BDD Testing with Behave and Selenium Python

In the world of test automation, aligning tests with business goals and user behavior is essential. That’s where Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) comes in. With BDD, developers, testers, and stakeholders speak a common language—"Given, When, Then"—to define software behavior.

For Python developers, Behave is a popular BDD framework that integrates beautifully with Selenium for automating UI tests. In this blog, we’ll explore how to perform BDD testing using Behave and Selenium Python for efficient, readable, and collaborative web application testing.


🔍 What is BDD?

Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) is a testing methodology that encourages collaboration between developers, testers, and non-technical stakeholders. It involves writing scenarios in plain English to describe how an application should behave under certain conditions.

Example:

pgsql


Scenario: User logs into the application

  Given the user is on the login page

  When the user enters valid credentials

  Then the user should be redirected to the dashboard

This format ensures everyone understands what the system is supposed to do, making testing more transparent and user-focused.


🧰 Tools You’ll Need

To get started, install the following Python packages:

bash

pip install behave selenium

You’ll also need the appropriate WebDriver for your browser (e.g., ChromeDriver for Chrome).


🧪 Project Structure

Here’s a typical directory structure for Behave:


bash


/features

  ├── login.feature           # Gherkin file

  ├── steps/

      └── login_steps.py      # Step definitions

  └── environment.py          # Optional hooks (setup/teardown)


📝 Writing a Feature File

Create login.feature inside the features folder:

gherkin


Feature: Login functionality


  Scenario: Valid login

    Given the user is on the login page

    When the user enters "user@example.com" and "password123"

    Then the user should see the dashboard


🧾 Step Definitions with Selenium

In steps/login_steps.py, write the Python code that maps to each step:


python

Copy

Edit

from behave import given, when, then

from selenium import webdriver

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

import time


@given('the user is on the login page')

def step_impl(context):

    context.driver = webdriver.Chrome()

    context.driver.get("https://example.com/login")


@when('the user enters "{username}" and "{password}"')

def step_impl(context, username, password):

    context.driver.find_element(By.ID, "email").send_keys(username)

    context.driver.find_element(By.ID, "password").send_keys(password)

    context.driver.find_element(By.ID, "login").click()

    time.sleep(2)


@then('the user should see the dashboard')

def step_impl(context):

    assert "Dashboard" in context.driver.title

    context.driver.quit()

🚀 Running the Test

To execute the test, simply run:


bash

Copy

Edit

behave

You’ll see step-by-step results in the terminal, showing whether each test passed or failed.


✅ Benefits of Using Behave with Selenium

Readable Tests: Non-technical stakeholders can understand and contribute.


Modular Structure: Easy to maintain and reuse steps across scenarios.


Cross-Team Collaboration: Business, QA, and developers speak the same language.


Automation Ready: Selenium handles the UI interactions while Behave structures the logic.


🏁 Final Thoughts

BDD with Behave and Selenium Python empowers teams to build user-centric, automated test suites that are both readable and reliable. It's perfect for agile teams that want to align testing with business goals and improve software quality.


Start small, build your step library, and soon you'll have a powerful, human-readable automated test framework backing your application.


 

Learn Selenium with Pyhton Training Hyderabad

Read More:  Selenium Python Test Framework: PyTest vs. Unittest
Read More:  Using CSV Files for Test Data in Selenium Python
Read More:  Creating Page Object Model (POM) with Python


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