What is Cucumber Web Bridge?

Cucumber Web Bridge (CWB) is a framework for automatic testing of web interfaces. Currently it supports 2 type of web interfaces: your classic HTML based website and REST based webservices.

It's a text-driven framework, meaning you define the tests you want to execute in a simple plain text format instead of in a scripting or programming language directly. This is where Cucumber comes in.  According to their website “Cucumber lets software development teams describe how software should behave in plain text”.  It provides a plain text DSL called Gherkin to do this and has libraries in many different programming languages that help you convert the plain text scenarios into runnable test code.

CWB is built on top of Cucumber, using the Gherkin DSL as the driver for the tests.  A test scenario in Gherkin is made up of several steps that do one or more actions.  CWB comes with a default set of steps that allow you to manipulate webpages.  That is in fact the core of CWB: a framework bringing you all the facilities and steps to quickly get you started testing web interfaces using Cucumber.

Who is it for?

CWB is meant for developers and product owners alike.  Anyone with some technical background and a good idea about writing UI test scenario's can put it too good use.

What exactly can I test with CWB?

CWB is all about testing web interfaces:

Websites

Execute actions on a website - clicking buttons, following links - and verifying that certain content is displayed. Submitting a form an checking that certain fields are highlighted.  Or more complex flows like creating a blog article and verifying it is displayed on all the pages you published it to.  See the Language Reference page.

JSON REST web services

Perform POST, GET, PUT actions to web services.  Create request data using YAML and verify or query the response you get back.  See the REST steps language reference.

How much does it cost?

Nothing.  CWB is entirely free and open source (and will remain so).  It is built on top of other open source frameworks like Cucumber Java, Spring and SAHI.

Seeing it in action...

What do I need to get started?

All you really need is a Java Development Kit and Apache Maven. CWB should work with pretty much any IDE, but we prefer to integrate with IntelliJ IDEA.

If you are entirely new to all this, we do provide a single download package.  You can find all links and instructions on the demo page.

Basic installation

1. The basic installation. Should be done only once. See: Initial Setup
2. Create a new project. See: Create a New Project
3. Learn the Language Reference.
4. Read the how-to and have a look at the tips & tricks

If you're a Java developer who wants to extend a CWB project with your own code, please consult the CWB for developers pages.

Extending CWB

If you wish to extend the code of CWB, you should be in the development section.