On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 6:10 PM, Glenn F. [email protected] wrote:
Quoting Aslak
Given the customers joe, paul and lisa are registered users
When a user signs up as lisa
Then the user should be informed that the name is taken
And the user lisa should not be able to log in
You’re right, and I don’t literally write them in this format. But if
you interpret the business logic that’s in them into what they
actually mean technically, it really just is the state of the database
and I guess we can also add the session/cookies/flash.Even in the example you just gave, you express in your “Given” that in
the Users table of your db there are 3 entries. For your “When” there
is a user interacting with the web app. “Then” shows that an error is
in the response.
Actually, that there are three users with specific user names.
When a user tries to log in as lisa
Then the user should be informed that no such customer exists
Which if you step back and look at the whole story is problematic,
because, as I tried to point out, perhaps a bit too tongue in cheek,
‘Lisa’ here is ambiguous.
There is one Lisa who is already a registered user, and a second one
who tries to use the name which is already taken.
And I wouldn’t think that most reasonable systems would disable
Lisa1’s account because some Lisa2 tried and failed to use the same
name.
Because really the current statement includes multiple steps. Going
to the login page, filling out the data, submitting it, and then
checking the response/redirect. If there were an error in your “Then
the user $lisa should not be able to log in” step, it would be
untested and it’s actually not quite trivial since it’s not a single
step. That’s probably more nit-picky since I’m sure the step would be
used in many other places to give you added confidence, but since you
mentioned “When” is for actions and your example “And Then” has an
action, I still think it’s interesting to look at
And to make the distinction between Given’s, When’s and Then’s
fuzzier, there’s GivenScenario, which effectively converts all of a
scenario’s Givens, When’s and I guess Then’s into a Given for a
subsequent scenario.
–
Rick DeNatale
My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/