How to debug through a cucumber karate project

I have inherited a Java / Maven / Cucumber project. I am fairly new to Cucumber.

Inside one of the folder I have a class like this...

import com.intuit.karate.junit4.Karate;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;

@RunWith(Karate.class)
public class RoadsRunner {

}

Then in the same subdirectory / package I have a .feature file. with a number of scenario's.

Feature: Check transaction
  Background:
    * url apiHost + '/api/v1'
    * configure headers = {'X-TransactionID': '#(Math.random().toString())' }

    Scenario: Get Classes
      # get classes
      Given path '/myUrl/classes'
      And param processName = 'myProcess'
      When method get
      Then status 200

Question One.

I am using Eclipse. Is there a way I can debug through the test in a similar way that I would debug a Java app?

I have downloaded myself the Cucumber Eclipse plugin but can't quite figure out how to use it.

Question Two.

Without using a custom plugin to debug is there anything I can add to the scenarios to maybe print extra debug information.

thanks

Solution

The Cucumber Eclipse plugin gives you 2 things:

IDE syntax coloring / formatting support
Being able to right-click and run a Feature directly without the JUnit "runner"

Karate is Java behind the scenes so you can debug and set break-points, but it may not be as seamless as you expect. In 0.6.0 you have the option of placing a conditional break-point in Karate code that runs before / after each test step - see screen-shot.

So as you rightly called out, printing to the log might be the most effective way to work through complicated test scripts. Please refer to the print keyword - which is exactly what you are looking for.

2 more points:

the optional HTML report includes all HTTP request / response logs - which is great for troubleshooting a test.
I would love for the Karate UI (currently in alpha) to become stable sooner and be the best option for debugging, please do submit feedback and contribute if you can.

EDIT: we now have the Visual Studio Code IDE support with first-class debug support: https://github.com/intuit/karate/wiki/IDE-Support#vs-code-karate-plugin

EDIt2: If you want to debug Java code, that is possible with the new IntelliJ plugin: https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/19232-karate