google.com"
And I see the page is loaded

Note that we an “And” operator to write multiple clauses. 

When clause will be,

When I enter Search Keyword in the Search Text box
| Keyword  |
| SpecFlow |
And I click on Search Button

Note that here we write data table for search keyword where we use “Keyword” as the table column name and “SpecFlow” is the data. 

Then clause will be,

Then Search items shows the items related to SpecFlow

Now the Feature file looks like, 

Step Six : Write code for every step

• Here we write code for every Feature file steps.
• In Order to write code we need Add a step definition class.
• Right click on the Project and go to Project>>Add>>New Item. 

• Add New Item window is displayed.
• Select Visual C# Items.
• Select SpecFlow Step Definition
• Enter file name as “GoogleSearchFeatureSteps.cs”.
• Click on Add button.

• New class file is added with the project named “GoogleSearchFeatureSteps.cs”.

• Go to GoogleSearchFeature.feature file.
• Right click on Feature name and click on Generate Step Definitions

• Generate Step Definition Skeleton window is displayed.
• Click on Copy Methods to clipboard button and window is closed.

• Go to GoogleSearchFeatureSteps.cs class. Remove all the sample codes from the class and it looks like the following.

• Right click on the editor and paste the code on GoogleSearchFeatureSteps class. GoogleSearchFeatureSteps.cs class looks like the following. 

• Now we need to write automated scripts for every steps
• We need to add the following name space at GoogleSearchFeatureSteps.cs class.
• Go to GoogleSearchFeature.feature file.
• Right click on the First line of Given clause and click Go to Step Definition.

• Note that  GoogleSearchFeatureSteps.cs file is opened and mouse cursor is blinked on the Given method. Also note that method name is the combination of all word of Given clause.

• Write the code for GivenINavigateToThePage() method.

Note that we do not need to write any comment here as Methods name describes the steps. This is the contribution BDD.

• Write code for GivenISeeThePageIsLoaded() method.

Here we just verify that appropriate page is loaded.

• Write code for WhenIEnterSearchKeywordInTheSearchTextBox() method.

Note that we use list of data in our feature file that SpecFlow converts to table. We can use it as normal Row/Column concept.

• Write code for WhenIClickOnSearchButton() method.

• Write code for ThenSearchItemsShowsTheItemsRelatedToSpecFlow() method.

• GoogleSearchFeatureSteps.cs class looks like the following,

Step Seven : Run the test

• Delete default class UnitTest1.cs as it is not needed.

• Build the solution by going to Build>>Build Solution.
• Go to Test>>Windows>>Test Explorer
• Note that the scenario name is the test name VerifyTheSearchFunctionalityOfGoogleSearchPage
• Right click on the test name and click on Run Selected test.
  

• Test will run using NUnit and Passed.

• Click on Output link.
• We see the output step by step as it is written in our Feature file.

This is the power of SpecFlow using BDD.

Lot more new things are coming…
Happy automated scripting with SpecFlow using the concept of BDD!!!…..!!!….