Step Expressions

Cucumber expressions

A step's sentence matcher is a cucumber expression: {int} {float} {word} {string}, optional text apple(s), alternation hot/cold. {number} is not a cucumber type -- clornichon defines it, so the glues written before still work, and it accepts a sign and decimals.

A literal /, ( or ) in a sentence must be escaped, or it reads as alternation or optional text:

(defthen "the folders {string} \\/ {string} exist" [state a b] ...)

Regular expressions

A glue defined with a #"..." literal stays a plain regex whatever it contains, matching the whole sentence, and its capture groups become the arguments -- make a group non-capturing ((?:a|b)) if it is only there to group. A string sentence wrapped in ^...$ or /.../ is read as a regex too.

Arguments

One argument per token of the sentence matcher, left to right, after the state -- and each token converts its capture: {int} gives a number, {string} the text without its quotes (single or double), {word} a String. The sentence's own literals are not read: what a step receives is what its tokens capture.

A datatable or a doc string is appended after those, as one more argument: a vector of maps keyed by the header row (keywords, cells as strings) for the table, the string for the doc string.

When I create a product "iphone 6" with properties
  | size | weight |
  | 6    | 2      |

(defwhen "I create a product {string} with properties" [state name props]
  ;; props => [{:size "6", :weight "2"}]
  ...)

Missing steps

Running a step that matches no glue prints a skeleton with the right expression. Quote the data in the sentence ("iphone 6") and it becomes a {string}:

Missing step for : When I create a new product with name "iphone 6" and description "awesome phone"
(defwhen "I create a new product with name {string} and description {string}"  [state arg0 arg1]  (do "something"))

With Kaocha, --dry-run lists every missing step without running anything -- see Running features.

Same sentence, several glues

When a sentence matches glues in several namespaces, the one closest to the feature's namespace wins. Two glues at the same distance raise an error listing both.