[POLL] Cucumber Transform

47 views
Skip to first unread message

aslak hellesoy

unread,
Feb 16, 2011, 4:36:34 PM2/16/11
to Cucumber Users
I'd like to gauge a lesser known feature of Cucumber - Transform.
Which category are you in?

a) I use it
b) I know what it is, but I don't use it
c) Transform - whazzat?

Cheers,
Aslak

Craig Demyanovich

unread,
Feb 16, 2011, 4:42:31 PM2/16/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
b

Hedge Hog

unread,
Feb 16, 2011, 4:44:24 PM2/16/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
c

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Cukes" group.
> To post to this group, send email to cu...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> cukes+un...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/cukes?hl=en.
>

--
πόλλ' οἶδ ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα
[The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.]
  Archilochus, Greek poet (c. 680 BC – c. 645 BC)
http://wiki.hedgehogshiatus.com

Chris Mear

unread,
Feb 16, 2011, 4:57:47 PM2/16/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com

c) whazzat?

Chris

Jonas Nicklas

unread,
Feb 16, 2011, 5:02:45 PM2/16/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com, aslak hellesoy
a!

I love Transform, it's super awesome!

/Jonas

Julian Simpson

unread,
Feb 16, 2011, 5:12:13 PM2/16/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
c) sadly.
--
Julian Simpson
The Build Doctor Ltd.

Remi Gagnon

unread,
Feb 16, 2011, 5:25:59 PM2/16/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
C) 

Sent from my iPhone 4

tetsu yatsu

unread,
Feb 16, 2011, 6:32:13 PM2/16/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com, aslak hellesoy
B

Les Hill gave a talk on Cucumber and included it at MagicRuby.

I've been using Pickle exclusively since I saw somebody using it in one of our projects. It's like a replacement for Pickle?

In my experience, writing cucumber step definitions or mucking with cucumber code at all usually leads to me wasting a lot of time on things that will be irrelevant in other projects I have to continue development on, or that will need a lot of maintenance as we develop new features.

I prefer to keep to dumb, reliable, factory-based Pickle. It solves most all of my problems, and keeps me writing tests.

Aslak Hellesøy

unread,
Feb 16, 2011, 7:10:45 PM2/16/11
to tetsu yatsu, cu...@googlegroups.com




On Feb 16, 2011, at 23:32, tetsu yatsu <tets...@gmail.com> wrote:

B

Les Hill gave a talk on Cucumber and included it at MagicRuby.

I've been using Pickle exclusively since I saw somebody using it in one of our projects. It's like a replacement for Pickle?


Transform is part of Cucumber's API and predates Pickle. Both provide different ways to create objects from Gherkin.

Pickle does this by exposing intimate details about the database schema to Gherkin. This has several drawbacks as explained in the links below.

Transform lets you do the same without exposing internals to Gherkin - thus allowing a more business-friendly domain language.

http://dannorth.net/2011/01/31/whose-domain-is-it-anyway/

Aslak

John Feminella

unread,
Feb 16, 2011, 7:16:26 PM2/16/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
I'm in the (a) camp.

~ jf
--
John Feminella
Principal Consultant, BitsBuilder
LI: http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnxf
SO: http://stackoverflow.com/users/75170/

Franklin Webber

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 1:10:28 AM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
I'm an A. I would even say that I'm addicted to them.

Jonathan Linowes

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 1:22:05 AM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
c

but now that I know, I want to start using it :)

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cukes" group.
> To post to this group, send email to cu...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cukes+un...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cukes?hl=en.
>

-- jonathan linowes
parkerhill technology group llc
jona...@parkerhill.com
office: 603-838-2884

tech blog: http://vaporbase.com
personal tumblog: http://jon.linow.es
facebook: http://facebook.com/jon.linowes
twitter: @linojon

Chris Mear

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 2:54:11 AM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
On 17 Feb 2011, at 06:22, Jonathan Linowes <lin...@gmail.com> wrote:

> c
>
> but now that I know, I want to start using it :)

Actually yes, I should amend my previous answer to this! Looks like a really handy feature.

Chris

schlick

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 4:14:10 AM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
I suppose I'm an (a) but I've only just use a transform for the first time last week to handle a situation where I needed to transform boolean values out of a cucumber table. I've never used them before because I never needed to. Pickle does the job for me very well.

Michael.

Joaquin Rivera Padron

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 4:38:34 AM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com, schlick
a

being  or not an alternative to pickle or other (from the implementation point of view), I like the encapsulation it provides in terms of language

jk

2011/2/17 schlick <mic...@starclass.com.au>
I suppose I'm an (a) but I've only just use a transform for the first time last week to handle a situation where I needed to transform boolean values out of a cucumber table. I've never used them before because I never needed to. Pickle does the job for me very well.

Michael.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cukes" group.
To post to this group, send email to cu...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cukes+un...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cukes?hl=en.

Arve Knudsen

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 4:48:34 AM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
c I'm afraid.

Arve

Alejandro Cuesta

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 4:12:46 AM2/17/11
to Cukes
C)

Tom ten Thij

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 5:41:56 AM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
a)

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
 Tom ten Thij
 Unboxed Consulting, http://unboxedconsulting.com
 T: +44 20 3137 2943 F: +44 20 7183 4251
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Rob Park

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 7:08:32 AM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
c


Sean Tiley

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 7:17:28 AM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com

C

Carl

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 7:43:24 AM2/17/11
to Cukes
I would be a "C". You have peaked my curiosity so now I must learn
more!

byrnejb

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 10:08:22 AM2/17/11
to Cukes
At the time of posting: C, now: B. Tomorrow: perhaps A.

I found this helpful

http://www.engineyard.com/blog/2009/cucumber-step-argument-transforms/

Kosmas Chatzimichalis

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 10:47:01 AM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com


On 17 February 2011 15:08, byrnejb <byr...@harte-lyne.ca> wrote:


On Feb 16, 4:36 pm, aslak hellesoy <aslak.helle...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'd like to gauge a lesser known feature of Cucumber - Transform.
> Which category are you in?
>
> a) I use it
> b) I know what it is, but I don't use it
> c) Transform - whazzat?
>

Between b and a.
Know what it is, and about to use it. :-)

Mike Sassak

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 11:15:46 AM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com

I was in a) for a while, but now I'm in b). I prefer helper methods.

Mike

Mike Sassak

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 11:16:16 AM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 3:36 PM, aslak hellesoy
<aslak.h...@gmail.com> wrote:

I was in a) for a while, but now I'm in b). I prefer helper methods.

Andy Tinkham

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 12:07:36 PM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
I'm in the same boat. Initially c when I started reading this thread, now b (after reading the blog post - thanks for the link, byrnejb!). I don't think I'll get to A tomorrow, but I can definitely see places where I'll end up using it most likely given where I'm going with our test suite.

I found this helpful

http://www.engineyard.com/blog/2009/cucumber-step-argument-transforms/

--

Irish

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 1:24:34 PM2/17/11
to Cukes
B

On Feb 16, 2:36 pm, aslak hellesoy <aslak.helle...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'd like to gauge a lesser known feature of Cucumber - Transform.
> Which category are you in?
>
> a) I use it
> b) I know what it is, but I don't use it
> c) Transform - whazzat?
>
> Cheers,
> Aslak

Dmitriy Korobskiy

unread,
Feb 17, 2011, 1:51:58 PM2/17/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
c) for now, but I'll definitely learn about it.

--
DK
AIM: DKroot1, Skype: DKroot

Andrew Premdas

unread,
Feb 18, 2011, 11:52:25 AM2/18/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
On 16 February 2011 21:36, aslak hellesoy <aslak.h...@gmail.com> wrote:
I'd like to gauge a lesser known feature of Cucumber - Transform.
Which category are you in?

a) I use it
b) I know what it is, but I don't use it
c) Transform - whazzat?

Cheers,
Aslak


b - would love to see a really good reason to use it. Currently I feel its just not necessary, but I also think that I'm ignorant about it. 
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cukes" group.
To post to this group, send email to cu...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cukes+un...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cukes?hl=en.




--
------------------------
Andrew Premdas

Andreas Simon

unread,
Feb 18, 2011, 12:01:11 PM2/18/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
C

Simon Harris

unread,
Feb 18, 2011, 2:43:42 PM2/18/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
C

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cukes" group.
> To post to this group, send email to cu...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cukes+un...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cukes?hl=en.
>

Simon Harris
--
w: http://www.harukizaemon.com/
e: haruki...@mac.com
m: +61 417 505 611
t: @haruki_zaemon

Powers Foss

unread,
Feb 18, 2011, 3:15:25 PM2/18/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
C

Robert

unread,
Feb 20, 2011, 11:35:57 AM2/20/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
c

Jeff Morgan

unread,
Feb 20, 2011, 1:14:44 PM2/20/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
C for me as well. Thanks for pointing out this feature Aslak. I
spent a little time
playing with it and posted this blog entry to share my experience.

http://www.cheezyworld.com/2011/02/20/transforming-my-cukes/

-Cheezy

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 11:35 AM, Robert <rest...@gmail.com> wrote:
> c

tomas.p...@zhdk.ch

unread,
Feb 22, 2011, 4:32:26 AM2/22/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
Am 16.02.2011 um 22:36 schrieb aslak hellesoy:

> I'd like to gauge a lesser known feature of Cucumber - Transform.
> Which category are you in?
>
> a) I use it
> b) I know what it is, but I don't use it
> c) Transform - whazzat?

b)

Too me it seems like an additional layer of magic, that makes
it harder to understand what's going. I was multiple times
about to use Transforms and fell back to explicit transformations
each time.

Once one gets accustomed to "magic tools" however, they become
all "normal", so it might just be that I've not taken that last
step of using Transforms casually...

Thanks for having created Cucumber, I find the tool very helpful,
*t

Rob Holland

unread,
Feb 24, 2011, 6:50:26 AM2/24/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com
On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 9:32 AM, <tomas.p...@zhdk.ch> wrote:
> Am 16.02.2011 um 22:36 schrieb aslak hellesoy:
>
>> I'd like to gauge a lesser known feature of Cucumber - Transform.
>> Which category are you in?
>>
>> a) I use it
>> b) I know what it is, but I don't use it
>> c) Transform - whazzat?

a.

and just as a note, I'm pretty sure pickle predates transforms.

We set transforms up in step definitions so we can easily refer to
'the user' and so on in later steps. Works very nicely for us, and
much cleaner than pickle (imho).

Matt Wynne

unread,
Feb 24, 2011, 7:33:07 AM2/24/11
to cu...@googlegroups.com

Rob, did you see this idea:
https://rspec.lighthouseapp.com/projects/16211-cucumber/tickets/702

The idea is basically that Cucumber::RbSupport::RbTransform#to_s returns a regexp string that you can use in your step definitions, so you don't have to duplicate the phrase everywhere. It's then run on a bit...

cheers,
Matt

ma...@mattwynne.net
07974 430184

Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages