package Test::BDD::Cucumber::Manual::Steps;

=head1 NAME

Test::BDD::Cucumber::Manual::Steps - How to write Step Definitions

=head1 VERSION

version 0.41

=head1 INTRODUCTION

The 'code' part of a Cucumber test-suite are the Step Definition files which
match steps, and execute code based on them. This document aims to give you a
quick overview of those.

=head1 STARTING OFF

Most of your step files will want to start something like:

 #!perl

 use strict;
 use warnings;

 use Test::More;
 use Test::BDD::Cucumber::StepFile;

The fake shebang line gives some hints to syntax highlighters, and
C<use strict;> and C<use warnings;> are hopefully fairly standard at this point.

Most of I<my> Step Definition files make use of L<Test::More>, but you can use
any L<Test::Builder> based testing module. Your step will pass its pass or fail
status back to its harness via L<Test::Builder> - B<each step is run as if it
were its own tiny test file>, with its own localized L<Test::Builder> object.

L<Test::BDD::Cucumber::StepFile> gives us the functions C<Given()>, C<When()>,
C<Then()> and C<Step()>. These pass the step definitions to the class loading
the step definitions, and specify which Step Verb should be used - C<Step()>
matches any.

=head1 STEP DEFINITIONS

 Given qr/I have (\d+)/, sub {
    S->{'count'} += $1;
 }

 When "The count is an integer", sub {
    S->{'count'} =
        int( S->{'count'} );
 }

 Then qr/The count should be (\d+)/, sub {
    is( S->{'count'}, C->matches->[0], "Count matches" );
 }

Each of the exported verb functions accept a regular expression (or a string
that's used as one), and a coderef. The coderef is passed a single argument,
the L<Test::BDD::Cucumber::StepContext> object. Before the subref is executed,
localized definitions of C<S> and C<C> are set, such that the lines below are
equivalent:

  # Access the first match
  sub { my $context = shift; print $context->matches->[0] }
  sub { C->matches->[0] }

  # Set a value in the scenario-level stash
  sub { my $context = shift; my $stash = $context->stash; $stash->{'count'} = 1 }
  sub { S->{'count'} = 1 }

We will evaluate the regex immediately before we execute the coderef, so you
can use $1, $2, $etc, although these are also available via the StepContext.

=head1 NEXT STEPS

How step files are loaded is discussed in
L<Test::BDD::Cucumber::Manual::Architecture>, but isn't of much interest. Of
far more interest should be seeing what you have available in
L<Test::BDD::Cucumber::StepContext>...

=head1 AUTHOR

Peter Sergeant C<pete@clueball.com>

=head1 LICENSE

Copyright 2011-2014, Peter Sergeant; Licensed under the same terms as Perl

=cut

1;
