jchin1968's sandbox: BeEdit

BeEdit is an editor that allow users to create, edit and run Behat feature files directly from the Drupal web application.

Behat and the Gherkin language, which feature files are written in, is meant to be easy for non-technical users to write automated tests. However, the process for creating feature files is (until now) anything but easy for your average, non-technical process owner.

Feature files are stored and run on the Drupal server. So, previously, a process owner wishing to write features would usually have to do one of the following:

• Install a Drupal environment on their own laptop and then use a text editor to create the feature files while executing them using a command line console.
• SSH into a remote server and use an editor like vi to create their feature files and run them using the command line.
• Or, write the features in Microsoft Word, email the file to a developer who would then copy them into the Behat features folder. A slightly improved variation might have the process owner writing the features on Google Docs and sharing the link with the developer.

The first two options are tasks that even developers sometime have trouble with. So, it's unreasonable to expect non-technical users to do. The last option, which is likely the most common, is a poor solution since it require synchronizing files on two different platforms and process owners aren't able to get immediate feedback on the features they are writing.

With BeEdit, the process is much easier. Users can log into their Drupal site, create features in a manner similar to how they would create node content and run their tests directly from the web application.