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Gherkin syntax files are just plain text so any editor such as notepad can be used. However, one of the more important things we are using this for is to provide tables of sample data. Without good formatting options the files become hard to read.

There are some good tools (see: How to get Gherkin syntax highlighting for .feature files in Visual Studio?) for visual studio such as specflow.org or https://github.com/henritersteeg/cuke4vs. Another option for developers using eclipse is discussed at Cucumber IDE for feature writing with autocomplete? However I don't want to require it be installed for our business analysts.

Here is a syntax highlighter files (http://productive.me/develop/cucumbergherkin-syntax-highlighting-for-notepad/) that can be imported into notepad++ but it does nothing for table formatting.

Are there any other options that I might have missed for allowing non-developers to efficiently edit .feature gherkin files?

Community
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toddles2000
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  • You can also look at Tidy Gherkin extension for Chrome ,Its my favourite and light-weight. As this Question is closed I cannot put it as answer. – user3251882 Apr 20 '17 at 11:53

8 Answers8

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Here is a non-developer tool. We had a similar requirement and I wanted to have a stab at creating a Chrome extension. It's free and there are no ads. Above all it is cross-platform and requires no technical knowledge to install and run. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tidy-gherkin/nobemmencanophcnicjhfhnjiimegjeo

I know this is an old post, but I came across it when I was looking for a solution and I didn't think the answers fully addressed the OP's request for a non-dev tool (presumably aimed at a non-technical person).

It's a first attempt, so be kind! Hope someone finds it useful.

ItsMe-Rodders
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There seems to be a couple of projects in the works.

  • There's a beta of a Gherkin editor here: http://gherkineditor.codeplex.com/ (windows)
  • Cucumber's author has created a web-based gherkin editor (relies on javascript, Ace and Node.js). Perhaps a bit more complicated to set up, but it could be integrated into a CMS or other web-based system.

Neither really substitutes for a conversation with your business domain experts.

Mark Thomas
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    +1 for conversations over capture. – Lunivore Nov 26 '11 at 08:32
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    It looks like the tooling focus of Gherkin editors is primarily targeted to developers. I guess I was hoping that a requirements team could help drive adoption of better specs rather than it having to come from the dev team. Conversations are extremely important but there still needs to be a good way to capture those discussions in a useful format that isn't just a word doc. Thanks for your input. – toddles2000 Nov 26 '11 at 19:33
  • The Gherkin editor is still in beta and crashed while I was using it, losing changes. – EleventhDoctor Sep 06 '13 at 10:46
  • the node version is 7 years without any commit, there is quote recent c# version https://github.com/bzquan/GherkinEditor one need to build it from source – KIC May 02 '18 at 09:44
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Notepad++ can highlight Gherkin syntax - see http://productive.me/develop/cucumbergherkin-syntax-highlighting-for-notepad

EleventhDoctor
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If you are using JIRA you can try a plugin called Markin at https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.fulstech.jira-gherkin-custom-field/server/overview. It supports both Gherkin and Markdown at the same time, so it is very useful for non-developers.

Disclaimer: I am the creator of Markin.

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There is an updated eclipse plugin called xgherkins at github for eclipse users

Tom Howard
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Fred Grott
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  • Would you have some more info of that? The only results I get when googling "xgherkins" is this post... – Per Feb 06 '12 at 08:51
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After trying many google results, I found a solution for syntax highlighting in Eclipse. Down load Xtest from http://www.eclipse.org/Xtext/download.html.

amjad
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A good solution for this is to use the Behave plugin for JIRA.

In a good SCRUM team, your domain experts and business owners should define the backlog and describe what they want. It is awesome that you can then immediately add the Given/When/Then definitions for test scenario's.

JBehave also supports getting the .feature files from Google Docs. There is no syntax highlighting plugin for google docs though, so this only takes care of the synchronization problem.

parasietje
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I found http://www.bddeditor.com Seems fine for initial phase (they say "BDD Editor is work in progress".

Gün Karagöz
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