Reuse Cucumber steps

Question

I want to reuse some Cucumber steps but can't seem to find the right way.

I want to write a step like:

Given /^I login with (.*) credentials$/ |type|
  # do stuff with type being one of "invalid" or "valid"
end

But then have another step like:

Given /^I login successfully$
  # call "Given I login with valid credentials"
end

So in testing user authentication I can use the former, but most other places, I can use the latter, and not actually have to repro code.

Is there a way to call that other step, or do I just put the logic in a helper method, and call said method from each task (basically a method extraction refactoring, which, after reading my question makes me believe that's actually the best way anyway)?

Answer 1

Note that the method for calling steps within steps has changed in recent versions of cucumber, which you'll see if you get an error like "WARNING: Using 'Given/When/Then' in step definitions is deprecated, use 'step' to call other steps instead:/path/to/step_definitions/foo_steps.rb:631:in `block in ' ". See the cucumber wiki for details.

The gist of the change is that you should now use the step or steps methods.

When /^I make all my stuff shiny$/
  step "I polish my first thing"
end

When /^I make all my stuff shiny$/
  steps %Q{
    When I polish my first thing
    When I shine my second thing
  }
end