Should the step definition attribute in the .feature file be the same as the one defined in the step implementation?

[Biwya]

Hi all,

I have just recently moved from Java to .NET and, therefore, from Cucumber to Reqnroll. As of now the transition has been seamless, except for one detail, which I am not sure whether it is a feature or a bug. So, before opening an issue, I was thinking to ask it here. Well, the title of the discussion is the question itself, so let me elaborate a bit here with examples.

For example we have a step definition with the attribute of When:

[When("the user signs in")]
// Method definition

In some scenarios it makes sense indeed to use it as a When step, while in others it could also be used as a Given step. In the current 1.0.1 version of Reqnroll if we create a step in a feature with the Given attribute to the step defined with When attribute, we get an error stating that "Test could not be run".
A simple workaround would be to create an additional definition to the same method like:

[Given("the user signs in")]
[When("the user signs in")]
// Method definition

Is it intended to be like this?

I am mostly curious because in Cucumber the attribute has a pure linguistic role and is not mapped 1:1 to the attribute declared in the step definition.

Thank you very much for reading this post and I wish you a wonderful day ahead!

P.S. This is my first ever post on a Github discussion board and also in a project with open-source community. If I made any mistakes, please let me know :)

[ajeckmans]

The given, when, then are tightly coupled to the place in the scenario, yes. And AFAIK have always been in specflow and now Reqroll.

(If you start a scenario with just And it will also imply/infer you meant Given and search for a step marked with that.)

I don't know if the tight coupling was actually a conscious choice, but it does allow you to have two different implementations for an otherwise equal given, when and even then step. Never ran into a situation that was handy, but hey, it is there.

Marking the step with two attributes is quite common in at least the projects I've worked on.

[Biwya]

Thanks for the answer! It covered all the relevant points.

[gasparnagy]

@Biwya The only addition to the answer of @ajeckmans that if you really need, you can use the [StepDefinition("the user signs in")] attribute that matches to any kind of step.