Overview¶

Gauge is a free and open source framework for writing and running acceptance tests. Some of the key features of Gauge that makes it unique include:

Simple, flexible and rich syntax based on Markdown.
Consistent cross platform/language support for writing test code.
A modular architecture with plugins support
Extensible through plugins and hackable.
Supports data driven execution and external data sources
Helps you create maintainable test suites
Great support for VS Code

What is a Specification?¶

Gauge specifications are written using a Markdown syntax. For example

# Search the Internet

## Look for something
* Goto Google's home page

In this specification Search the Internet is the specification heading, Look for something is a scenario with a step Goto Google’s home page

What is an Implementation?¶

You can implement the steps in a specification using a programming language for example

step("Goto Google's home page", () => {
  goto("google.com")
});

The Gauge runner reads and runs steps and its implementation for every scenario in the specification and generates a report of passing or failing scenarios.

# Search the Internet
## Look for something  ✔

Successfully generated html-report to => reports/html-report/index.html
Specifications:       1 executed      1 passed        0 failed        0 skipped
Scenarios:    1 executed      1 passed        0 failed        0 skipped

Note

The examples in this article use Gauge specifications with JavaScript and Taiko, a node js library for automating browsers (Taiko). However Gauge supports writing step implementations in Java, C#, Python, Typescript and Golang. You can use also use any driver like Selenium or Appium while implementing your steps.

Re-using Steps¶

Gauge helps you focus on testing the flow of an application. Gauge does this by making steps as re-usable as possible. With Gauge, you don’t need to build custom frameworks using a programming language.

For example, Gauge steps can pass parameters to an implementation by using a text with quotes.

# Search the internet

## Search Google
* Goto Google's home page
* Search for "Cup Cakes"

The implementation can now use “Cup Cakes” as follows

step("Search for <query>", (query) => {
  write(query);
  press("Enter");
});

You can then re-use this step within or across scenarios with different parameters

# Search the internet

## Look for cakes
* Goto Google's home page
* Search for "Cup Cakes"

## Look for movies
* Goto Google's home page
* Search for "Star wars"

Or combine more than one step into concepts using the .cpt file format

# Search Google for <query>
* Goto Google's home page
* Search for <query>

The concept, Search Google for <query> can be used like a step in a specification

# Search the internet

## Look for cakes
* Search Google for "Cup Cakes"

## Look for movies
* Search Google for "Star wars"

Data-Driven Testing¶

Gauge also supports data driven testing using Markdown tables as well as external csv files for example

# Search the internet

|query    |
|---------|
|Cup Cakes|
|Star wars|
|Pies     |

## Look for things
* Search Google for <query>

This will execute the scenario for all rows in the table.

In the examples above, we refactored a specification to be concise and flexible without changing the implementation.

Other Features¶

This is brief introduction to a few Gauge features. Please browse through rest of the documentation for features like

Head over to the installing Gauge section to try out all it’s features.