A Django2+, Py3.6+, Selenium3+ pattern framework to easily setup BDD tests, using behave, behave-django, and splinter.

In a Python 3.6, Django 2+ environment, install the following packages:

pip install behave behave-django selenium splinter

If you have some behave related errors try to install it from GitHub as explained in the behave documentations.

Run the following command to install the latest version from the GitHub repository:

pip install git+https://github.com/behave/behave

or (faster option)

pip install https://github.com/behave/behave/archive/master.zip#egg=behave

Create a behave.ini file in the Django project root directory containing the paths to the testing directories (or the feature directory inside of them), e.g.:

[behave]
paths = tests/bdd/
        myapp/tests/bdd/
        myotherapp/tests/bdd/

In order for the tests to locate your project static files, it is important to correctly set the STATICFILES_DIRS, e.g.:

STATICFILES_DIRS = [
    os.path.abspath('static'),
]

In order to define the default browser for Selenium testing, set BDD_DEFAULT_BROWSER to either 'chrome' (the default) or 'firefox'.

To enable headless testing (PhantomJS is deprecated), set BDD_HEADLESS_BROWSER to True (default is False).

To enable incognito mode for browsers, set BDD_INCOGNITO_BROWSER to True (default is False).

Tips Do not forget to include behave_django among the installed apps:

INSTALLED_APPS += ['behave_django']

Inside each BDD testing directory, test files should be created according to the following structure (the steps directory is often found inside the feature directory):

bdd/
    __init__.py
    features/
        myfeature.feature
    pages/
        __init__.py
        mypage.py
    steps/
        __init__.py
        mysteps.py

Define BDD features written in Gherkin in .feature files inside a directory named features. In case a web UI test is performed, the Chrome browser is used by default, nonetheless this can be changed decorating a certain Scenario with @browser.firefox or @browser.phantomjs.

Tips Features and scenarios can be tagged as described here, this allows running only a specific subset of tests (e.g. those related to a given user story).

Implement each step defined in the feature files, in Python files inside the steps directory. Use behave decorators: given, when and then (and and but steps should be decorated as the preceding main step).

In case a web UI is being tested, it is useful to define page objects tailored on specific web pages. splinter is used to provide basic interaction with the pages and lets the user choose which selenium driver (e.g. Chrome, Firefox or PhantomJS) to use. Each page class should be defined in Python files inside the pages directory and should inherit from the BasePage class found in pages/base.py. Each page is independent and might be instantiated with a different driver. The tools provided by splinter are accessible (and extendable) via self.browser (e.g. it might be convenient to define locators as the logo one in the smaple project).

• behave documentation
• behave-django documentation
• splinter documentation