Organizing cucumber test Scenarios and Features - cucumber

Question

when a new client is added I want to verify if the newly added client's details are correct.
For example,
Create a new client, after creation search his name and check if the details are correct or not.
Should I include them both in the same feature, or should I create a different feature for both adding and searching clients
Feature: Creating a new Client
The user is
Able to add a new Client
Scenario: Valid client entry.The client has a username,address
Given User is on the client page
When When he clicks on the add new client
Then He should see a pop up
Then He will enter the client name,address,title,phone no and email
And Click on the save button
Feature: Search for our newly added user
The user will be able to search a client
Scenario: Search for our newly added client
Given User is on the client page
When He click on the client search
And Types the user name
Then He should be able to match the first result
When He clicks on the first matched result
Then It will take him to a page with users details

Answer 1

It would be better to keep them separate. The strategy that worked best for me in many projects are, you should map each feature to the requirement (i.e. the high level user story or the requirement that is given to you from which you derive BDD scenarios and steps). Keeping each high level requirements in a separate feature files increases readability and maintainability.
In this case, looks like "Creating a new client" and "Search for our newly added client" are two different requirements/user stories, it is better to manage them separately, as the scenarios in each of these cases would vary. For an example, "Creating a new client" might have following scenarios:
Scenario 1: Create a valid client entry.The client has a username,address
Scenario 2: Creating a valid client entry failed due to missing information
Scenario 3: Creating a valid client entry failed due to client already exists
And for "Search for our newly added client" you would have other scenarios like:
Scenario 1: Search for a newly added user using username and search result should show the user details
Scenario 2: Search for a user using username who is not in the database and empty search result should be shown
Scenario 3: Search for a newly added user using address details and search result should show the user details
Scenario 4: Search for a user using username using address details who is not in the database and empty search result should be shown
As you can see, each feature is now nicely segregated and have their own related scenarios. As the project grows these scenarios are likely to grow and it would be easier to manage by keeping each high level requirements in a separate feature file.
Also another practice that really worked well for me is to prefix the Jira ticket(or whichever tool you use to manage your user stories) to the feature file as it would be easy to search and manage. For an example, your feature should be like "TI1001 - Creating a new Client" and "TI1002 - Search for our newly added user"

Answer 2

There are lots of ways to do this
features
clients
add_new_client
search_for_clients
I'd favour this one if clients are a really significant part of the
project
features
client_add
client_search
but this one would work.
The important thing is to try and be consistent.
As for your scenarios try and make them simpler e.g.
Feature: Add new clients
Background:
Given I am allowed to add clients
Scenario: Add a client
Given there are no clients
When I add a client
Then there should be a client
You want your happy path scenarios to be this simple, so you can expand on them with sad paths. e.g.
Scenario: Add a new client without an address
Given there are no clients
When I add a client with no address
Then I should see that a client cannot be added without an address
As far as searching goes things can get quite complex so again start simple
Feature: Search for clients
Scenario: Search for client Fred
Given there is a client Fred
When I search clients for Fred
Then I should see client Fred
Scenario: Search for client Fred when Fred does not exist
Given there is a client Sue
And there is not a client Fred
When I search for Fred
Then I should see a not found result
Scenario: Search for clients by postcode
Scenario: ...
With searching you need to be careful not to spend all your time testing your search engine (it should already be well tested.
These sort of features and scenarios are declarative, rather than imperative. They state WHAT they are doing and WHY, but avoid describing HOW anything is done. Cuking is much more effective with a declarative approach.