Shared WebDriver becomes null on second scenario using PicoContainer

Question

I have used the accepted solution here and came up with the following code:

Referenced Libraries:

Feature:

Feature: FeatureA

  Scenario: ScenarioA
    Given 
    When 
    Then

  Scenario: ScenarioB
    Given 
    When 
    Then

BaseStep:

public class BaseStep {
    protected WebDriver driver = null;
    private static boolean isInitialized = false;

    @Before
    public void setUp() throws Exception {
        if (!isInitialized) {
            driver = SeleniumUtil.getWebDriver(ConfigUtil.readKey("browser"));
            isInitialized = true;
        }
    }

    @After
    public void tearDown() {
        driver.quit();
    }

}

StepA:

public class StepA {
    private BaseStep baseStep = null;
    private WebDriver driver = null;

    // PicoContainer injects BaseStep class
    public StepA(BaseStep baseStep) {
        this.baseStep = baseStep;
    }

    @Given("^I am at the Login page$")
    public void givenIAmAtTheLoginPage() throws Exception {
        driver = baseStep.driver;
        driver.get(ConfigUtil.readKey("base_url"));
    }

    @When
    @When
    @Then
    @Then

}

However, the driver "dies" after tearDown() of ScenarioA and becomes null on Given step of ScenarioB (both scenarios use the same Given). I am not using Maven.

Answer 1

It's because of this line:

private static boolean isInitialized = false;

For each scenario, cucumber creates a new instance for every step file involved. Hence, the driver in BaseStep is always null when a scenario starts.

The static isInitialized boolean is not part of an instance, it's bound to the class it lives in and it's alive until the JVM shuts down. The first scenario sets it to true, meaning that when the second scenario starts it's still true and it does not reinitialize the driver in the setUp() method.

You probably want to make driver static to share the same instance with both scenarios.