SpecFlow to Reqnroll - Step-by-Step Guide to Migrating BDD Tests

If you’ve been using SpecFlow for your test automation, you might have heard that it no longer supports .NET 8 or 9 or above.

Don’t worry! There’s a new tool called Reqnroll that you can switch to within a few minutes or an hour for a test project or application, and it works a lot like SpecFlow.

This guide will help you move your tests from SpecFlow to Reqnroll, making sure everything continues to work well. This guide will make the process easy and smooth.

SpecFlow was created by Gáspár Nagy, who is one of the founders of a company called TechTalk. He is an important person in the Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) community, which is a way of writing tests that everyone can understand. 

Reqnroll is a fork of SpecFlow, created by Gáspár Nagy, the original founder of SpecFlow, and a team of developers who were previously involved with SpecFlow, due to the inactivity and lack of updates in the SpecFlow project. Reqnroll was initiated to address the lack of support from SpecFlow for certain .NET versions (such as .NET 8) and to continue providing a BDD tool for the .NET community. Reqnroll is built on the same principles as SpecFlow, so the transition will be familiar to those who have been working with SpecFlow.

Most of what you’ve done with SpecFlow will still work with Reqnroll: https://reqnroll.net/news/2024/02/from-specflow-to-reqnroll-why-and-how/

This article is based on the migration guide from Reqnroll's official migration guide with more practical examples and sample projects: https://docs.reqnroll.net/latest/guides/migrating-from-specflow.html

GitHub Project Link for this article: https://github.com/keerthirajap/SpecFlow-to-Reqnroll-Migration

Prerequisites

1. Visual Studio 2022.
2. Install the .NET 7 or .NET 8 SDK on your development machine.
3. A basic understanding of SpecFlow.
4. Knowledge of API and UI automation testing.

The original project is built using MSTest and covers various aspects of testing, including UI automation with Selenium, API testing with RestSharp, and data testing with SQL Server (via a .mdb file). Make sure you have installed Specflow Extensions in your VS 2022.

The .NET 7 SpecFlow testing project includes the following components.

• UI Testing with Selenium: Automates browser interactions to test web applications.
• API Testing with RestSharp: Tests RESTful APIs to ensure they work correctly and handle various requests and responses.
• Data Testing with SQL Server (.mdb file): Validates data operations and interactions with an SQL Server for testing ETL process.

Feature File Types

The project includes several types of feature files, each representing different scenarios and testing needs. Below scenarios and test hooks code below will be more realistic for our projects.

• Normal Feature File: Contains straightforward scenarios for basic test cases.
  
• Feature File with Examples: Uses the Examples table to test multiple sets of data with the same scenario.
  
• Feature File with DataTables: Incorporates complex data structures within the scenario for testing.
  
• Feature File with External Data Source: This file uses external data sources such as Excel or CSV files, specified with annotations like @DataSource: ExternalDataSQL_UsersData.xlsx @DataSet:Users.
  
• Hooks: Includes setup and teardown logic to prepare the test environment and clean up after tests.
  
• Test Results
  

Migrating to Reqnroll
 

A Step-by-Step Guide

1. Install Reqnroll Visual Studio Extensions: Start by installing the Reqnroll Visual Studio extensions to enable support for Reqnroll in your IDE.
   
2. Disable SpecFlow Extensions: Before proceeding, ensure that any existing SpecFlow extensions are disabled to avoid conflicts, as given above.
3. Update Project Properties to .NET 8: Next, update your project’s properties to target .NET 8. This will ensure compatibility with Reqnroll.
   
4. Update Microsoft NuGet Packages to Version 8: Update all relevant Microsoft NuGet packages in your project to version 8 to align with the .NET 8 framework.
   
5. Install Reqnroll NuGet Packages: Install the necessary Reqnroll NuGet packages for your project. This will replace SpecFlow dependencies with Reqnroll equivalents.
   
   
6. Rebuild the Project Rebuild your project: You’ll notice that the feature.cs files have been regenerated, replacing SpecFlow references with Reqnroll.
   
7. Resolve Build Errors: If you encounter build errors, start by removing any statements related to SpecFlow. Replace them with the appropriate Reqnroll namespaces.
   
8. Replace TableRow with DataTableRow: In your code, replace instances of TableRow with DataTableRow. This is necessary for Reqnroll compatibility, as shown below.
   
9. Test Results After Migration: After making these changes, run your tests to ensure everything is working as expected. Verify that the migration has not introduced any issues.
   
10. Project Renaming and Solution Setup
    • To make the migration process clearer for you, I renamed the project to "BDDTesting.Net8" to reflect the updated framework version.
    • Additionally, I included both the .NET 7 (Specflow) and .NET 8 (Reqnroll) projects in the same solution. This setup allows for easy reference and comparison, helping you to better understand the differences and improvements that come with the migration to .NET 8 and Reqnroll.
    • By having both versions side by side, you can directly compare the implementation and behavior of tests in each environment.
      

Additional Notes

1. Duplicate rows in examples will not be supported and throw wired exceptions. Just remove the duplicate entries.
2. If you face any issues, please post in the comment section with its solution.

For more issues, please refer to this migration guide https://docs.reqnroll.net/latest/guides/migrating-from-specflow.html.