Gherkin Nested Steps meaning - cucumber

Question

I am writing Gherkin test cases and Java step definitions in my project. I am new to Gherkin and trying to understand the meaning of nested steps. Can you please help me to understand if the 2nd scenario given involves nested steps?
In my example, I would like to reuse 1st scenario code in 2nd scenario given statement logic. Is there a best way to reuse or rewrite the logic?
Note: Below example is written just to explain my question. It may not be a good Gherkin.
Background:
Given The application is opened
Scenario: Successful Login
Given the user name and password are entered
When login button is clicked
Then user login is successful
Scenario: Add Address Successful
Given user login is successful
And Add Address button is clicked
And user city, country are entered
when Submit button is clicked

Answer 1

Nested steps refer to calling defined steps inside a "main" one. In your example, the first scenario has the login functionality, which will / can be used in all other scenarios that require the user to be logged in.
So, the second scenario will have a Given step which calls the login action / steps of the first scenario. There are multiple ways to do this:
1. If you are defining those steps in the same class, it's just a matter of calling the same methods inside a different step / method.
Like so:
public class TestStepsOne {
// Steps from first scenario
#Given("^the user name and password are entered$")
public void enterUsernamePassword() throws Throwable {
System.out.println("User and password entered");
}
#When("^login button is clicked$")
public void clickLoginButton() throws Throwable {
System.out.println("Clicked login button");
}
#Then("^user login is successful$")
public void isLoggedIn() throws Throwable {
System.out.println("Logged in!");
}
// All together
#Given("the user is logged in")
public void loginSuccessfully() throws Throwable {
enterUsernamePassword();
clickLoginButton();
isLoggedIn();
}
}
Now you can use the Given the user is logged in in any scenario, and it will perform the login action.
2. Using Picocontainer -> details here
First you need to add these dependencies to your pom.xml:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.picocontainer</groupId>
<artifactId>picocontainer</artifactId>
<version>2.15</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>info.cukes</groupId>
<artifactId>cucumber-picocontainer</artifactId>
<version>1.2.5</version>
</dependency>
You can separate your step definitions.
Like so:
public class TestStepsOne {
// Same as above, without the nested one
}
and second class:
public class TestStepsTwo {
private final TestStepsOne testStepsOne;
public TestStepsTwo(TestStepsOne testStepsOne) {
this.testStepsOne = testStepsOne;
}
#Given("the user is logged in")
public void loginSuccessfully() throws Throwable {
testStepsOne.enterUsernamePassword();
testStepsOne.clickLoginButton();
testStepsOne.isLoggedIn();
}
}
3. Using cuke4duke -> details here , includes examples
Like so:
public class CallingSteps extends Steps {
public CallingSteps(StepMother stepMother) {
super(stepMother);
}
#When("^I call another step$")
public void iCallAnotherStep() {
Given("the user is logged in"); // This will call a step defined somewhere else.
}
}
Hope this helps