Action groups in the Magento Functional Testing Framework

This topic was updated due to the 1.0.0 MFTF release.

Overview

In the MFTF, it is possible to re-use a group of actions declared in an XML file. It is handy when you need to repeat same sequence of actions over and over again. For example, to log in as an admin or a customer.

The following diagram demonstrates XML structure of an action group:

Format

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="../../../../../../vendor/magento/magento2-functional-testing-framework/src/Magento/FunctionalTestingFramework/Test/etc/testSchema.xsd">
    <actionGroup name="">
        <arguments>
            <argument name=""/>
            <argument name="" defaultValue=""/>
        </arguments>
    </actionGroup>
</config>

Principles

All action groups are declared in XML files stored in the <module>/ActionGroup/ directory.
File name ends with ActionGroup. Example: LoginToAdminActionGroup.xml.
File name and <actionGroup> name are the same.

Example

The following example demonstrates declaration of group of actions to execute authorization into Admin area.

Declaration

This action group relates to functionality of the Backend module, so it should be stored as Backend/ActionGroup/LoginToAdminActionGroup.xml.

The name and identifier of the action group is LoginToAdminActionGroup. In test, it will be used as a reference in ref parameter, like: ref="LoginToAdminActionGroup".

Lets start from a template for our action group in Backend/ActionGroup/LoginToAdminActionGroup.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="../../../../../../vendor/magento/magento2-functional-testing-framework/src/Magento/FunctionalTestingFramework/Test/etc/testSchema.xsd">
    <actionGroup name="LoginToAdminActionGroup">

    </actionGroup>
</config>

The action group must wrap the following actions:

<fillField stepKey=”fillUsername” selector="#username" userInput="{{adminUser.username}}" />
<fillField stepKey="fillPassword” selector="#password" userInput="{{adminUser.password}}" />
<click stepKey="click” selector=”#login" />

So, now we have the following code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="../../../../../../vendor/magento/magento2-functional-testing-framework/src/Magento/FunctionalTestingFramework/Test/etc/testSchema.xsd">
    <actionGroup name="LoginToAdminActionGroup">
        <fillField stepKey=”fillUsername” selector="#username" userInput="{{adminUser.username}}" />
        <fillField stepKey="fillPassword” selector="#password" userInput="{{adminUser.password}}" />
        <click stepKey="click” selector=”#login" />
    </actionGroup>
</config>

Since we use a variable for data in userInput, we need to create a corresponding argument, where this variable will be defined in a test. Also we can add a default value for the variable that will be used in the most frequent cases. Let’s assume that we want to use the _defaultAdmin entity by default.

<argument name="adminUser" defaultValue="_defaultAdmin"/>

Let’s finalize our action group code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="../../../../../../vendor/magento/magento2-functional-testing-framework/src/Magento/FunctionalTestingFramework/Test/etc/testSchema.xsd">
    <actionGroup name="LoginToAdminActionGroup">
        <arguments>
            <argument name="adminUser" defaultValue="_defaultAdmin"/>
        </arguments>
        <fillField stepKey=”fillUsername” selector="#username" userInput="{{adminUser.username}}" />
        <fillField stepKey="fillPassword” selector="#password" userInput="{{adminUser.password}}" />
        <click stepKey="click” selector=”#login" />
    </actionGroup>
</config>

Usage in a test

Let’s see how the action group can be used in tests.

In the following example, instead of adding a set of actions:

<fillField stepKey=”fillUsername” selector="#username" userInput="{{CustomAdminUser.username}}" />
<fillField stepKey="fillPassword” selector="#password" userInput="{{CustomAdminUser.password}}" />
<click stepKey="click” selector=”#login" />

we can use the action group LoginToAdminActionGroup that we created above.

First, the <actionGroup> element must be added with reference to LoginToAdminActionGroup, like.

<actionGroup stepKey=”loginToAdminPanel” ref="LoginToAdminActionGroup"/>

This action group will take data from the _defaultAdmin by default. To change it to CustomAdminUser, we must add an argument adminUser with the corresponding value.

<actionGroup stepKey=”loginToAdminPanel” ref="LoginToAdminActionGroup">
    <argument name="adminUser" value=”CustomAdminUser” />
</actionGroup>

That’s it!

Reference

actionGroup

Attribute	Type	Use	Description
name	string	required	Identifier of the action group.

It may contain <arguments>.

arguments

A wrapper for an array of <argument> elements.

argument

Attribute	Type	Use	Description
name	string	required	Identifier of an argument in scope of action group.
defaultValue	string	optional	Data entity that is used by default.

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