What is Hooks in Selenium

Hooks are blocks of code that run before or after each scenario in the Cucumber execution cycle. This allows us to manage the code workflow better and helps to reduce code redundancy. Hooks can be defined anywhere in the project or step definition layers using the methods @Before and @After. Hooks can be helpful for tasks like opening and closing a browser, initializing test data, or capturing screenshots on test failure.

Here is how hooks work in Selenium testing using a testing framework like TestNG:

Step 1: Import Dependencies:

You need to import the necessary libraries for Selenium and your testing framework (TestNG).

Step 2: Define Hook Methods:

Hooks are typically defined as methods in your test class and annotated with special annotations provided by the testing framework. The two most common annotations are:

1. @Before: This annotation indicates that the method should run before each test method (test case). It's often used for setup tasks, such as initializing the WebDriver or navigating to a specific URL before each test.

2. @After: This annotation indicates that the method should run after each test method. It's used for cleanup tasks, such as closing the browser or capturing screenshots after each test.

Here is an example of how you might define hook methods in a TestNG test class:

Here is an example for the failed Screenshots:

Step 3: Attach Hooks to Test Methods:

Cucumber associates hooks with scenario based on their location in the step definition file. Hooks will automatically run before or after the scenarios, depending on their annotation. In the example above, @BeforeAll hook runs before every scenario, and the @AfterAll hook runs after every scenario.

Conclusion:

Hooks provide a way to manage the test environment and ensure that it's properly set up and cleaned up before and after each scenario. This can help you maintain a consistent and reliable test execution process when using Selenium with Cucumber.

Happy Learning!