Cucumber.js FP step definitions

This little library brings functional programming style step definitions to Cucumber.js. We highly recommend using it with TypeScript as it enforces read-only constraints on the context and all its nested members in your functional step definitions.

Install

npm install --save-dev cucumber-fp

Install Cucumber.js if you haven't done so already:

npm install --save-dev @cucumber/cucumber

Usage

Instead of using the regular step definition functions from Cucumber, call withContext to initialise a context and get FP-aware functions:

import { withContext } from 'cucumber-fp'

const { Given, When, Then } = withContext({ a: 0 })

Given('a step', (ctx) => ({ ...ctx, a: 1 }))
When('another step', (ctx) => ({ ...ctx, b: 2 }))
Then('a third step', (ctx) => ({ ...ctx, c: 3 }))

A context (ctx) is expected to be returned from every step and is passed to the next as the first parameter, followed by the regular step parameters inferred from the Cucumber expression or regular expression. The context is used to store and share state between steps. In other words, it replaces the usual World instance used in regular Cucumber steps.

Promises are supported:

Given('a step', async (ctx) => {
  await someAsyncFunction(ctx.someState)
  return { ...ctx, a: 1 }
})

And old-school callbacks are also supported:

const { withCallbacks: { Given, When, Then } } = withContext({ a: 0 })

Given('some step', (ctx, cb) => cb(null, { ...ctx, d: 9 }))

Mutations of context are forbidden

interface MyContext { a: string[] }
const initialContext: MyContext = { a: ['a', 'b'] }
const { When } = withContext(initialContext)

When('a step', (ctx) => {
  ctx.a.push('c')
  //    ^--- TypeScript compiler will fail here,
  //         `ctx` is deeply read-only. The following
  //          would work instead:
  ctx = { ...ctx, a: [...ctx.a, 'c']}
  return ctx
})

The type of ctx passed to your step definitions is always DeepReadonly<C> (where C is the type of your context, in the example above, MyContext). That means all mutation operations are forbidden.

Theses constraints have no effects if you're not writing your step definitions in TypeScript, which we highly recommend.

Steps that don't change context

Often, step definitions do not make any changes to the context. That's especially true for Then steps that usually only contain assertions. In such cases, you can use the tap function to avoid returning the original context:

const { Then, tap } = withContext({ a: 0 })

Then('c should exist', tap((ctx) => assert(ctx.c)))
Then('d should equal {int}', tap((ctx, expected) => assert.equal(ctx.d, expected)))

When working with callbacks, tap() is not needed, you can simply omit the context when calling back:

const { withCallbacks: { Then } } = withContext({ a: 0 })

Then('c should exist', (ctx, cb) => {
  assert(ctx.c)
  cb()
})